$58 DVD player at Radio Shack with Region-Free hack...plus $10 mail-in rebate! (1 Viewer)

[Jim Garbern]

Hi Tony,
I had the shimmering on the bottom with Sting's "All this time" and the dts/video choppiness problem with Peter Gabriel's "Secret World". Haven't had time to do extensive testing and right now don't have any non-region 1 discs. So far all the movies I've tried play back fine, including dts (Gladiator/Austin Powers 2).
Jim

 

[Christopher D]

The unit *should * be available online -- I got mine there. Looks great!

 

[GregAK]

I was getting that "band of shimmering colors" at the bottom also. I exchanged it for another unit today and it still happened when I first tried the new unit. It seems to go away after it plays for a bit. I tested it with Monsters Inc., Saving Private Ryan (DTS), and Animatrix. My new 50" RPTV should arrive this week so I guess I'll hold onto this DVD player at least until I can try it out on that.

Jim, how long did you let the DVDs play when you were getting that band of colors?? Let me know if it clears up when you let it play a while.

 

[Jim Garbern]

Hi Greg,
I'll let you know if the shimmering goes away after I've played with it for a while. For now, it seems to be disc specific.
Compared to my Panny RP-91 the player seems to put out less saturated color, although it could be the cables. I've ordered some new ones to go with the DVD recorder I have on order and will give those an audition. Too much of a cable tangle to mess around right now with exchanging the cables off the RP-91.
Jim

 

[Joel Vardy]

Thanks for the 'heads up' Dave ,

Picked up my unit today from RS and put in an order from R2 for The African Queen . After much teeth gnashing with Paramount it became apparent that they are going to keep this classic on the 'back burner' until there is either an outcry from the public or they have run out of every other conceivable title. I stopped holding my breath despite almost weekly pleas from my wife about its availability. All reports are positive on the R2 release and it even has a first-rate commentary by the Cinematographer (Jack Cardiff). This is a remastered version of the classic and I know it will get plenty of replays here . BTW, I picked it up for 16 pounds delivered from choicesdirect.com. This will be an interesting test to see if the PAL/NTCS conversion works as well as the region coding hack. It seems to take though I have not tested it with a non R1 title since testing it with a R0 title would not establish anything. Anyone put it through all the paces yet?

Joel

 

[Bob Graham]

There's a $3 off $25 coupon on the Major League Baseball All-Star Ballots being distributed at RadioShack stores. You can use it to knock your end-cost to $45.

 

[Tony_I]

I have a feeling the "shimmering colors issue" might be player specific. (though it seems to be showing up quite often, leading me to believe the QC of the unit might be questionable, or at the very least, maybe a "bad batch" was shipped...)


Anyway, let's get down to business. Tonight, back to back, I put this player up against my Panny xp-30. (Poor Cyberhome)

I played Saving Private Ryan in DTS. (Beach Scene)
Malcom in the Middle. Stereo 2.0 One episode. (I was curious how it handled tv content)
T2: Extreme Dolby 5.1 (1st 10 min)
Monsters Inc. Dolby 5.1 (1st 10 min)
Animatrix Dolby 5.1 (#1, Do-jo scene)
Full Metal Jacket 5.1 (watched every part with R.Lee Ermey in it... )


I connected the player directly to my xbr400. (480p)

I didn't see any shimmering colors, anywhere on the screen. The PQ wasn't bad for what the player is.($50) Hey, the 301 even seemed to have a smoother/more consistent picture with Malcom in the Middle when compared to my xp-30...

Overall, not a bad little multi-region player.(plus, it's TINY, just like the word) If anyone is looking into this unit, just make sure you test it for any problems, and be willing to exchange/return it.

Ohh, and if you buy the demo unit, RS doubles the warranty. (you MUST save your receipt)


Good luck any happy hunting fellow multi-region bargain shoppers...

 

[Joel Vardy]

Any additional R2 and R4 suggestions? There must be a need to make a list of non-R1 titles that are either superior to R1 or just not available now or in the foreseeable future .

