# where can I buy a good regionless DVD player?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 30, 2002, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490 "2002-05-30T03:48:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/1 "2002-05-30T03:48:01Z")
Sadly, I am completely inept at choosing a good brand or retailer for my electronic entertainment needs. I want a regionless DVD player so I can watch foreign DVDs, but I don’t want to buy one off the back of some guy’s truck. I want a reliable, reasonably-priced (say, under $250) regionless DVD player. What are some good brands, and where can I get them? What will I need to know about a regionless player that might be different from a regular coded one? I’d appreciate any help and suggestions.
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### Author:  [@Patricinus\_Scriblerus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patricinus_Scriblerus)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/2 "2002-05-30T09:35:25Z")
In Canada FUTURE SHOP has a DVD and a VCR that plays all international formats. I think that they are the Canadian counterpart of Circut City.
WWW.Futureshop.ca
Good luck
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/3 "2002-05-30T15:25:17Z")
I saw some for $69 before at Circuit City USA once. Said right on the front of them, multi region.
Thats funny, because I didn’t know they were legal. If you are in the USA, you can call them & ask what they have in
stock. Or try [ebay.com](http://ebay.com), loads of them there.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/4 "2002-05-30T22:28:41Z")
From what I understand at [this forum](http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/), the concepts of “reliable” and “multi-region” are pretty mutually exclusive. I gather it’s because manufacturers who make multi-region players are borderline gray-marketeers to begin with, but I may have misunderstood.
A brand called Malata seems pretty popular, though.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/5 "2002-05-30T23:13:04Z")
I thought pretty much most of the DVD players you could buy had some sort of DIY fix to make them multiregion, although I do recall some of the methods range from simply tapping certain combinations of keys on the remote to actually removing chips from the inside. The internet, as ever, should have an almost bottomless source of info on anything to get around corporate regulations like DVD regions.
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### Author:  [@Kwyjibo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kwyjibo)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/6 "2002-05-30T23:35:10Z")
I have an Apex 1500 and it was ‘hackable’.
Now it is regionless and the Macrovision has been disabled. (I also have my own custom background. :D)
If you want to see if you can actually purchase a regionless player, go to [www.vcdhelp.com](http://www.vcdhelp.com) . They have details on almost every DVD player out there.
(I hope giving this info isn’t frowned upon.)
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### Author:  [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2002, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/7 "2002-05-31T10:12:44Z")
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I found a regionless player made by Sampo from Japan for only $115. I have a regular DVD player as well, but there’s no way I’ll attempt to “hack” it- I’m sure I will break the thing trying.
I don’t think multiregion players are illegal in the US. I had occasionally seen them in stores before this need to own one started. I guess I will just have to accept that they’re not all that reliable, and take what comes along. Wish me luck.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2002, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/8 "2002-05-31T11:27:32Z")
Region Coding isn’t a law, is it? It’s just a rule imposed by the DVD folks. A damned inconvenient one to we foreign folk.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/9 "2002-05-31T18:31:41Z")
If region coding ever becomes a law, the system will have broken down.
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### Author:  [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/10 "2002-05-31T20:15:18Z")
[B&H Photo](http://www.bhphotovideo.com), a mail order company in New York, has a [Pioneer DV-533](http://www02.bhphotovideo.com/default.sph/FrameWork.class?FNC=ProductActivator __Aproductlist_html___ 238614 ___PIDV533___ REG ___CatID=1908___ SID=EE5EC370690) “multi-zone” DVD player. $240 plus shipping.
[Codefree DVD Players](http://www.codefreedvdplayers.com/index.shtml) has the same one, and a whole bunch of others, too.
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### Author:  [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2002, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/11 "2002-05-31T21:18:37Z")
Won’t Region 2 or 4 DVDs (Europe/Australia-NZ) still fail in the United States because they have PAL-encoded video instead of NTSC?
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/12 "2002-05-31T21:46:24Z")
Hazel has a point. I looked into this about 6 months ago, and you need to either have a multi-region TV as well, or the player has to be able to change the code as well.
The whole thing looked to be a very costly & dicey enterprise.
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### Author:  [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2002, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/13 "2002-05-31T22:08:47Z")
My cheapo $65 player will play PAL encoded VCDs on my NTSC TV, so I would think that multiregion DVD players would be able to play PAL on NTSC TVs.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2002, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/14 "2002-06-01T13:59:46Z")
Many of the multi-region players I’ve heard of will also do PAL-NTSC conversion as well.
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### Author:  [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-a-good-regionless-dvd-player/111490/15 "2002-06-02T02:39:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Patricinus Scriblerus \*
> \*\*In Canada FUTURE SHOP has a DVD and a VCR that plays all international formats. \*\*
Which model is that? I didn’t see any on their website.