Region Free/Hackable Upconvert dvd players out there?

[speeddmon]

Ok so I've been through 3 different dvd upconvert players in as many days. I want a dvd player that will play pal/ntsc dvds as well as dual layer movies. I started off with the samsung dvd-c500. It plays pal fine without a hack needed but it stalls out on burned dual layer movies. It plays studio dual layer movies fine. So I tried the sony sr5100h and it played dual layer fine but won't play pal and there is no hack for it. So now I am down to the philips dvp2880 which already region free. I still entered the region code anyway and when I put in a pal dvd I get "mode not supported" error on my tv. My tv is a samsung plasma about 3 to 4 years old. Like I said I played pal dvds fine on the samsung upconvert but get an error on the philips. Anyone know why?
Also if anyone knows of a player that will suit my needs please let me know. I'm at my wits end and may just end up with a blu ray and dvd player to play all my dvds. Thanks in advance.

[hech54]

Once you or a MOD decides where you want to have this conversation, the answer is still the same:
This has ZERO to do with "dual layer" playability.....either your D/L discs are crap or your burning software to make them was crap.

Use better discs or burning software......and if your Philips doesn't spit out a PAL DVD, then look for a PAL to NTSC conversion
setting in the Philips. Your TV is obviously NTSC ONLY.
Home Burned DVDs are already Region Free.

[jman98]

You can stop putting "upconvert" in everything you write. It's pretty irrelevant as I'm not sure that anybody even makes a player any more that won't upconvert.

Samsung TVs sold in North America do not support PAL video - period. It would seem that your Samsung DVD player by some miracle converted the video to NTSC. As hech54 points out, we're assuming you are in an NTSC country. Most DVD players that can convert between PAL and NTSC, which includes Philips, are usually set by default to a "same in, same out" type mode where PAL input goes out as PAL output. You'll need to go to the setup menu and set the video output explicitly to NTSC. It's very likely in a mode called either MULTI or ANY and those do the "same in, same out" stuff you don't want.

Buying a BluRay player will certainly not solve your PAL/region problem and in fact will be even more unlikely to work than what you have now. It's almost impossible to unlock BluRay players for different region playback, even if just for DVD, and BluRay players almost never convert. Honestly, it's getting so difficult now to find region free DVD and BluRay players that we're just recommending people buy them from sellers like
http://www.220-electronics.com
http://www.world-import.com
and similar sellers.

[hech54]

I THINK he means separate Blu Ray and DVD players. That's how I would do it anyway.
I don't have anything Blu Ray yet....

[speeddmon]

Once you or a MOD decides where you want to have this conversation, the answer is still the same:
This has ZERO to do with "dual layer" playability.....either your D/L discs are crap or your burning software to make them was crap.

Use better discs or burning software......and if your Philips doesn't spit out a PAL DVD, then look for a PAL to NTSC conversion
setting in the Philips. Your TV is obviously NTSC ONLY.
Home Burned DVDs are already Region Free.

My dual layer discs play fine on my tv/dvd combo in my bedroom and only gave me problems on the samsung dvd-c500. After researching I found that I wasn't the only one having the issue with that player. Other people complained of the same thing whether it was a dual layer dvd or not so it's not crap software of discs. As previously stated they played fine on the sony and philips player as well. So the same issues I had with the samsung disappeared.

[speeddmon]

You can stop putting "upconvert" in everything you write. It's pretty irrelevant as I'm not sure that anybody even makes a player any more that won't upconvert.

Samsung TVs sold in North America do not support PAL video - period. It would seem that your Samsung DVD player by some miracle converted the video to NTSC. As hech54 points out, we're assuming you are in an NTSC country. Most DVD players that can convert between PAL and NTSC, which includes Philips, are usually set by default to a "same in, same out" type mode where PAL input goes out as PAL output. You'll need to go to the setup menu and set the video output explicitly to NTSC. It's very likely in a mode called either MULTI or ANY and those do the "same in, same out" stuff you don't want.

