multi region DVD players.. please help :)

Hey everyone :) Ok, everyone talks about multi region players and such, and I was just wondering what places carry them? I've been to three places today, and none of them have them! In fact, when my mom asked about it, they asked where 'her daughter' was from! And I know they exist, because.. well, duh. Everyone else knows of them.. So either California is even worse than I thought, and are way behind the rest of the world, or.. well, thats all I can think of.

I'm such a babbler.. so if someone could point me in the direction of where to get one, I'd love it. :) Thanks!

Jaime

In article , [email] (PanickedOz) wrote:

You didn't walk into a store and ask for a multiregion player, did you? Because if you did, they are obliged to lie to you and pretend that they don't carry them. You have to buy a Region 1 player and then set it to be multiregion. Make sure you know how in advance.

You can also buy over the internet (by credit card for security), and another popular option is new software for your DVD-ROM drive.

Well, our local supermarket has Region 2 players on sale (between the baked beans & bottles of whiskey) starting at �110, and when you get it home and enter the 'secret' code to access the service menu, you find that it has already been set to multiregion & the macrovision is off.

Tennant

On Sun, 18 Mar 2001, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Really? I've seen players openly advertised as such in our local Sony store.

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

Gosh! Does Sony know?

Mind you, I was talking about the USA, not Britain.

Tennant

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Well, since they are in one of their *own* stores, I should think so!

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

Maybe the manager doesn't tell head office what he's up to.

Tennant

Hmm, thanks! How exactly do I do that? lol. Is there a website that will tell me or something? 'Cause I have no idea how I would do this.. :P

Jaime, who thanks you again :)

Hi I found a site www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk that has a forum on Region Hacks (you can enter either UK or USA site). Go to the 'Forum' listed on the left hand side of the page just over half way down and it gives you allsorts of information. I'm not sure whether it is helpful or not as I already have a DVD player that is region free so I haven't checked it out completely but thought it might help you. Have you tried asking in shops/searching the net for 'region free' DVD players?

Mrs C

PanickedOz wrote in message news:[email]...

tell

In article , [email] (PanickedOz) wrote:

There must be lots of them, but it's so easy buy these things in Europe that it's hard to give advice to less free countries like America.

However, two of your countrymen on ATF, Daria & Vishal, both use the Apex AD-600A, which since it was banned from Circuit City has been on sale here at a much higher price, as it includes a separate voltage converter for British electricity. They call it this model the VDDV AD-600A, and they're asking $450 for it, whereas Daria's brother bought one on Ebay for only $140. But check out...

http://www.ionark.com/catalogue.php3?cat=006&prd=00017

..but bear in mind that I'm repeating information from 6 months ago.

Tennant Stuart

Hi Have you tried reading any of the DVD magazines? Sometimes they can be very helpful, well they are in the UK, I don't know about the rest of the world!

Just a thought ............
Mrs C

PanickedOz wrote in message news:[email]...

and I

today, and

where

Everyone

and are

where to

In article , "Paul Clarke" wrote:

Here is a site that has great info on this topic and also sells the players. A word of caution, if you live in the USA, but want to watch British DVDs, you not only need a region-free DVD player, but also a way to convert that signal from PAL to NTSC format. This site has a DVD player (the SMC model) that does just that.

http://www.dvdcity.com/codefree/codefree-dvd-info.html

Don

In article ,

Thank you so much!! Just one question, in talking about that very player, it says this:

We suggest you DO NOT ORDER this machine if you want to watch European discs containing multiple episodes of TV shows such as British comedy shows.

Does this mean the Friends DVDs wouldn't work? I mean, its not a British TV show, but still.. The whole reason I would be getting this is for Friends DVDs.

Jaime

In article ,

Hi Jaime,

First of all, let me assure you that the Friends DVDs from Britian do work on this DVD player on any US TV (I also live in California, namely Sacramento). I bought the Season #1 Friends collection from Amazon UK (although I would recommend also checking out Blackstar). I bought this SMC DVD player about 3 months ago, and have watched several Region 2 (namely British) DVDs.

I would not recommend this DVD player as a primary DVD player. I own a Toshiba DVD player that I use for all of my normal (US) DVDs, I only use this player for British DVDs.

A couple of other tips:
1) The setting that turns off the region checking and the macrovision
   needs only be set once. Turning on and off the player will not
   change these settings. However, the PAL->NTSC switch needs to
   be done everytime you put a new DVD in the player (this isn't
   really that big a deal, though).
2) The quality of the picture on the Friends DVDs isn't fabulous.
   However, I do have a 65 inch Mitsubishi, so maybe it just looks
   worse on my bigger TV. However, I expected a little bit better
   picture than I actually got. However, it doesn't make that
   much difference...

In article , [email] (Donald Hearth) wrote:

Cheapest site so far is http://www.dvdzone2.com/ at about $50/season.

Have you tried running the PAL into your VCR via a line connection?

The picture quality is not as good as DVD can deliver, but it is better than VHS tapes. You are suffering slightly because in effect you are converting from NTSC to PAL and back to NTSC again.

Having said that, my newer cheaper player shows the episodes in much better picture quality than my friend's older more expensive player.

Don, I'd be much obliged if you could answer these queries on ATF, since there are many Americans who would like to have every season of Friends on DVD, but not living there I can't give concrete advice.

Tennant

In article ,

Oh, by the way, the reason that I think that the website has the blurb about European disks is that the website also says that the DVD player may have problems with the audio (switching to different languages). Thus, if somebody in France bought the Friends DVD and wanted to switch the language to French, it may not work.

Anyway, I can guarentee that the Friends DVDs do work on this DVD player (because I own both the player and the Season 1 collection).

Don

In article , [email] (Donald Hearth) wrote:

The discs I have are only in English audio, but there are subtitles for French, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish & Icelandic.

Tennant

In article , [email] (PanickedOz) wrote:

I don't know what they can mean. If the machine plays Region 2 discs and converts to NTSC format then what is on the discs is irrelevant. Also some people say that they have players which cannot convert PAL to NTSC but it is no problem since they just connect the line output to a VCR instead.

Tennant

In article ,

I am a little confused. How does a VCR know how to convert PAL to NTSC?

Don

On 23 Mar 2001 14:44:30 -0800, [email] (Donald Hearth) wrote:

How come they don't sell all the dvd's in the US? I found one box set at amazon but it is only 10 shows from the first two seasons.

In article , [email] (Cosmo Kramer) wrote:

Because of syndication rights.

Try http://www.dvdzone2.com for all seasons, at about $50 each.

Tennant

In article , [email] (Donald Hearth) wrote:

It doesn't have to. PAL & NTSC are systems for transmitting television pictures by radio waves. The tuner receives those, and converts them into different values for the red, green & blue electron guns.

The images on a DVD are *not* in NTSC or PAL, they're more like a long stream of JPEGs. Once each image is expanded by the computer in the DVD player, it consists of different values for red, green & blue, (RGB).

European TVs are more advanced and are able to be hooked up directly to the DVD player, but in America the machine has to convert the RGB into NTSC to simulate a broadcast input. However, *most* VCRs can receive a direct signal, and they will convert it into NTSC for your television.

No technical objections about the above please, I do know that what I've just written is grossly over-simplified and not really accurate.

Tennant Stuart