Best Region Free Player for my Budget (1 Viewer)

[FredHD]

I want to get a region free player, because I want to see a lot more european and asian films that are not available in Region 1. I have a budget of $150. I have seen some in my budget like the daewoo, sampo, and akai. COuld anyone make a recommendation. Could those that do respond also mention possible problems I might experience with machines.

TIA in advance for any help.

Also, could a moderator tell me if it is okay to post this in the Regional DVD area.

JW

 

[Donnie Eldridge]

You should look at the Cyber Home CH-DVD 500. It's currently on sale at Best Buy for $69. There are currently hacks for all region play and Macrovision removal. You can read more about it here:
http://pub5.ezboard.com/fhongkongdvd...D=4273.topi c

 

[Lew Crippen]

Don’t forget that there are not a lot of non-R1, NTSC disks around (excepting Korea and Japan).

PAL won’t display very well on NTSC sets, unless some conversion takes place. Most inexpensive DVD players won’t do this. And most NTSC displays won’t display properly without a conversion.

 

[MartEvans]

You could check out one of the cheap Apex players... I have the 1500. After flashing the firmware it is region and macrovision free and it also does the pal/ntsc conversion - the conversion is not great, I know that the more expensive Malata players do the conversion almost flawlessly... the Apex is anything but flawless. My anamorphic R2 discs playback in a stretched format on my regular TV, if you have a ws tv then it will not be a problem. I do know a lot of people have had problems with them as far as them being tempramental but I've had mine 18 months and it's played everything I've thrown at it (including discs with known problems).

 

[FredHD]

Based on the information that I got from Donnie's link, I bought a CyberHome earlier at Best Buy for 69.99 + a $20 mail in rebate making it $49.99. Can't beat that for a region free, progressive player. Get 'em while they got 'em. They had stacks and stacks of them.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

I've spent over $100 on players like the Sampo in the past, but the Cyberhome is so good it's competitive with my Panasonic in terms of sheer picture quality. Add in that it's region-free, plays PAL correctly, and is $49 at Best Buy (!!!!), and it's definitely worth the effort.

 

[MartEvans]

As per my post above I HAD an Apex but thought I'd give the Cyberhome a try and so far have been very impressed... I know if you spend under $100 you get pretty much what you pay for but at this moment in time I can't afford one of the spiffy Malata's so this is a great buy for me...

The R2 PAL playback is great compared to the Apex (anamorphic discs now play correctly) and I have the progressive scan available for when I get a compatible TV (later next year)...

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Does the Cyberhome play anamorphic discs in correct 16x9 ratio also for NTSC widescreen TVs?

I'm a little confused by what people say is "correct" playback of anamorphic PAL discs. That is, does it maintain the proper ratios for both downconverted and 16x9 viewing of 16x9 PAL discs?

I'd like to give this budget player a try while I wait/shop for a good player for the long haul. Who knows? If it's good enough for PAL discs on my new 53" widescreen, I could buy a cheaper/non-modded player to do everything else. Of course, that would mean needing an extra set of component cables.

_Man_

 

[MartEvans]

It does maintain the proper ratio and doesn't do that nasty stretch thing that other cheap players (like my old Apex) do.

 

[Luis S]

Cyberhome 500

 

[Shaun C]

If the damn studios would quit releasing so much varying quality product between different regions, many people would not even be looking at region-free players.

Like no Anamorphic Mrs. Doubtfire or Armageddon in Region 1, even though they are available in other regions. And I'm sure there are many more of these examples.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yes, many more, especially if you watch foreign films and don't want butchered versions.

_Man_

 

[CamiloCamacho]

I own a Daewoo DVG 3000N and i'm very impressed with it, you can with your remote change the zone, even make it region free. Also it has NTSC /PAL conversion; so when you push a button the player displays all in NTSC, other push everything in PAL, another in it's native format (for multi-format TV's). Also if you are planing to buy a DVD Recorder, it works with DVD-R / DVD+R (Have not try with +RW/-RW).

And it not finish it, it reads MP3 in a CD OR A DVD... So you can burn 4.7 gigabytes of MP3 and listen in your unit ( it works in VBR and with a lot of bitrates, i have tried with bitrates from 96 Kbps to 320 Kbps in both CBR and VBR)... And for the people interested it also reads VCD and SVCD...

 

[Dahna]

Just tonight picked up a Cyber Home 500 for $60 open box at Best Buy. I was going to pay the $70 price, but I don't mind open boxes. Then when I go to pay, my receipt comes with a $20 rebate. Yippee!

I bought this for the kids because I'm no longer buying VHS and if they have friends over and then we adults want to watch our movies, there's no longer a need for the power struggle of who gets the DVD? LOL!!

 

[Jeff jims]

I picked up the Cyber Home 500 this afternoon.
going to hook it up tonight and try the all region hack. can't wait!
hopefully, they haven't disabled the hack yet.

 

[Jeff jims]

It worked!
Plays UK PAL DVD's perfect, as well as disabling macrovision copy protection for my personal use of course.
Actualy the Cyberhome500's picture quality is slightly better than my heavy duty $1200 3rd generation Pioneer Elite on my Sony KP-65WV600 65 inch 16:9 widescreen HD Projection set in progressive scan.
Simmply amazing! I picked up this player just for all region DVD's and planned on keeping my Pioneer Elite for region 1 DVD's but when I compared Toy Story 2 and SW EP II AOTC'S the Cyberhome500 slightly surpassed it.
This player is a steal!
Now my primary DVD player.
Thanks to all members for the information.