Will my DVD Player play region 2 DVDs (1 Viewer)

[Derek Duncan]

This is a stupid question, but I don't really know these matters. I am getting a philips 724 DVD player. I know that it plays PAL discs, but is there a hack to play region 2 discs. And if so, what will it do on my TV. I have a Sharp TV, connected through component video. Would it play , or be distorted or in black and white. I don't how this all works, so these are very dumb questions, sorry.

Derek

 

[PaulT]

If it's a 724AT there might be a keypress hack. Try here:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdhacks
and do a search for Philips

 

[Matt DeVillier]

the philips 724at can be made region-free via a remote hack, but it doesn't properly convert PAL->NTSC, and is excessively soft. IMO the Cyberhome CH-500 from best buy is a much better purchase for non-R1/PAL discs

 

[Derek Duncan]

I have recieved my player, I love it. I have it hooked up through component video to my JVC tv. My question is, when I by a region 2 disc, how will it look, I read on another site, that if you get any picture distortion, that if you change the video setting in the player to NTSC, it will stop the distortion. I have put in the all regions code. Funny thing is, I had it set to multistanderd, were it plays both pal or ntsc, depending on what is on the disc. If I set it to pal, the picture rolls, so I downloaded two normal mpeg music videos from online, and burned them to a video cd. One played fine, but the other roled, like when it was set to pal, so I changed the seting from multistanderd, to ntsc, and the video plays fine now. What does that mean, and what will happen if I do buy a pal disc, will it play.

 

[Derek Duncan]

I forgot to add that my player is the 724AT, not the 724. Is there a difference, I noticed that on the picture on the philips web site, that on the bottom of the player, that the dts logo is there, but mine only has a dd logo, does this make a difference in what my player can do, does it have a built in converter to play on any ntsc tv, because all the web sites selling this player says so. Please someone let me know.

Derek

 

[Derek Duncan]

Come on guys, can anyone tell me about this, before I order a region 2 disc.

Derek

 

[Bob Hunzeker]

Derek, yes the 724 can play R2 and will convert to NTSC. However unless you have a widescreen TV it will not do it correctly. Ther are 2 processor intensive things that you can ask your DVD player to do, one is to process an anamorphic DVD for display on a 4:3 screen, the other is to convert a PAL signal to NTSC. Most chipsets can't do both of these at the same time. DO some more reading before you start buying R2 discs, for a start I would look at the cyberhome 500, Apex 3021, JVC S500 or the Malata player. These all display anamorphic PAl discs correctly on an NTSC display. Of course if you have a widescreen TV or only buy non-anamorphic R2 DVD's you can ignore the preceeding.

 

[Matt DeVillier]

Bob / Derek,

the 724AT does not convert PAL discs to NTSC correctly under any conditions, no matter if the disc is anamorphic or not, no matter what type of TV you have. The aspect ratio of the converted disc will always be slightly off.

The picture on the philips website is just a mockup, and the presence/absence of one or two logos is nothing to worry about. However I must reiterate that there are much better players available for the playback of non-R1 discs, one costing half as much as the 724AT