Joel

 

[Joel Vardy]

I have read reports at other sites that it does not output anamorphic progressive PAL correctly. It vertically stretches the image.

In researching this question I noticed that this limitation is focused on 4x3 monitors. Has anyone tested this with 16x9 sets? I don't know if this would make a difference but the two citings I found were 'very specific'. I could see were it might make a difference .

Joel

 

[Bob-N]

Has anyone had any luck finding the All Star ballots w/coupon at Radio Shack? I went to three in the area (San Jose, CA) and none of the store managers have heard of this promotion.

Bob

 

[Bill Burns]

This sounds like a terrific deal, David -- thanks so much for the info. To you and all on the thread, a few questions (I'm on the verge of taking the plunge, but a few bits of additional info would be very helpful):

1. Is there any indication that the Radio Shack sale is a limited time offer? Do I need to hurry to take advantage of it? I may go ahead and buy anyway, but it'd be nice to know as I continually plan and adjust my budget.

2. What, exactly, is the modus operandi of importing DVD movies from either the UK or Germany? Are there tariffs (duties) to be paid in the U.S. once the package arrives? Amazon's UK site explains that there may be, so I'd like to know how this works. Specifically, does the Customs Office include some sort of additional duties bill with the package when it arrives on your doorstep? If so, how much does this add (say for one DVD) to the original shipping bill? And has anyone had a package of legal overseas DVDs turned back by customs (these aren't Region 1 DVDs! Back to sender!).

3. How long did it take your disc to arrive from Germany (day of order to day of arrival)? If the disc is damaged or missing, is there a customer service recourse from so far away, or is it strictly buyer beware?

4. Have you noticed any PAL-NTSC conversion anomalies, any artifacts, anything that reduces the quality of the image from a Region 1 anamorphic DVD? I'm not speaking of the quality of the transfer itself, of course (edge enhancement, encoding, etc.), but anything like motion blur in faces, jitter, or other possible PAL artifacts. And as to the "stretching" issue: this sounds like what someone with a 4X3 television would see if the player wasn't downconverting 16X9 material, so I'm guessing it's just a matter of failing to set the player properly (this is further indicated in that 4X3 material apparently looks fine). My television accepts a full anamorphic signal and displays it as such, so if this is a 4X3 issue, it won't affect me. But if any distortion is visible on an anamorphic display, I'd of course hope to find that out before purchasing.

5. David et al: have you made your purchases with an American credit card drawing on U.S. funds? If so, have there been any SNAFU's in doing so? Does everything seem on the up and up when the credit card bill arrives?

Anyone with answers to these -- thanks in advance. As to the overseas discs that look most interesting to me (and bigger lists from long-time importers can be found in the Regional Forum), I'll throw these titles out there, and please correct me (and possibly Amazon.co.uk and Amazon Germany) if any of these details are in error:

UK

Animation:
The Swan Princess (widescreen anamorphic; no edition of any kind currently available in Region 1)

Live Action:
Pandora's Box (Louise Brooks; silent; I haven't seen any reviews, but this looks like a nice special edition on amazon.co.uk; the title has been a "rumored" Criterion hopeful in Region 1 for a year or more now, but I've yet to hear anything official on any established DVD site)

The Iron Horse (John Ford; silent western; the BFI has made this available in the UK)

The Mad Love Collection (ditto, and Kino has said they plan to bring this to the states sometime in the future)

Metropolis (I have no idea how Eureka's 2-disc edition compares to Kino's Region 1 edition, but I read somewhere -- in a comment which was by no means necessarily reliable -- that Kino's is a PAL-NTSC conversion; given the motion blur in their otherwise excellent edition of The Iron Mask, I'd love to know if Eureka's PAL edition looks any better than Kino's NTSC, and also if they've perhaps transferred the film a bit below 24 fps, the biggest persistent complaint about Kino's edition, despite the fact that 24 fps is "historically accurate")

Nosferatu (BFI's edition looks like it may be the same presentation Milestone hopes to bring to the U.S. in 2004 -- it's unclear whether their Photoplay series will be PAL-NTSC conversions -- but for those who can't wait ....)

