Multi-region upconverting DVD players?

[traveler582]

Thanks for all your comments!
Chris, I see that my Sony DVD player is from 2001 and does not upconvert. I'm dying to get an All Region playing, PAL/NTSC converter, upconverting to 1080p DVD player, that will play any region DVD, but specifically a Region 0 DVD that I have, AND play PAL DVD's that I plan on buying from overseas.
I read somewhere that any major store, Best-Buy, Walmart, or Circuit City all sell Region 1 players only.
And also after seeing a Philips DVP5982 and Samsung DVD 1080p7 Player from a seller that claims all regions, PAL/NTSC converter; a reviewer said it's not true, he contacted Philips and they said they don't sell them(?). That the seller 'tinkers' with it to make that claim.
I'm trying to spend under $100 and with prices so low I don't think that's too unrealistic.
Is there such a DVD player as I described???

(All Region, PAL/NTSC converter, upconverting to 1080p DVD player)

Can you recommend anything, please??

Robert

[BADuHamel]

Thanks for all your comments!
Chris, I see that my Sony DVD player is from 2001 and does not upconvert. I'm dying to get an All Region playing, PAL/NTSC converter, upconverting to 1080p DVD player, that will play any region DVD, but specifically a Region 0 DVD that I have, AND play PAL DVD's that I plan on buying from overseas.
I read somewhere that any major store, Best-Buy, Walmart, or Circuit City all sell Region 1 players only.
And also after seeing a Philips DVP5982 and Samsung DVD 1080p7 Player from a seller that claims all regions, PAL/NTSC converter; a reviewer said it's not true, he contacted Philips and they said they don't sell them(?). That the seller 'tinkers' with it to make that claim.
I'm trying to spend under $100 and with prices so low I don't think that's too unrealistic.
Is there such a DVD player as I described???

(All Region, PAL/NTSC converter, upconverting to 1080p DVD player)

Can you recommend anything, please??

Robert

It is important to remember that your HD display will already upconvert any non-HD signal to its native resolution. The ultimate benefit of upconverting DVD players is debatable, but the benefits of a region-free DVD player that will convert PAL-to-NTSC are another matter entirely. If you are someone who imports a lot of foreign titles that are R2 and/or PAL, then that will be of great benefit. I personally own an Oppo and a lot of other people swear by them. Now may be the time to jump into one of those as the upcoming Oppo Blu-ray player will not be region free for DVD playback due to restrictions placed on them by the BDA.

[traveler582]

Thanks!!!
I love you guys!!

I'm not too technically oriented, so let me ask:

I called Oppo regarding their DV-981HD model;

I asked whether it is an all region and PAL DVD player and he said I can play PAL DVD's but only Region 1 and Region 0.

I'm looking to play Region 4 DVD's.

I got the impression from him there are no out-of-the-box all-region players due to licensing or something?

Any suggestions??


Much Thanks!
Rob

[MrBoylan]

Thanks!!!
I love you guys!!

I'm not too technically oriented, so let me ask:

I called Oppo regarding their DV-981HD model;

I asked whether it is an all region and PAL DVD player and he said I can play PAL DVD's but only Region 1 and Region 0.

I'm looking to play Region 4 DVD's.

I got the impression from him there are no out-of-the-box all-region players due to licensing or something?

Any suggestions??


Much Thanks!
Rob

Hey, Rob,

I moved this to a new thread as it has little to do with the original one. In major stores in the US you won't have much of a selection of truly "region-free" players, particularly from the name brands. There are third party services that offer modification services for players (or sell modified versions of DVD and Blu-ray players) but these are generally not cheap. For example, the Panasonic BD35 Blu-ray player sells for $300 or less in its standard version (if you can find one), but I've seen a site selling a modified "region free" version for $649.

Unless you go for the Oppo (which is an excellent upconverting player and does handle PAL and NTSC), then your best bet may be to get a fairly basic (and cheap!) region-free DVD player and just connect it up to your TV at 480i or 480p and let your TV handle the upconversion.

Here's a Philips model for around $50 (plus shipping) from Amazon marketplace sellers and you can find a few others on Amazon as well.

This way you just buy a cheap player for the non-US titles letting your TV do the upconversion. And then I'd recommend getting a good Blu-ray Disc player with high quality upconversion (like the Samsung BD-P2500 or Panasonic DMP-BD55 Blu-ray players) as your main player when you want to get the highest performance picture and sound.

Good luck!

-Chris

[traveler582]

Thanks for the link to the $50 Philips!!!
Although I'd like to verify with you, this will play Region 4 PAL DVD's? and Region 0 DVD's as well?? but will not upconvert? (which isn't as important to me, as the quality on my DVD player is pretty good right now) Primary goal was All-Region, upconverting was secondary.

