Chris,
I owe Brad a "thanks" for explaining it better than I did :) That's what I was trying to convey in my previous posts. If a DVD player has an internal PAL/NTSC Converter, as most have, then it doesn't matter what type of TV you have, either NTSC, PAL, or one that can receive either format.
I have the PIONEER DV-400V modified player which has an internal PAL/NTSC Converter rated at 64 Mb. The player is an upconvert model which converts std DVD's to several HD formats, including 1080p. The main reason I bought a "chipped" (internallly modified) player vs going the "hack" route is that I wanted to check the PAL/NTSC Converter spec and I wanted to avoid, however remote the possibility, any issue with RCE-coded playback of movie DVD's. "RCE" refers to "Region Coded Enhanced" which is an extra region-coding that some studios applied to their movie DVD's a few years ago. If I recall, this was mainly used by MGM and some Columbia Tristar movies. The idea wasn't widely endorsed by the major studios so I believe the RCE coding was dropped by most studios. The idea was to try and prevent region-free players from playing discs from other regions around the world. There were reports, although infrequent, that some "hacked" DVD players had problems playing back RCE coded movie DVD's. The RCE DVD's could be played back but occasionally required a "workaround" routine to get the DVD to play on a hacked player. The advantage of a "chipped" or internally-modified player is that the player has been modified to accept any region (std) DVD regardless of additional RCE coding.
If I recall, I paid around $90+ for the Pioneer player but the prices have dropped considerably during the past year for modified std players. Although I knew I could have saved money and bought a Phillips player or similar model at a local Walmart and hacked it, I was interested in getting a player that had a spec rating for the internal PAL/NTSC Converter and wanted to read an independent lab report on its PAL to NTSC playback quality.
The Pioneer player has an excellent lab report on its conversion quality. Here's an excerpt from a tech's lab report:
Quote from an independent lab report:
The 400 uses the Mediatek all-in-one MPEG decoder solution. This chip has some great strong points to it, including being extremely fast in its functionality. This can be seen in both the user interface and layer change of the player. This is the first Pioneer player to have a completely seamless layer change and extremely fast menu and chapter navigation.
This chip also excels at its PAL to NTSC conversion, which is excellent. I went through a lot of the demo material on the PAL edition of the Digital Video Essentials disc and there wasn’t a trace of artifacts or improper timing. If this player could be made region free, it would be an excellent offering for those with monitors that only accept NTSC.
The
italic portion of the tech's report is referring to most Pioneer std players' inability to be hacked with a coded # entered from the player's remote control. Some players can't be hacked to enable the internal region-free function.
I am fairly critical when it comes to DVD playback quality and my eyes are completely satisfied with this player's PAL/NTSC conversion. When I am watching my R2/4 PAL DVD's, the video quality is outstanding. For example, I watched one of my PAL DVD's from "The Saint" TV series this week (the complete B/W series available from "Network", a UK online store) and I'm still amazed at how well the player converts PAL on the fly during playback. It's like watching any US NTSC DVD.
Brad has an interesting idea, using a dedicated PAL player. I am viewing my DVD's with a 50" Panasonic Plasma TV via HDMI from about 9 ft away. I don't know how PAL converted DVD's would look on a larger screen so perhaps there is a need to use a PAL player for a larger screen size depending on the TV's capabilities regarding to PAL format.
Hope this info helps. And apologies to "Tales..." thread readers out there. The "region-free" stuff is sometimes confusing to some and it's really cool to be able to watch some great DVD releases only available in R2/4. Case in point, if "Tales..." wasn't getting an R1 release due to some music or clearance rights, you're still able to own it with an R-free player.
I'd still be waiting for 2 of my all-time favorite TV miniseries "Rich Man Poor Man" Bk 1 & 2, if I didn't have that R-free player. And those "Bionic Woman" S1 & 2 sets from R2/4....wow :) Studio transfers and uncut episodes! Still waiting after 3-4 years for an R1 release.
. This is my second most wanted TV show on DVD and I'm counting down the days until June 8th 
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