DVD Player question

[GreggD]

Besides the Philips DVP642/37, which is in really high demand & used units sell for more than when they were new, what other player is on the same level as far as ease of hacking & has a selectable NTSC/PAL playback option? My Cyberhome CH-DVD300 can do this, but the picture quality is so-so.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

GreggD

[jman98]

I own the DVP642. It's essentially a piece of crap. Anyone who would pay more than $20 for one of these is a moron of the highest order. It was one of the very first standalone DVD players to play Divx. As such, it uses one of the first generation chips for the task. That chip is flawed. Heck, there were better (but more expensive) chips available at the time the player first shipped. Note that this player cannot display Divx correctly in widescreen. My DVP642 still works, but I got lucky. We've had tons of reports of that model breaking within weeks or a few months of purchase.

If I remember, I think the Philips 5990 and 5992 were liked by many here, but I don't have one. Note that it's getting harder every day to put any currently made DVD player into region free mode. I cannot guarantee that you can still do that with these players, although I think recent reports are that it still works. Oppo makes some of the few players still around that can be put into multi-region mode, but their new BluRay player cannot be made region free yet. Oppo players are a little pricey, but those who have them love them. If you can find them on the internet, Momitsu makes some players that can be made region free and do NTSC/PAL conversion extremely well.

[samijubal]

The Pioneer DV-410 beats the crap out of the Funai junk players, can easily be made region free and plays PAL discs. There's modded firmware on the PioneerFAQ site that will make it region free and adds a lot of features the OF doesn't have. Be warned though, I went back to the OF because every time I put a PAL disc in with the modded firmware the screen went blank and I had to reset the player. No big deal going back to the OF and the player stays region free after doing so. Both firmwares are on the PioneerFAQ site. I picked one up on ebay for less than $30 shipped.

[GreggD]

I forgot to mention I also have a Philips DVP3960 & a DuraBrand (both have been hacked). The 3960 doesn't allow you to select NTSC or PAL like the 642 does. The DuraBrand does, but in order to do that one must have the remote. Sadly, it was lost when we moved. I'm glad I managed to hack the DuraBrand while I still had the remote.

[samijubal]

Why do you need to select PAL/NTSC? Do you have a PAL TV?

[Noahtuck]

I have 2 3962's and they play PAL disc's great.

[jman98]

Why do you need to select PAL/NTSC? Do you have a PAL TV?

DVD players that have this option are almost always converting players. Players that lack this option may not be able to convert between PAL and NTSC and may be restricted to NTSC only video playback and no PAL playback or conversion of any kind. It's a good and sensible question.

[GreggD]

I do not have a PAL TV, but I do have a few PAL DVDs that I want to convert over to NTSC. I have a friend that wants a copy one of the discs, but he won't be able to watch it unless I can convert it. I would use my computer, but it's a hassle to do so. I figured the easiest thing to do is to output the PAL DVD to NTSC with the player & make a copy with my recorder. That is why I was asking about a DVD player that allows the user to make the choice.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Get a Philips 5990 if you can find one. OPPO players also support PAL but they are expensive.

[GreggD]

Get a Philips 5990 if you can find one. OPPO players also support PAL but they are expensive.

OPPO??

[MOVIEGEEK]

www.oppodigital.com

[GreggD]

Until now, I'd never heard of them.

[jman98]

I do not have a PAL TV, but I do have a few PAL DVDs that I want to convert over to NTSC. I have a friend that wants a copy one of the discs, but he won't be able to watch it unless I can convert it. I would use my computer, but it's a hassle to do so. I figured the easiest thing to do is to output the PAL DVD to NTSC with the player & make a copy with my recorder. That is why I was asking about a DVD player that allows the user to make the choice.

I don't have a DVD recorder as I record TV to my PC when I need to, but it's my understanding that this plan of yours won't work. To have any chance of it working you'd have to rip the DVD to your PC to remove Macrovision and reburn it and honestly if you're going to do that, you might as well just convert it for the guy. Or just tell your friend too bad but it's in PAL and you don't know how to convert it (that's essentially true) so he's out of luck. It's your call, but I can't advise you to buy a DVD player simply to copy a DVD for a friend. Seriously, wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy him an NTSC copy of the disc than to pay $60 or a lot more just to try to copy it if you even can?

