I am looking for a good-quality region-switchable DVD player. I used to have a Norcent, but it died rather quickly. So now I am looking for a reliable one, even if it is US$200 or more. It wasn’t image quality that bothered me at the Norcent player, I had no complaints there, so I am not looking for an improvement there, but in reliability.

From what I understand, there are two ways to obtain a region-free DVD player: 1) you can buy one from one of the few specialized vendors 2) you buy one for which a hack exists that lets you change the region.

It seems to me that 1 is safer in that it is done by professionals and better-quality players are available. I am not sure, but I think in some cases the remote control is modified to let you change regions easily. Can you recommend such a vendor? I found several:

http://www.regionfreedvd.net/
http://buyersguide.bargainoffers.com/region_free_dvd_guide.shtml
http://www.codefreedvd.com/
http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?loadfile=catalog86_0.html
http://www.world-import.com/dvd.htm
http://www.dvdcity.com/
http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/
http://www.zonefreedvd.com/, http://www.220-electronics.com/
http://www.barrel-of-monkeys.com/


The downside of 1 is that I have to order from a store that I cannot visit in person. So, among the DVD players for which hacks are available (for switching the region, not for just setting the region to 0), which are the best quality?

I live in North America and I only have a NTSC TV set, not a multisystem, so I am looking for a player that also performs the conversion from PAL to NTSC.

Thank you very much