all-region DVD players

[bertrand]

I want to get an all region DVD player so I can buy DVDs in France and play things that I might buy fron ina.fr.

It looks like I will have to get it online. Amazon has some by known brands for $50-$60. Are these all I need? Sounds awfully cheap. Are there any that anyone highly recommends, or any to stay away from?

Thanks,

Bertrand.

[Dave Garrett]

I was going to recommend one of these, but I see they've been discontinued. Oppo is apparently only making Blu-ray players now, which is a shame, as their DVD players were very nice when it came to multi-region, multi-standard playback while still delivering very good picture quality, something that can't always be said of cheaper multi-region decks.

Wish I'd bought another one as a backup while they were still readily available. I've bought multi-region decks for as cheaply as $30, but the Oppo's far and away the best one I've ever had. Looks like there are a couple of used ones at eBay currently, but as they originally sold for $169, I wouldn't expect any bargains.

Edited December 26, 2009 by Dave Garrett

[Brad]

Don't regular DVDs work in Bluray. If so and you can get an all region one, that should work, right?

[Claude]

Bertrand,

Hardly any DVD players are region free out of the box, since implementing region restrictions is part of the DVD license. Manufacturers are not allowed to make region free players.

But a majority of DVD players can be made region free, many of them by simply entering a code with the remote control. Sometimes a seperate programmable remote (Philips Pronto etc) is required.

Some stores sell DVD players that are region free. There is nothing special about those, except that the seller opened the box and made the player region free (which is legit, since only the manufacturer is bound by the DVD license).

So my advice would be to look for a good DVD player and then check if it can be made region free, in this database:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

Concerning Blu-ray players: Every Blu-ray player plays DVD as well, and some can be made region-free for DVDs, but region-free for Blu-ray discs usually requires an expensive hardware modification. Since most Blu-ray discs are currently not region-limited, this is not really a problem:

http://www.blurayregioncodes.com/

Edited December 26, 2009 by Claude

[MartyJazz]

I was going to recommend one of these, but I see they've been discontinued. Oppo is apparently only making Blu-ray players now, which is a shame, as their DVD players were very nice when it came to multi-region, multi-standard playback while still delivering very good picture quality, something that can't always be said of cheaper multi-region decks.

Wish I'd bought another one as a backup while they were still readily available. I've bought multi-region decks for as cheaply as $30, but the Oppo's far and away the best one I've ever had. Looks like there are a couple of used ones at eBay currently, but as they originally sold for $169, I wouldn't expect any bargains.

I too have an Oppo deck and would have heartily recommended it as well until I read the above post. What a shame, to discontinue such an excellent deck. I've been trading copies of DVD concerts all over the world and have never had to be concerned that any would not play on this all region deck. It also tracks better than all the other DVD players/decks I have in my home.

[Stefan Wood]

Oppo is supposed to come out with a lower end Blu Ray player in early 2010. Don't know if it is supposed to be all region.