But then I'm a little confused, for a minute I thought you might be saying there are few 'upconverting "region-free" players', so when I clicked your link for few others, I came across the "PHILIPS Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion Multi Region Codefree DVD Player with DivX HDMI and USB. Plays PAL/NTSC DVDs From Any Region" for $74.99 (also from VCT Electronics), I was actually looking at this a few days ago and looked for a model number to call Philips to verify Region 4 and PAL, but there was no model number. This seems to upconvert to 1080p....

Somewhere down the road I'll get a Blu-Ray, I do see the Samsung as being more affordable and the Panasonic somewhat out of my reach.

P.S. The reason for my Region 4 'requirement' is that I can only find 'Discovery Channel-Great Planes Series' of DVD's available from chaos.com, an Australian company.....(I'm into Military Jets)

Thanks,

Rob

I love the picture of your 'cloned' son!!

[MrBoylan]

Thanks for the link to the $50 Philips!!!
Although I'd like to verify with you, this will play Region 4 PAL DVD's? and Region 0 DVD's as well?? but will not upconvert? (which isn't as important to me, as the quality on my DVD player is pretty good right now) Primary goal was All-Region, upconverting was secondary.

From the description, it seems to, but I have no direct experience with this player.

But then I'm a little confused, for a minute I thought you might be saying there are few 'upconverting "region-free" players', so when I clicked your link for few others, I came across the "PHILIPS Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion Multi Region Codefree DVD Player with DivX HDMI and USB. Plays PAL/NTSC DVDs From Any Region" for $74.99 (also from VCT Electronics), I was actually looking at this a few days ago and looked for a model number to call Philips to verify Region 4 and PAL, but there was no model number. This seems to upconvert to 1080p...

Yeah, I saw that too, but remember the upconversion processing in a cheap DVD player is almost definitely going to be worse than the upconversion processing built into a good HDTV, so there's no point paying extra for that feature.

There are some really good upconverting DVD and Blu-ray players out there, but not for $75. The cheapest high quality upconverting player would probably be the Oppo DV-980H for $169.99. But it is not a region free player. Well, at least not "officially..."

There is apparently a simple "hack" for the OPPO DV-980H DVD player that turns it into a region free player (I found it on CNET, but apparently it originally came from avsforum):

To make the OPPO DV-980H a region-free player:

1. Press setup on the remote
2. Enter the numbers 9210
3. A new menu will pop up. Press 0 to make it region-free.
4. Press setup again to exit.

You mileage may vary, and all that, but it's certainly worth a shot. Buy it on Amazon so if it doesn't work out you can always return it.

Somewhere down the road I'll get a Blu-Ray, I do see the Samsung as being more affordable and the Panasonic somewhat out of my reach.

They both list for $399. The Panasonic players were too popular for their own good though and most stores burned through their stock quickly which leaves them in fairly high demand right now (and there are some unscrupulous sellers trying to sell them now for above list price). But if you're not in a hurry for Blu-ray, then wait for the new players to come out in the spring. They'll have more features (like online content access from YouTube, etc.) and will almost certainly be priced even lower than the current models.

Good luck!

-Chris

[traveler582]

Chris-

How do you know all this stuff???
At least someone's out there I can ask these questions.

I'm not well....I wound up ordering the Philips DVP3140 @ $49.00 first, and after looking at the Oppo DV-980H @ $169 I wound up ordering that also lol.
I ordered them both from Amazon.com, and like you said, I can always send one of them back, I'm probably one of Amazon's biggest customers. I'll check them both out and see which I like better, although I have a feeling it will be the Oppo.
And thanks for that hack for the Oppo.

I was reading the reviews for the Philips and someone wrote that you can also easily 'hack' that by:

1. Make sure there is no disc in the player.
2. Turn power off and on again.
3. Open the tray.
4. On the remote, hit 9879 and then 0. This changes unit to Reion 0, meaning it'll play all regions.
5. Hit OK on the remote.

I hope one of them works for all regions as I've just ordered 4-DVD's from Australia!!!

I'll let you know.

Thanks,
Rob

[BADuHamel]

Chris-

How do you know all this stuff???
At least someone's out there I can ask these questions.

I'm not well....I wound up ordering the Philips DVP3140 @ $49.00 first, and after looking at the Oppo DV-980H @ $169 I wound up ordering that also lol.
I ordered them both from Amazon.com, and like you said, I can always send one of them back, I'm probably one of Amazon's biggest customers. I'll check them both out and see which I like better, although I have a feeling it will be the Oppo.
And thanks for that hack for the Oppo.

