Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Buying a non-region 1 player?

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Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 08-06-2003, 09:53 AM:

Because of the way they release things in other regions and not here I've been thinking of buying a dvd player from either region 4 or region 2 (I think, England, right?) I have a plasma display tv that makes reference to playing PAL format stuff, so I guess the decision is which region to buy from. I guess Europe gets a little better selection than region 4 but I don't know. Anyone got a suggestion?

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 08-06-2003, 10:02 AM:

Greg, I really wouldn't bother trying to get a region-specific player. You can buy an all-region player from various sources that can be found on the net, or you can look for a modifiable player. A list of some of the players and what is required for modification can be found here . I have had good experiences with cheap Apex players. They can be made all-region, some can have macrovision overridden, and most will convert PAL to NTSC quite well. I think there may even be a modifiable progressive scan Apex on the market.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-06-2003, 10:09 AM:

Greg

There are multi-region players on the market. That can play all regions, not just the regions you mentioned in your post. There is a DVD store here in NYC that sells a few decks. They also have a lot of discs from different regions in the store. They also have a way the disable the macro-vision on the deck.

I have to remember the brand name of the deck. Because one of the APEX decks was getting a lot of return at their stores.

Posted by Ron Keillor (Member # 1790) on 08-06-2003, 11:52 AM:

WA state? You're not far from Vancouver, B.C. where you can get an all-zone (PAL and NYSC) and Karaoke player for $165 Cdn.(tax included)in Chinatown. And check out the Hong Kong discs at $7.99 Cdn for recent action titles and Shaw Brothers classics.
Discs ordered from Bensons (UK) have arrived as quickly as 6th day from placing the order. Using Amazon.com's England shop also got quick results. Discs from France don't seem to have English subtitles.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 08-06-2003, 12:36 PM:

I had one of the early Apex's, the AD-600A. It overheated and died on me after about two years, but it was cheap. The current Apex 1500's seem to be better (we use them in the anime club here) and can be modded to play any region by just playing the upgrade off of a CD-ROM. Very cheap and readily available.

My current machine is the Cyber Home CH-DVD 500, which I've had for about eight months now. It plays any region RCE or not, PAL (without geometry errors) or NTSC, Macrovision defeatable, progressive scan output (the cheaper 402 is interlaced), DVD-Rs, VCDs and SVCDs, MP3s, and JPEGs straight out of the box. It runs cool and makes better pictures than (and should last longer than) my old Apex (though that's not saying much [Smile]

). Cheap and available at Radio Shack, may still be available at Best Buy, certainly available on-line.

[ 08-07-2003, 12:12 AM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 08-06-2003, 09:24 PM:

Paul
Really? You can just go buy it at Radio Shack??? In the US?

Ron
I might run up to Vancover for an MR2 auto show in a couple of weeks. Can you tell me more about where to look? Vancover is a big town

Joe
Thanks for the link. I book marked it [Smile]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 08-06-2003, 11:49 PM:

Greg, as of the last time I checked (a few months ago) yes at Radio Shack. Also currently at Fry's. They were at Best Buy too for $59 back in January. The region and Macrovision features are not advertised or mentioned anywhere, but are accessible through "undocumented" button sequences on the remote. You can read up on this player and download the key sequences at http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/ . Scroll down and click on the Cyberhome thread.

Cyberhome has also been real good about updating their BIOS as bugs are reported. Just download it from their download site, burn it to disc and play it into the 500.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 08-07-2003, 09:15 AM:

I have a Phillips Q50, I wonder if there are any secret buttons on that one?

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 08-07-2003, 02:17 PM:

Greg,

If you have a computer DVD-ROM, you can change the region on it a limited number of times (I think 5 or 6) before it locks itself into the last region you entered. One of my drives is set at Region 1, and the second one was never set by the factory, making it currently All-Region! [Cool]

=TMP=

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 08-07-2003, 05:18 PM:

Greg,

it`s not worth the money. Except for some special genres (like Eurotrash films), the Region 2 market is always one step behind the Region 1 releases.

Even with european films, you will find better releases in the U.S.
When I had to buy the german Werner Herzog films (FITZCARRALDO, AGUIRRE etc.), I couldn`t get them in R2, had to buy them through Amazon (US).

I have also noticed that on some R2 releases special features are missing compared to the R1 version, and sometimes R2 DVDs do not even carry the original language version. (My THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY disc has no Italian, no English dialogue track. LA FEMME NIKITA has no french track, no special features, and so on.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 08-07-2003, 06:37 PM:

What got me going on this is that everybody else in the whole wide world (besides region 1) gets the Boxset of Season 2 of Farscape. I see it is in region 4 and I think region 2 for sure. Also I think season 2 of Twin Peaks is out in region 2 and also the original pilot. If I can get a zone free player for the above mentioned $39.95 it would be worth it as a second player just to play the occasional odd stuff I can't get in the US. That's why I originally thought of just buying one from England or New Zealand. Then I wouldn't have to monkey with my Q50. Just unplug it and plug in the other one. I wish they'd just stop the baloney and sell everything everywhere.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 08-12-2003, 10:29 PM:

Another candidate just popped up: Toshiba SD-3900. New model, $99 at Best Buy, plays any region OOB via remote keystrokes, progressive scan. Does not have built-in Dolby Digital or DTS decoding. Better picture and probably built better than the Cyber Home.