[victoriabears]

The JVC :-

http://av.jvc.com/product.jsp?pathId=115

I have the MV-79B and it plays region free pal dvd fine but cannot be made region free, creating a region free dvd from a commercial one is easy. I will say though that the JVC is not something I would buy, very dodgy build quality, made by LG for JVC

Or:-

http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?loadfile=itemdvpns508pvc.html

and they have others, US$70 for this seems pretty reasonable.

or:-

http://shop.ebay.com/items/__region-free-dvd-player?Type=DVD%2520Players&_dmpt=DVD_Pla...=p3286.c0.m282

[samijubal]

Any U.S. model NTSC player will output NTSC wheather the disc is PAL or NTSC. The only time you would need to select between the two is if you wanted to output PAL. I've got a Funai (Philips) and the Pioneer, the Pioneer is a far better player and plays other region PAL DVDs in good quality after installing the firmware on PioneerFAQ. Like I already stated, if you want you can go back to the factory firmware anytime and the player will still be region free. Look in Consumer Reports and you'll see the DV-410 is the #1 rated upconvert player.

[GreggD]

I do not have a PAL TV, but I do have a few PAL DVDs that I want to convert over to NTSC. I have a friend that wants a copy one of the discs, but he won't be able to watch it unless I can convert it. I would use my computer, but it's a hassle to do so. I figured the easiest thing to do is to output the PAL DVD to NTSC with the player & make a copy with my recorder. That is why I was asking about a DVD player that allows the user to make the choice.

I don't have a DVD recorder as I record TV to my PC when I need to, but it's my understanding that this plan of yours won't work. To have any chance of it working you'd have to rip the DVD to your PC to remove Macrovision and reburn it and honestly if you're going to do that, you might as well just convert it for the guy. Or just tell your friend too bad but it's in PAL and you don't know how to convert it (that's essentially true) so he's out of luck. It's your call, but I can't advise you to buy a DVD player simply to copy a DVD for a friend. Seriously, wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy him an NTSC copy of the disc than to pay $60 or a lot more just to try to copy it if you even can?

The movie in question has no copy guard as it's a Public Domain movie, just Region 2. Thanks for the advice.

[DarrellS]

The Pioneer DV-410 beats the crap out of the Funai junk players, can easily be made region free and plays PAL discs. There's modded firmware on the PioneerFAQ site that will make it region free and adds a lot of features the OF doesn't have. Be warned though, I went back to the OF because every time I put a PAL disc in with the modded firmware the screen went blank and I had to reset the player. No big deal going back to the OF and the player stays region free after doing so. Both firmwares are on the PioneerFAQ site. I picked one up on ebay for less than $30 shipped.

The Philips DVP5992 sells for $65.99 whereas the Pioneer DV-410 sells for $114.95. Pretty hard to say the Pioneer beats the crap out of it when the Philips does as much for almost half the price.

I have three Philips players and they all work fine.

I've owned the DVP642 for six years, the DVP5140 for 2 1/2 years and the DVP5990 for over a year.

[samijubal]

The Pioneer can be had for far less than that on ebay. The PQ on the Funai junk players doesn't compare to the Pioneer. There's NOTHING about a Philips player that is as good as the Pioneer, menus, PQ, remote, remote sensor (complete garbage on the Funais), etc. I have both and the Philips is no camparison for the Pioneer. When you've owned the Pioneer then you can say the Philips is comparable, until then, you're wrong.

[DarrellS]

All I can say is that there are a lot of satisfied owners of DVP5990 players on this site and that everyone that I know personally that has a Philips have never had any problems with their players. My 5990 does everything it says it will do which is everything the Pioneer says it will do except I'm not sure if the Pioneer is DivX Ultra certified since the specs on B&H didn't say it was. Your Pioneer should be twice as good if it costs twice as much.

Calling the Funai's junk because you like your Pioneer better doesn't benefit anyone. It's like driving a Vette and telling everyone that their Camaros are junk.

If your Philips player is junk then why do you still have it? I would've thrown my Philips players out long ago if they were junk and I definately would not have bought two more.