I was reading the reviews for the Philips and someone wrote that you can also easily 'hack' that by:

1. Make sure there is no disc in the player.
2. Turn power off and on again.
3. Open the tray.
4. On the remote, hit 9879 and then 0. This changes unit to Reion 0, meaning it'll play all regions.
5. Hit OK on the remote.

I hope one of them works for all regions as I've just ordered 4-DVD's from Australia!!!

I'll let you know.

Thanks,
Rob

Rob,

I have that Oppo and I can verify that it can be made region-free and it is a solid player. Not only that, but it is great if you are at all interested in DVD-A and SACD playback as well, which the Philips won't do.

[traveler582]

Chris-
I got the Oppo DV980H, but I'm all confused, you guys probably thrive on all these wires and connections, I want to throw EVERYTHING out the window!!!

I'm trying to hook up the audio and I'm only getting stereo when I hooked up the red and white cables supplied with the DVD player to the HTiB's Audio-In L/R and the DVD's Audio-Out FRONT/MIXED L/R. I even went the DVD's setup and set it for 5.1

So now I'm trying:
"Connecting to a Receiver/Amplifier with 5.1ch Audio Output": I've now hooked up 6 RCA-style cables to FRONT/MIXED L/R, SURROUND L/R, CENTER and SUBWOOFER outputs on the Oppo DVD as it shows on page 14 of the manual.
Unfortunately, the
FRONT/MIXED plugs on the DVD are L is White and R is Red, the
SURROUND are Blue L and gray R and
SUBWOOFER are marked with colors for green and Purple, so I plugged in as L=White and R=Red on all those ports.

on the HTiB:
I connected to the back where it says:
Multi-Channel Input:
Front: L is White, R is Red
Surround: is L is White and R is Red
Center: is Gray and Subwoofer: is Gray
so I plugged in as L=White and R=Red on all those ports.

Unfortunately I get NO sound at all with this config....

So I went back to the config of HTiB's Audio-In L/R and the DVD's Audio-Out FRONT/MIXED L/R with only two speaker lights lighting up (although I hear sound from the surround speakers, I think it's stereo only).

With my old DVD I think I had the red plugged into the coaxial on the DVD and it worked fine, all 5-spkr lights on, it was the simple red/white and red/white.....

At least I am able to play my Region 0 and Region 2 DVD's now, although in stereo only.

Maybe I'll have to call Oppo tomorrow, I hate this stuff!!!

[MrBoylan]

Chris-
I got the Oppo DV980H, but I'm all confused, you guys probably thrive on all these wires and connections, I want to throw EVERYTHING out the window!!!

Go ahead. But just warn me first so I can happen to amble by at that precise moment and catch it.

I'm trying to hook up the audio and I'm only getting stereo when I hooked up the red and white cables supplied with the DVD player to the HTiB's Audio-In L/R and the DVD's Audio-Out FRONT/MIXED L/R. I even went the DVD's setup and set it for 5.1

Well not to sound like an ass, but why would you expect more than stereo sound when you connect the stereo analog output of the player to your receiver? 2 Analog channels (left/right) = stereo.

If you want multi-channel surround sound you need to go DIGITAL, which means either using the player's HDMI output (but I don't think your receiver supports HDMI audio, right?) or the fiberoptic or coax DIGITAL outputs connected to your receiver's corresponding digital inputs. The coax digital output should be an orange RCA jack, and you know what the fiberoptic output looks like. Either of these digital connections is capable of passing the full DTS or Dolby digital signals from the DVD player to your receiver with a single cable.

You can probably just use the cheap red or white or yellow cable that came with the player to connect the coax digital output of the player to the coax digital input of the receiver. The color of the cable doesn't matter. Ideally you'd want to use a "real" coax digital cable, which is really nothing more than a glorified video cable. But the cheap cable that came with the player should work.

The other situation you described -- hooking up 6 analog cables for surround sound -- is really only necessary in your situation if you want to enjoy multi-channel audio from DVD-Audio discs or SACD discs, but neither of these formats is all that popular and it is really unlikely that you own any titles of either format. The reason you can't pass DVD-Audio or SACD audio in surround over standard coax and fiber cables (SPDIF format) is that the SPDIF digital audio format doesn't support the bandwidth of multi-channel PCM sound. But again, this DOES NOT APPLY to standard DVDs or CDs, only to the specialized DVD-Audio and SACD discs.

For your purposes a single coax RCA cable or a single fiberoptic cable should be all you need.

Try it out and let us know how happy you are when it works.

Regards,

-Chris