I have some region 0, PAL DVDs that I want to be able to play on something other than my computer. I tried the "quick & dirty" method of editing the VTS files and burning new DVDs but the menus don't work. I know there are some DVD players that will do a PAL->NTSC conversion (Yamaha I know make some). Has anyone had any experience with this?

 

I heard the ones you get from Jlist or yesasia.com are great.
They work like regualr region 1 plaers and you don't even know the difference.

 

I dug up some information for a customer a long time ago concerning PAL DVD's, but I've since left that company. From what I remember, we found a distributor that catered to the Boating/Yacht/Sailing crowd which travels around the world. They sold electronics that were "dual standard" which included DVD and VHS players.

 

The Yamaha models I found are available from Crutchfield (and problably Amazon, Buy.com, etc). They have a built in NTSC/PAL converter along with all the other goodies (progressive scan, Dolby Digital, DTS, etc). The really funny thing is that I also found that the Cyberhome 300S (available from Walmart and Target for around $30) will also play either NTSC or PAL DVDs. $30 is hard to beat but I'm not sure how long it would last. I think I'd rather spend the bucks to get a nicer player that will last.

 

Mark, are you looking to just play the region 0 Pal DVD's? Then the Yamaha you mentioned above should be great. I also heard that the x-box plays pal DVD's, not sure if it's true though because i've never owned an x-box.

BUT, if you want to play region coded discs other than '0' and '1' (there is 0 thru 6) then you will need an all-region player. I got a nice one off ebay that plays literally everything, and it was only around $115. Had it for about 3 years now and it is still awesome, I own a lot of foriegn (mostly asian) martial arts films that are either region 2 or 3 mostly and they play great! Anyways, There are some nice Pioneer all-region players on ebay now for around $100.

Good luck finding one

 

I have software that will allow me to remaster the DVD and remove the region coding so a region free DVD player isn't a necessity. Thanks for the info though. I'll keep it in mind.

 

Cool...wish i had known about that software a few years ago!

 

I have a Cyberhome MP016-A dvd player i got in 2002 for around $85 and it still works perfectly, its an all region player, never had a problem with DVDs.
anyways there are many dvd player out there you shouldn't be spending more than $100 if you do your getting ripped off,, read online reviews about the dvd player before you buy a dvd player,

 

It's pretty cool. You need AnyDVD ($40), which makes the DVD appear to be region free on your computer. You then use DVDShrink (FREE!) to remaster the DVD and make it region free and then use Nero 6 Ultra Edition to burn it.

 

I've never had good luck with the cheaper DVD players for some reason. The Sony that I have now has been rock solid for several years.

That is a cool looking DVD player though!

 

i remmber buying a cheap dvd player from circuity city the broke the next day it just stoped playing i retured it the next day, i later found out that everyone was having problems with them (from online reviews). I saw the cyberhome dvd weeks later online and i just liked the looks of it so i decided to try it i read good reviews, and bought ive been happy with my purchase ever since. a few of my friends even though it was sony when they first saw it as its a diffrent design than other dvd player.

 

I looked into Cyberhome products and they don't sell the one you have anymore but they do have a nice, full featured model with more conventional styling. I'll take it into consideration.