Ally McBeal and the Cyberhome CH-300

[Brittney A.]

So, I'm a huge Ally fan and am flirting with the idea of buying all five seasons from the UK (I live in Ontario). But I'm a student and I'd rather not spend all that money if I won't be able to watch them!

My parents just bought a Cyberhome CH-300 (I don't actually have it right now - it's at the cottage). I've been reading past threads on this site and learned that it's possible to watch Region 2 DVDs on it.

I also know that certain seasons are in widescreen and that the 300 has some difficulty with this.

So if anyone could help me out that would be great! Also, if someone in the area knows of where I could get a different version of the Cyberhome (402 OR 500 - I've heard they don't have a problem with the widescreen formats) that would be so appreciated.

Thank-you!

 

[Greg Madsen]

The Cyberhome will play them and are very cheap at Canadian Wal-Marts right now. As for the widescreen issues, the Cyberhome automatically unsqueezes anamorphic widescreen. Unless you have a widescreen tv or a tv that has a 16:9 setting (like my Sony) it will not display correctly.

 

[Matthew_V]

I don't know if the situation has changed since I bought seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Ally McBeal one or two years ago, but at the time the only way to obtain seasons 4 & 5 in widescreen was to buy them from an online retailer in Japan. That's where I bought seasons #1-#4, and since I have #4 but not #5, I can confirm that the Japanese set of #4 is in widescreen.

One other thing. With season #1, there was a two part story where one part was an Ally McBeal episode and the other was on The Practice. At the time that I ordered season one from Japan, the DVD box sets released in the other countries only had one of the two-part episodes -- the one that aired during Ally McBeal. The Japanese box set #2 contains both episodes.

One last thing: if you decide you wish to order either season one, two, and/or three from Japan (the DVDs released in Japan are in the NTSC format - the one the U.S. uses - as opposed to the PAL format of the countries such as the UK), back in April '04 the six discs for season one (and for two and for three) were released in one box set for a price that was cheaper than buying the 3 discs in the season one box set #one together with the discs 4-6 that were in the season one box set #two.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/search.html...rd=ally+mcbeal

Though what I am talking about is no longer available at cdjapan.co.jp, it can still be ordered from hmv.co.jp :
(season one) http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail.asp?sku=1905194
(seasons two) http://www.hmv.co.jp/Product/Detail.asp?sku=1900418
(seasson three) http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail.asp?sku=1900408

(In the lower left corner of the screen of the hmv.co.jp website, click on the word "English" to translate the site into English. cdjapan.co.jp and hmv.co.jp accept Visa/Mastercard and reply in English to any email questions you have)

 

[Brittney A.]

Thanks for the info! It was all very helpful!