perhaps some of you are more tech-oriented than I am. I want to buy a portable DVD player that will play DVD’s from other countries. Now some of them are labelled “multi-region” and others are labelled “region free.” apparently there are 6 global regions, most of Europe and Britain being region 2, India being a region of its own, etc. When a player says it’s “multi-region,” does that mean it plays all 6 regions or does it select from those (perhaps only playing region 1, north america and region 2, Europe…) so if you want to play all regions, must you buy a “region free” player? I asked one of those online consultants at Amazon/Overstock or some such site and got the answer “I like stuff.”
your questions confuse me. but if you buy a multi-region dvd player it will play dvd’s from all regions. keep in mind that the region system is separate from the pal/ntsc encoding system. so, make sure you get ntsc dvd’s (unless both your dvd player and your television can handle pal/secam/ntsc et al).
Hey Michael, this is where I bought my region-free dvd player (plays everything: vcds, pal, ntsc, all regions). I’ve never heard the term “multi-region” but that doesn’t mean the term doesn’t exist. I’m under the impression you cannot go into Best Buy or through Amazon to purchase one of these machines in America. Anyway, here’s teh link: http://www.220-electronics.com/
I bought the machine about three years ago (4?) and it has worked out really well.
Arnab–watchoo talkin’ bout? if it plays ALL regions, why don’t they call it an ALL-Region player, rather than a Multi-Region player, which could play some but not all regions?
Jeff–what brand did you buy? Best Buy/circut city don’t have them, but Amazon/Overstock does–in fact they have some very good deals, which inspired my question (one was a 10 inch “multi-region” player and the other an 8.5 inch “region free” player.) I’ll check out that site–thanks!
michael, i cannot explain with great confidence the language choices of manufacturers and marketers. but i expect the “multi-region” players are marketed by glass half-full types with a sunny worldview. they prefer to emphasize multiplicity, unlike those squirrelly region-free people. more like freedom-free if you ask me. which i think you did. word to the motha.
fucking postmodernists!
See if you kind find yourself an Apex AD-600. They were made with options in their menu settings that allow you to do two very important things: One, disable macrovision (which scrambles DVDs so they cannot be copied onto VHS) and two, disable region coding.
I bought my AD-600 on eBay just a month or so before eBay banned them. But they can still be had if you look around the internets.
Some later versions of the AD-600 were made without the chip that enables you to access the settings. But the chip can be bought for very cheap and is easy enough to install (this is what I did. You can email me for more info).
I can’t recommend the Apex AD-600 highly enough. Sure, it’s not as good a picture as Blu-Ray or progressive scan or what have you, but what it lacks in picture (which is actually good for a standard DVD player) it more than compensates in versatility.
Oops. How could I have missed this? The Apex is not portable.
Still, I recommend it.
John–I’ll check it out. I will need to replace my regular DVD player soon, too. but right now I want something I can take to campus.