best inexpensive region-free DVD player (1 Viewer)

[Iver]

I need a player with PAL/NTSC and region free capability, by hack if necessary, low price.

Anybody had any luck with the Cyberhome DVD-300? It's for sale at my friendly neighborhood best bi for $37.

Any suggestions on models, retailers in NYC, online retailers appreciated.

 

[PaulDA]

What's a low price? My Cambridge Audio 540D does what you ask and is region free out of the box. It retails for 389$, however, ten times the Cyberhome. It costs half what I paid for a universal player, though, so to me it was a low price. I hear some Toshibas are available for bargain prices (sub 120$) and are easily made region free.

 

[Andre Bijelic]

If you can still find one, the Malata 393A is an amazing little player. Region-free out of the box, excellent PAL-NTSC conversion and surprisingly good progressive-scan. You might still be able to find one here or there. Mine cost $65CDN, about $50US.

Another good one is the Toshiba 4900. Not quite region-free out of the box - you have to go into the set-up menu to switch regions - but you can make it region-free with a simple hack easily found online. Ususally goes for around $100US.

 

[Fernando Saa]

Region free?, that's that mean that if I send these players overseas it'd still play any DVD? I thought that was carefully safe-guarded by copyright laws, besides some movies that are already available in DVD in the USA, still are in theaters in other countries, anyone could make a lucrative business showing these movies using a region free player and DVD's from the US. Please anyone fill me in on this since I'd definitively like to purchase one of these, not to make any business but to send one to my brother. Thanks for any input.

 

[Steve Berger]

I just picked up the Cyberhome CH-DVD-300 and it has played almost everything I've thrown at it. It can be made region free through a hidden menu from the remote. Try videohelp.com for reviews of this machine. (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers....arch&#comments I burn all my stuff (TV in mpeg2 - XSVCD) to CD-R and it's played them all including raw mpeg files (not authored). Like most cheap machines you may have to try a couple to get a good one but it has some great features.

I thought about the Apex AD-1110W but it won't play high bit-rate XSVCD recordings which made it useless for my purposes. (45 minutes of edited video on a CD-R) I can edit and burn a TV show (recorded with a Hauppauge PVR card) in about 5 minutes total.

 

[Jonty Rees]

My CyberHome DVD300 also works fine, for $35. Apparently it can also swallow anything from 110v-240v, so it would work in different countries, (with an adaptor for the outlets).