Relevent DVD Talk thread here.

Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 08-31-2003, 02:07 AM:

Christian wrote:

quote:
Except for some special genres (like Eurotrash films), the Region 2 market is always one step behind the Region 1 releases. (...) When I had to buy the german Werner Herzog films (FITZCARRALDO, AGUIRRE etc.), I couldn`t get them in R2, had to buy them through Amazon (US). (...) and sometimes R2 DVDs do not even carry the original language version. (My THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY disc has no Italian, no English dialogue track. LA FEMME NIKITA has no french track

Christian, are you sure you searched everywhere for your DVDs? Sometimes I check european Amazon website for a DVD, can't find it, but if I go to a local store and ask, they've got it or can order it!

Regarding the quality of DVDs, R2 releases can be excellent, using high Kb rates and anamorphic 16:9, sometimes with both Dolby and DTS tracks in the same DVD set.

As for languages, I never saw a DVD in Belgium where the original language is not part of the set. I would even say that English (for films where English was the original language) is the main language. For example, here in Belgium, you'll get Dolby 5.1 in subtitled English along with Dolby 5.1 in dubbed French. When they want to release audio tracks for more languages (some editions here have dialogs in up to 5 languages), English is the main one with Dolby 5.1 and the others are in Dolby 2.0 or mono.

However I agree that release dates are often more in advance in the US so I think the titles Greg refers to are exceptions. I'd also recommend Greg to buy an all-region player as well.

BTW, since you're keen on the Herzog movies, could you recommend a decent R2 edition of his Nosferatu?

Thanks and bye,
Lionel

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 09-04-2003, 03:31 PM:

Anyone with a computer DVD drive (OK, not exactly on-topic here) should check this out...

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html

The company is based in Antigua, and (for now) seems to be ignoring the DMCA.
The program lets you play any region DVD on a Windows system - the site stresses the ability to copy a disk as well, but I'm thinking of trying it to play some region locked Japanese DVDs I've acquired.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 09-06-2003, 11:43 AM:

I got one of those Cyberhome 500s for $69.95 but haven't done "the change" with it yet.
Of course the day after I ordered it and the season 2 boxset of Farscape, ADV writes and says the are going to release Season 2 boxset of Farscape in Oct.
I did have the pleasure of telling them that" You guys screwed around too long. I bought a region 4 boxset and region free player. Next time don't wait so long"
Hey whats that FBI car doing in my driveway?

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-06-2003, 11:32 PM:

Anyone know if there is a way to make a Pioneer DVD-V7400 region free? It is an industrial player but it is region 1 (and proud of it if you look at all the times the region 1 is posted on it).

For what its worth...we sell a professional region free player the Marantz Pro PMD-930. It is industrial rated with a 45000 Hour MBF on the mechanism....then again its output is 480I (not progressive..in the pro world it is kinda moot since either the monitor/projector or the scaler/switcher will make it progressive)...it does have RGBS out in addition to the more familiar DVD video outputs.

Steve

Posted by Ron Keillor (Member # 1790) on 09-06-2003, 11:51 PM:

try http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/search/SearchForums.asp?Search=Pioneer+DVD%2DV7400&Forum=0
The home page is dvdreviewer.co.uk - very up-to-date in listing for US amd UK DVD release schedules.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 09-19-2003, 09:36 AM:

I finally got around to "adjusting" the Cyberhome 500 I bought and watched the first disk (4 episodes) of season 2 of Farscape. It took a little adjusting of the color and such of the plasma display, and a little setup of the dvd player itself beyond the region "adjusting" that I did. But it really looks nice now. That PAL picture output seems much sharper than NTSC, or maybe it's just the player or adjustments that I made to the display. Anyway....

Ha-Ha I can play other region disks now.

Anyone know if Twin Peaks Season two is out anywhere yet?

Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 09-22-2003, 05:43 AM:

http://www.aardvark.co.nz/daily/2002/mizuda.shtml this is a DVD player I had to get as my Pioneer 505 would not play CD-R discs , it,s cool easy to set up and auto plays any region without fiddling around . The unit is now selling at $129.00 NZD [beer]

Edit = "Twinn Peaks" Season 1 is now available in NZ , have not seen season 2 as yet.
http://www.dvdshopnz.co.nz/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=D&Product_Code=1613&Category_Code=TVS

Posted by Liam Utley (Member # 1931) on 12-11-2003, 09:44 PM:

I have a cheap "nintaus" dvd player that i hacked with a code off the internet to be region free. It has a built in DD/DTS decoder and any audio/video output you would want. Living in Australia, most of my dvd's are region 4, however i have a few region 1 dvd's. Both my TV and DVD player are PAL/NTSC compatible, and i have had no problems playing any disc from any region. I believe that most region-specific dvd players can be modified to be region free by simply entering a security code. I have done this on 4 different brands of dvd players and it has worked every time.