Buying a BluRay player will certainly not solve your PAL/region problem and in fact will be even more unlikely to work than what you have now. It's almost impossible to unlock BluRay players for different region playback, even if just for DVD, and BluRay players almost never convert. Honestly, it's getting so difficult now to find region free DVD and BluRay players that we're just recommending people buy them from sellers like
http://www.220-electronics.com
http://www.world-import.com
and similar sellers.

Actually they still do make regular dvd players so since it's upconvert I was asking about I will continue to use it. I am in America so it's a NTSC tv and I hadn't run into the mode not supported issue until I used the philips player. Sony just gave their unable to play message for the pal and the samsung plays them fine. So it looks like I will just have to use 2 different players to solve my issue. The bluray to play everything but pal and the dvd to play only pal movies. I was just looking for something that will do everything but it seems like either the tv or dvd won't cooperate fully on that issue. Thanks for the information.

[jman98]

Did you even read what I wrote? Or did you turn off your mind when you saw that it was more than 2 sentences long? I wonder why I even bother.

I told you in my 2nd paragraph what you can do that may fix your problem with the Philips player. And I told you in the 3rd paragraph why buying a 2nd player isn't likely to help, but message received loud and clear that you don't want answers that take more than a couple of sentences, so not much we can do to help you here. Best of luck.

[speeddmon]

Did you even read what I wrote? Or did you turn off your mind when you saw that it was more than 2 sentences long? I wonder why I even bother.

I told you in my 2nd paragraph what you can do that may fix your problem with the Philips player. And I told you in the 3rd paragraph why buying a 2nd player isn't likely to help, but message received loud and clear that you don't want answers that take more than a couple of sentences, so not much we can do to help you here. Best of luck.

I wonder why you even bothered as well. Obviously just to see your self type. I read through your reply and I changed the settings and it still didn't work. I already found the answer for my problem so like I said before thanks for your information but if you're going to be a pompous ass when replying to someone's inquiry I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.

[Krispy Kritter]

"Upconverting" isn't a huge deal anymore. Any current TV will do it on it's own anyway, as that is how they work. Even when buying a DVD player specifically for this function, the TV may have superior hardware and perform the function better. You will need to test to verify.

[usually_quiet]

Actually they still do make regular dvd players so since it's upconvert I was asking about I will continue to use it. I am in America so it's a NTSC tv and I hadn't run into the mode not supported issue until I used the philips player. Sony just gave their unable to play message for the pal and the samsung plays them fine. So it looks like I will just have to use 2 different players to solve my issue. The bluray to play everything but pal and the dvd to play only pal movies. I was just looking for something that will do everything but it seems like either the tv or dvd won't cooperate fully on that issue. Thanks for the information.

A Blu-Ray player may not be able to play everything. Some can't play both PAL and NTSC material or if they do, they cant convert from PAL to NTSC for use with an NTSC only TV.

A specialty retailer like http://www.220-electronics.com or http://www.world-import.com will provide that information in the listing for their modded players.

If you buy a Blu-Ray player from a regular store, the only way to find out if the player can play PAL and convert to NTSC may be through testing with region-free discs. However, the player itself won't be region free and it probably won't be possible for you to change that yourself. LG might be a brand to look at. I bought an LG BP220 for my parents a couple of years ago that plays PAL DVDs and converts to NTSC, as long as the DVD is region-free, but I didn't know that until later when I tested it. I don't know if it plays and converts "PAL" spec Blu-Ray discs that are region-free. I have nothing to test with. This Seiki model is the only one I have heard of that can be made region-free with a hack, although I don't know if it converts: http://www.sears.com/seiki-u-vision-blu-ray-disk-player/p-05737800000P

As others already told you:

Don't worry about upconverting. All Blu-Ray players that play DVDs have that ability. If a DVD player doesn't upconvert, your TV will do a reasonable job.

Some Philips DVD players only play NTSC as NTSC and PAL as PAL, Some others can convert from PAL to NTSC, based on a setting.