My friend bought a Pioneer DVD burner which everyone says is the best burner to buy but his burner freezes his computer everytime he tries to use it to burn with. I could tell everyone wanting to buy a DVD burner that Pioneer burners are junk because the only one I've had experience with doesn't work but I don't. It wouldn't make me sound too smart if I kept ragging on a burner that most people on here like.

[jman98]

The movie in question has no copy guard as it's a Public Domain movie, just Region 2. Thanks for the advice.

And you are 100% certain that there is no Macrovision on it because ...? Such discs do exist, but they are quite rare. I'd like to know what hard evidence you have that there is no Macrovision on it other than just assuming that it doesn't exist because the film is in the public domain.

Nobody seems to have touched on my suggestion that you're not going to be able to do what you propose in copying disc to disc via recorder. It's your money, but I'd suggest that you be certain this will work before you spend the money to do it. And I still think you're, ahem, not making a wise decision is buying a DVD player simply to try copy one disc for someone else, but that's your money to spend. And if your friend is some girl you're trying to impress, don't be surprised if all this effort means essentially nothing to her and she doesn't bother to watch the disc at all for a long time, despite what you did to get it to her.

[jagabo]

The Philips 5990/5992 are good compromises of price vs ability. It's easily made region free with a few button presses on the remote. The US versions will not output a PAL signal. When playing PAL discs it converts to an NTSC signal (this is what you're looking for, of course). The frame rate and frame size conversion is reasonably good for a US$60 player (the Oppo players may do better but the cost a lot more). You can get mod firmware that allows for longer file names on both DVD and USB. It also has a lot of other improvements. But some less used subtitle support has been removed (SRT still works). The remote/sensor is much better than many earlier Philips players (642, 5960, etc). I'd say it's average now whereas the older players had crappy remotes/sensors.

It's not a perfect player. It has rather slow disc handling (for example, with the player off, ejecting a disc takes about 10 seconds), it takes several seconds for audio to return after fast forwarding or reversing.

[samijubal]

To the OP, if you want a Philips junk player I will gladly sell you mine. It's region free and has selectable PAL/NTSC. PM me if interested.

[victoriabears]

Gotta remember that different computers have different motherboards and a whole host of variations, it is common for one piece of kit to work well with some and not others.

Philips player have always been what they are, as has been said a compromise of price and quality.I suspect they fail due to being in cabinets and making them too hot/little Johnny and his sticky fingers all over the tray / discs etc and simply rough handling, they are fragile.

[MOVIEGEEK]

It's not what brand is on the chassis but who makes the video processor and circuit board inside.When HD DVD was still alive the Toshiba XA2 and Onkyo 805 had the same exact video processor and circuit board but the Toshiba cost 40% less.

[samijubal]

Those Toshiba HD-DVD players were also famous for problems because of Toshiba's cheap build quality on most of the products they make. You get what you pay for.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Those Toshiba HD-DVD players were also famous for problems because of Toshiba's cheap build quality on most of the products they make. You get what you pay for.

Thanks for the laugh,all of my Toshiba products run great(including my Toshiba laptop I'm writing this post on).

[samijubal]

I've worked on electronics for many years, it's not a laugh, it's a fact.

[GreggD]

The movie in question has no copy guard as it's a Public Domain movie, just Region 2. Thanks for the advice.

And you are 100% certain that there is no Macrovision on it because ...? Such discs do exist, but they are quite rare. I'd like to know what hard evidence you have that there is no Macrovision on it other than just assuming that it doesn't exist because the film is in the public domain.

Nobody seems to have touched on my suggestion that you're not going to be able to do what you propose in copying disc to disc via recorder. It's your money, but I'd suggest that you be certain this will work before you spend the money to do it. And I still think you're, ahem, not making a wise decision is buying a DVD player simply to try copy one disc for someone else, but that's your money to spend. And if your friend is some girl you're trying to impress, don't be surprised if all this effort means essentially nothing to her and she doesn't bother to watch the disc at all for a long time, despite what you did to get it to her.

I have a program that scans a disc & tell you if the disc has copy protection or not. I'm thinking about upgrading players anyway since the one I have is about 3 years old.