The Great Escape: Special Edition (2-disc set, anamorphic; despite the fact that this has been out awhile overseas, MGM still hasn't brought it to Region 1, where the film remains available only as a single, non-anamorphic widescreen disc with a brief documentary, production notes, and a trailer)

Fierce Creatures (widescreen anamorphic; Region 1 offers only a P&S copy of this 2.35:1 Panavision picture)

Babe (widescreen anamorphic; Region 1 is either P&S or open matte only)

Love's Labour's Lost (my Region 1 disc has stopped working on my main player, and only the movie itself will play on an alternate player; see my thread in the software forum; the UK edition reportedly offers a commentary in addition to the Region 1 supplements)

GERMANY

Animation:
The Last Unicorn (widescreen anamorphic; can anyone confirm that the UK edition, which looks to have the same cover, is indeed P&S?)

Live Action:
M (no English subtitles, but see the DVDBeaver website for info on just how much better this edition proves than Criterion's current Region 1 offering)

And that's just a single evening of browsing. So clearly there is strong motivation to go the "All Region" route. Thanks again for any answers to my earlier questions in this post ... oh, and Joe, be sure to let us know how The African Queen turns out. That would be a tremendous title to import if presented well, and hopefully restored.

 

[rutger_s]

Here are three good reasons for importing DVDs:

1. Title availability. Some places just have the films you want whether they be special edition or movie-only. Ed Wood is openly available in the UK with a very nice classy cover. In The Name of The Rose is freely available in Brazil.

2. Completists. Some places have special editions that contain unique or excellent bonus materials. Korea boasts a beautifully packaged Band of Brothers that comes housed in a military messenger bag. Dances With Wolves comes housed in a nice leather slipcase for the Japanese market. And the UK special edition of Citizen Kane does include the complete radio broadcast of War of The Worlds.

3. Languages. Dimension Films and New Line Cinema redub many popular Asian films into English. It may be true that Jackie Chan provides his own redubs but for many Chow Yun Fat & Jet Li films, other actors are uses for these stars. Nothing better than hearing the proper emotions, sound effects, and music during a film. Even it means having to read.

 

[Bob-N]

The sale ends on Sunday 29th according to signs. I was concerned that they only had one in stock and asked if they were going to issue rainchecks and he said no. So if you're on the fence, I'd pick one up unless your store will give out rainchecks if they're out of stock.

Only 2.5 days left until the end of the sale. I got mine.

Bob

 

[David Lambert]

Bill, lots of questions. Some quick answers:

1) I'll stand by Bob-N's answer of "sale ends 6/29"; I don't know otherwise.

2) I simply went to Amazon.DE, put Last Unicorn (well, whatever the German language name is...using that English name pulls up the non-OAR British version) in my cart, and used 1-click shopping to do the rest. It pulled up my Amazon.com info automatically. I used Expedia.com's currency converter to ballpark how much I would be paying in US Dollars (it showed up in Euros at the site). And I used FreeTranslation.com to help me along with figuring out what I was being told. When all was said and done, the final total was under $40, that was agreeable to me, so I committed, and got charged roughly what I was expecting (small difference, probably due to slight exchange rate fluctuations). If a tariff or other fee was imposed, it was invisible to me. Maybe that's why "shipping" made up half the total cost, though.

3) Ordered the 11th, confirmation came on the 13th, and I got the item on the 19th. It was waiting in my mailbox when I got home; no need to sign for anything.

4) I've only watched it the one time, but didn't notice anything distracting on the video. Perhaps a bit of motion blur, now that you mention it...I'd have to watch again and look for it. PAL speedup on the sound was slightly evident in places, but again not distracting. A pleasant and mostly normal viewing experience for the entire family.

When I initially and briefly tried it on my 4x3 set (easy to get to), the WS image stretched up and down to fill the screen, yes. When I moved it to my WS set later, after dinner, it naturally stayed confined to the tops and bottoms established by that unit; nothing tried to scroll off the viewable area. It remained squished left and right until I changed the setup to let the player and set know this was a 16x9 DVD, and then everything fell neatly into place. I then insert my old VHS into the player and did a split-screen compare. Both were identical, except that there was more picture on the sides of the DVD image. So the DVD player output was 'correct'.


