Region Free DVD Players?

maggieuc

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Does anyone know of (and or own) an inexpensive region-free dvd player? I've been looking through reviews online, and the only ones I can find that work well seem to be at least $300. I've been dying to get some BBC dvds (like Sparkhouse)! Thanks in advance for your help!!!!!!
 

Fenika

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Some DVD players let you enter a secret code (that can be found by googling that model and the required key terms) to change regions. As long as its unlimited, it is only an annoyance to change...

PS- I once owned a cheap DVD player that DIDN'T let me change regions... then I learned the 'secret' or the 'hack'... so they do xist
 

maggieuc

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Yeah I do know that...but the bad news is that my dog ate my dvd remote (literally) so now I'm pretty sure that my replacement remote won't be able to enter the code correctly. So I figured I'd start from scratch with a region free player :)
 

maestrowork

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I don't know about region free but there was one that plays both NTSC and PAL -- and since PAL discs are not Region 1 I suppose it's region free? It's $95. I don't remember the make or model, though. Google it.
 

Maryn

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I have an Aiwa (is that how it's spelled?) region-free DVD player that cost me $125 about five years ago. Never had any problems with it, never had it serviced or cleaned.

My video store's owner travels a lot, and he brings home movies released in Europe or India but not yet available in the US whenever he's away. So I watch stuff in the US before you can. This confuses me.

Maryn, urging you to avoid GO Video machines
 

maggieuc

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Thanks Maryn I'll got to the aiwa website and check it out! Did you have to hack into it, or did it just automatically play other region dvds? If anyone else has one they love let me know!!!
 
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maggieuc

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Many computer DVD players allow you to switch region codes (but not region free), but only 5 times (and then it becomes permanent).
Yikes! I think I'll stick with a dvd player I can plug into my tv. I checked amazon.com for an aiwa player, but they only had a portable one for sale...so anymore recommendations?
 

maggieuc

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I've got an Alba player / recorder. It cost about fifty pounds ( about 90 doallars) and it plays anything.
Great :) I'll look into Alba too! I knew AWers would know the answer!
 

Maryn

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Thanks Maryn I'll got to the aiwa website and check it out! Did you have to hack into it, or did it just automatically play other region dvds? If anyone else has one they love let me know!!!
No hacking required. It would have been beyond me.

Maryn, who could manage, at most, a hacking cough
 

seun

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I did hear hacking a DVD region is illegal so tread carefully. I know a friend of a friend of a friend of a bloke he sat next to on a bus once who knew a man who went on holiday with another guy and that guy said he spoke to to a man in a pub who hacked his player simply by googling the make, model and hack region and pressing the required buttons on the remote.


Since then, my dvd player plays films from all around the world. Which is nice.
 
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Scribhneoir

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Does anyone know of (and or own) an inexpensive region-free dvd player?

I've got two -- the cheap one is a Cyberhome 300. I won it as a door prize a few years ago, so I don't know if it's still available, but at the time it retailed for about $30-40. Best of all, it plays anything you put in it. It can handle all regions, PAL-NTSC conversion, all flavors of home-made DVDs, MP3 DVDs, and anything else you can think of. It's the most robust of my all my DVD players, yet is certainly the lowest end product price-wise.