Question about DVD players

Michael Bauer

I have read that almost any recent DVD player will play DVD's in all formats. Before I order a bunch of Zone 2 DVD's, does anyone know if this is true? Or does anyone know how I can tell what mine will play. It's about a year old, but I doubt that I have the book anymore.

brandoneon

This is true. You just need to find a code, which is usually entered on the remote control. There are numerous codes on the web - just search google with the model name and some keywords like 'region free hack' ... however, no remote control codes exist for Panasonics. If you can't find a code for your player then you could do what I did - by a cheapo player from Kmart. Mine's a Memorex 2040 and works great.

Good luck!

sockeye

To complicate matters a bit, some American DVD players will automatically convert PAL to NTSC and some won't. I have a few region 0 PAL DVDs that won't play on one of my players for this reason.

In my limited experience, some of the absolute cheapest DVD players -- the $30-$40 ones -- play both region-free and convert PAL to NTSC. I think it's cheaper for these makers not to have to worry about where they're selling their hardware. This whole regions thing is so stupid and annoying to begin with -- a dumbdown of technology dictated, as usual, by the marketing department.

djangology

It is really easy to buy a Zone-free all region "hacked" DVD player. I bought the TOSHIBA SD-K760 CODE FREE - REGION FREE - MULTI REGION - ZONE FREE Progressive Scan DVD player and it plays my Rosenberg Trio DVDs perfectly. Also, I can burn video files to a cdrom or DVD and the player will play those too.

nwilkins

it's important to remember that there are two reasons a DVD might not work - first there is the region setting, and second there is the PAL/NTSC difference. Make sure you are getting a player that is region free AND can play both NTSC and PAL.