5) As mentioned, everything went fine with charging it to my normal Master Card account that I had aleady set up at Amazon.com when I (often enough) use Amazon.CA (Canada) it pulls the USA site info automatically. Apparently all Amazon foreign sites do, because Amazon.DE (Germany) did the same. No muss, no fuss.

If I hadn't been using Amazon, it might have been cheaper. It might also have been tons harder. I have no idea.

 

[Joe Wong]

Hi guys,

Does this player output PAL (not PAL-to-NTSC conversion)?

I ask because my projector can accept PAL input.

I'd really like to get some of the R2 Hong Kong Legends DVDs and the R4 The Dish (2-disc).

Thanks!

Joe

 

[Christopher D]

OK, I just got the chance to plug mine in and put it through its paces a little bit. I've never seen anything so versatile, and it is a *great* backup machine for the price. True videophiles may want to think about it a little bit, however.

The PQ for PAL video was clearly a notch below the Malata --titles and text were obviously fuzzier. However, the image was more than serviceable and for casual viewing should be little cause for complaint.

With respect to questions about anamorphic widescreen programming -- I tested this on both my 42" 16:9 plasma (in both progressive and interlaced) and my 32" 4:3 Sony XBR (using the regular old video cable). I'm no expert, but the PAL picture appears to come out 16x9 regardless of how the player is set (24, Spooks, 28 Days Later). There is no discernable difference between 4:3 LB, 4:3 P&S, and 16X9. The PQ improved noticably, however, switching from interlaced to progressive on the plasma.

On the 4:3, however, PAL anamorphic (24, Spooks) comes out squeezed and I can't find any way to make it display a letterboxed PAL image regardless of setting. PAL programming with a 4:3 OAR (Cold Feet) looks fine on the 4:3 display; I forgot to test it on the plasma. NTSC widescreen programming *will* play letterboxed (PQ a tad fuzzy).

For anyone with an interest in region free and a widescreen display who was on the fence, run out and get this thing. It's a champ for the money. If you're picky and/or only have a 4:3 display it is still a bargain but you probably won't be completely satisfied.

 

[Christopher D]

Joe - it apparently *will* output native PAL based on available menu settings.

 

[Bill Burns]

So I have to buy this thing today (Saturday), or risk paying more in the coming weeks ... hmmm ... I'll probably take the plunge. The PQ issues worry me a bit, but my interlaced display is anamorphic, so I don't need the machine to downcovert anything. Hopefully material won't prove too fuzzy (I'm hoping the results on a CRT may prove better than a plasma for interlaced).

$58 ... I'm sure I'll cave. I can't justify the high price of the best all region players right now, and at this very low price I can at least go ahead and order the PAL discs I've been wanting, then perhaps upgrade the machine at a later date.

Thanks to all, and thanks for the point-by-point answers, David. Import buying sounds much simpler than I feared it might prove.

 

[Christopher D]

Bill -- it should be a no-brainer for you, no worries. The PQ is not reference quality, but it is fine. Unless you are really critical about this stuff you won't notice it, although I will say that on direct comparison to the Malata it was fairly apparent.

 

[Joel Vardy]

The PQ for PAL video was clearly a notch below the Malata --titles and text were obviously fuzzier. However, the image was more than serviceable and for casual viewing should be little cause for complaint.

I just received my copy of R2 The African Queen and it was a bit 'fuzzy' as described above. I don't know how much it would have improved on a Malata player but the image was serviceable. I did need to dial down the contrast and brightness considerably as well as color saturation levels seem to have been set a bit 'hot'. Once again, I didn't know if this was the transfer quality of the title so I tested it with some of the newer material from R1. It played both B&W and Color titles fairly well, though a notch below the PQ level of my Sony DVP-NC655P. Still an excellent deal considering the alternatives. This has opened up a new world of DVD possibilities. I recall that a superior transfer of The Last Emperor lies out there somewhere beyond the R1 bounderies.

Joel