What is a good multi-region DVD player?

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking for a fairly good quality DVD player that can play discs from multiple regions (well, 1 and 2, at least). It needn’t convert from PAL–my projector can show both it and NTSC.

I was looking at the Panasonic DVDS35-MZ, Sony DVP-NS530, and Yamakawa DVD 288KVGA on Amazon.com. The latter seems a bit too cheap to be of any quality, but I’m willing to keep an open mind if anyone has one and can comment on its performance. The Panasonic one looks promising, but there’s been little feedback on it.

Before anyone mentions modifying a regular DVD player, let me just say now that I’d rather not. I’m hoping to find something nice that works right out of the box.

2

AFAIK…the coding is on the disk, not in the player.

3

I picked up the Daewoo DVD-5900 for peanuts at Sam’s Club last year. Enter a code on the remote and you can unlock the region settings to play whatever. It plays my Region 2 Iron Monkey Platinum Edition beautifully, and it’s a solid, reliable player otherwise; it gives me trouble with home-burned disks, but store-bought titles play fine.

4

Doesn’t that defeat the reason for coding?

5

What exactly do you mean? Does buying a region-free player defeat the purpose of region coding in the first place? Yes, that’s the point. Region codes exist because they allow studios to restrict the sales of DVDs to certain markets, not for some reason intrinsic to the technology.

6

I bought a JVC XV-S500K about two years ago. It also has the PAL-NTSC converter built-in.

I got it because, at the time, Family Guy, Futurama, & Red Dwarf box sets were only available from Europe.

Also, the Star Trek box sets, TNG, DS9, & Voyager, look a helluva lot better than their US counterparts.

7

Please continue with answers. Add street prices if you happen to have them. I’m also interested, since I wish to play US, Asia and continental DVDs all on the same player.

Thx!

8

I paid $239 in 2002.

That model is no longer available, but it has been replaced with the XV-N40BK. The site I bought mine from has it for $149.

9

I got my Daewoo for about $70, but it’s not available anymore. This was a while ago so I’m not even sure what Daewoo is selling these days.

Sam’s Club is currently selling a Cyberhome player that can be converted to region-free play. I noticed that Sam’s always seems to carry at least one model that can be played region-free.

A good place for info on region-free players is the Nerd-Out forums.

10

Check out http://www.gotapex.com/deals.php. Get a region free DVD player for about $24 if you don’t mind doing some rebates.