DVD Players

[Philippe Cordier]

This question isn't really related to DVD players and how they relate to the Dark Shadows DVDs, but perhaps other forum members may be able to share their knowledge anyway.

I'm debating whether to purchase a DVD set from England, which has a different region code.  I've seen many references to people buying "region free" DVD players, so I thought that would be a simple solution.  At the moment, I have to be satisfied with the DVD player on my laptop (which is NOT region free), but I do hope to purchase a DVD player to work with my television set at some point in the future.  Since I'd seen so many references to "region-free" DVD players, I thought I could go ahead and purchase DVDs from the U.K. that aren't available here in the U.S.

So today I called Best Buy to see if they carried "region free" DVD players, and I was told that they do not!  I asked if they were hard to get, and the sales person said he knew of NO retailer who carried "region free" DVD players!

So now I've gone to amazon's electronics sections, and they don't appear to sell them either, at least not directly.  Apparently they can be purchased through third parties, which seems really strange.  Also, it appears that many of these are being sold used, which makes me wonder if they were available at one time, but if they have now been banned by our government.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!

[Patti Feinberg]

It does seem to be available on DVD although I'm not entirely sure if DVD technology has the same restrictions as video PAL vs. nstc.

DVDs are usually region coded. Most DVDs released in England are Region 2, whereas most players in the US play Region 1. So, unless this DVD has no region coding (some don't), or someone has a DVD player on which the region code can be changed (several can - particularly DVD-ROM drives), they wouldn't be able to play it. 

Midnite...did I finally do this right (copy from a different board, to here)?

Patti

PS...Vlad, I knew there was info on the Boards about different DVD systems, so I just did an advanced search. There's more IIRC.

Good luck,

Patti

[Raineypark]

According to a very well informed young friend of mine, JVC makes an "All Region Player" that sells for about $79.00 which solves the problem of DVDs from multiple regions.

[Midnite]

Midnite...did I finally do this right (copy from a different board, to here)?

 
I'm so proud.  

[Darren Gross]

Buy this one direct from the manufacturer and region code problems are solved.

Plus unlike the Malata, the Cyberhome and others which have their own wonky bugs and imperfections, it's chalked up really terrific reviews from the best DVD player sites.

http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h.html

Most of your US manufacturers do not sell region free players out of the box. They have to be modified in the factory or from a secondary company which voids the warranty. You won't find your big brick and mortar stores carrying them.

Amazon UK has a few region free players there, but you'd need to by a UK/US power transformer to run it over here. All in all, price wise, it'd cost the same as getting the Oppo.

[Philippe Cordier]

I appreciate the information.

It's too bad these aren't more readily available, but what's really aggravating is the whole region coding business.  There are a number of films that are only available in England, haven't been released on DVD in the U.S. market; also, several made-for-TV U.S. productions have not been released on DVD here, but have been in England.  At least that gives our cousins from England the chance to see some productions they wouldn't otherwise be able to see.

I'm assuming from the specifications of the DVD player that Darren references that the way you know this is a region-free player is where it says that it plays PAL/NTSC formats.