I'm in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. As such, my DVD system of course only lets me watch NTSC. I want to be able to order foreign PAL-format DVDs - like a lot of the John Thompson/GGG flicks, and the hundreds of older Euro flicks that never seem to find their way into American (NTSC) porn catalogs...
So I'm trying to find a good PAL-to-NTSC DVD player or DVD/VHS combo player (the VHS doesn't have to play PAL). I stumbled onto a site about a year ago (when I last considered ordering such a device), and it looks like the same "Limited Time Only!!!" DVD/VHS combo is still on sale for the same price a year later, and, the address of the link has "Toshiba 290" in it even though the product shown is a Zenith - so, I'm a little suspicious. I wanted to post the link and have you technophiles check it out and see if it looks legit to you, and ask whether you think it's as good a deal as I'm gonna find out there. (btw, I assume it's legal to use such "hardware chip modifications" on these name-brand players?)(sorry if this is common knowledge)...
Here's the link to that combo player (as I said, a Zenith , despite the web address):
I'd appreciate your feedback. Also, if you want to recommend some other player(s) on that site, or any other site for that matter, please do. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd appreciate it. There's a whole lotta porn out there that folks ain't seein', due to this format issue. Thanks.
I'm in the UK and we are fortunate to have players that can handle any format from any region.
In the US there are plenty of cheap DVD players that will convert PAL to NTSC. A quick search has thrown up the Cyberhome 500 available for under $30 at Amazon with the mail-in rebate. That's the price of one GGG DVD. Obviously for that money its not going to be built like a Sony and it may die just outside the warranty period but so what. Just go and buy another one.
I think there are other cheapo brands freely available that will do what you want.
Wow, thanks Charlie. You may have just saved me a shitload. I had no idea these things were so prevalent now.
And kataboom, could you fill me in on what the remote control hack is for this model? (it's mentioned in one of the Amazon reviews as "a simple multi-region remote control hack...required for [playing DVDs from other countries]")
slider - mine came hacked on delivery but im sure its probably a simple 5 button code that you need to put into the remote for it to open up all features. ill poke around & see if i can find any more info.
The hack is as follows: 1. Turn on your dvd player 2. open the tray 3. press the stop button on your remote 4. enter 1999 using the remote
a menu will pop up.
5. select the region code using the remote (set it to ALL) 6. confirm it, using enter 7. leave the menu using the return button on your remote 8. close the tray
Uh oh. I just noticed a newer review at Amazon that says the following:
"...We were mislead by Circuit City that these DVD player[s] are multisystem in the sense that they translate PAL into NTSC. They do not. They are multisystem in the sense that you can play the different formats but you still have to have the corresponding (or multisystem) TV."
Is that true? If so, then all the people on other message boards to whom I've recommended this player (as being the sole item needed to play overseas DVDs) are in for a big surprise, and I'm fit to be flamed.
I have a 4 year old Diamond brand Chinese DVD player that was dirt cheap. (for its time, the prices are much lower today.)
It converts NTSC to PAL and PAL to NTSC, all selectable from the setup menu. You just tell it once what kind of output you want and after that it does the conversion whenever needed.
I haven't tested the NTSC output, because I have a PAL TV, but it certainly does the conversion fine in the other direction.
Since this has been available on cheapies for years, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a player that does it. Try playing around with the setup menu and looking for an entry like "output format" or similar.
If you haven't bought a player yet, go to eBay, buy yourself a cheap used PAL movie DVD from Europe and take it around the stores to see which units will play it. (I'm assuming you'd rather not take your GGG discs to K-mart )
I'm assuming that the guy who posted that review doesn't know what he's talking about. I've owned 3 players that convert PAL to NTSC (and vice versa) and they have all had a menu option for what format to output. In all cases, this has been a 3 option menu, NTSC, PAL and Multi (or Native). The last option is used for people who have TV's that are both PAL & NTSC capable. It just outputs the format that is on the disc. I know that some people have mistaken that menu option to mean "What kind of disc are you currently playing?" rather than "In what format do you want the output signal?"
I don't remember what option has been the default on my players, but it's very possible that the guy who wrote that review has the setting wrong.
The first one was a Sampo. It was the one that I liked the best. When it broke (there was a problem with the drawer mechanism), Sampo's were no longer available in the US. So, I bought a very reasonably priced Yamakawa (< $50) from E-cost. Subsequently, I bought a second Yamakawa for a different room. However, it appears that nobody is selling the Yamakawa's in the US anymore either.
I've recently read some good things at AVS about the [invalid URL removed]Oppo DV-970HD. It's an upconverting DVD player that also will convert PAL to NTSC.
In a [invalid URL removed]recent thread, Cumwhipper said that he had ordered one of these players. Shortly after receiving it, he posted that he liked it. Now that he's had it for a few weeks, you might want to e-mail him to see whether he's changed his mind or not.
[invalid URL removed]A lot of players manufactured in China are plain illegal, in that the manufacturer didn't pay the legal-fees necessary to may use the DVD technology (patents owned by Philips/Sony mainly). Fortunately, they're more and more kicked out of markets like the USA and Europe, or the manufacturer decides to withdraw from these markets (or pay the fees).
