Canuck DVD player to England...HELP!!??

[Lonsman]

Hmmm.... I want to bring an LDA-830 (from LG) to England to give to a friend.
Aside from installing the region-free hack (which works flawlessly) and getting an electrical adapter,
is there anything that might inhibit this unit from running in the world of PAL??
Any help or comments would be sincerely appreciated.
Thank you!!

[hech54]

IMO...it's simply NOT worth the hassle. The power adapter alone(if necessary - you may just need to replace the cable) would be worth more than the player. Europe is not in the stone ages. You can easily find a comparably priced player here that can do the same exact thing as the one you want to bring that requires no power conversion, can also easily be hacked to region free, is virtually guaranteed to easily play NTSC and PAL discs from anywhere in the world, and can probably do a "true conversion - on the fly" between NTSC and PAL if necessary.

[jman98]

It's an incredibly bad idea to use this player full time with an adapter. You'll need what's called a "step down converter" to convert European power to work with a Canadian DVD player. The step down converter will generate heat as part of the process of stepping down the electricity. Step down converters aren't really meant to be used for hours at a time because they generate heat. You can do it, but it's not recommended. If your LG player has a switch that can convert it from North American power to European, then you would just need to use a plug converter and that's OK for long time use. Most DVD players can't do this, but I've seen a few that can. I also need to warn you that it can be surprisingly easy for DVD players to get damaged on shipment overseas. About 4 years ago I got the bright idea of trying to do what you propose (my player did have a switch to put it on European power) as a gift for my girlfriend and my player got damaged somehow in my carry on luggage. I ended up just buying her a player there and it didn't cost much more than I paid in the USA. I had no idea it was possible to buy region free players in her country, but it was. Learn from my ignorance.

As hech54 so well put it, Europe is not in the stone ages and there is no reason at all to do this. In fact, I can promise you that it's much easier to find region free players in Europe than North America.

[hech54]

I can promise you that it's much easier to find region free players in Europe than North America.

Bite your tongue!!!!

[Lonsman]

OK. I appreciate this. But what's IMO??

IMO...it's simply NOT worth the hassle. The power adapter alone(if necessary - you may just need to replace the cable) would be worth more than the player. Europe is not in the stone ages. You can easily find a comparably priced player here that can do the same exact thing as the one you want to bring that requires no power conversion, can also easily be hacked to region free, is virtually guaranteed to easily play NTSC and PAL discs from anywhere in the world, and can probably do a "true conversion - on the fly" between NTSC and PAL if necessary.

[hech54]

In My Opinion

[Lonsman]

Grateful for this, but here's the issue: I wanted to bring my friend an LG LDA-830, a model that is less sophisticated (no HD, which isn't needed) than the very expensive model LG model available in the UK. Mainly to use with AVI/DIVX files.
Thing is, I've tested pretty much all the reasonably-priced players (avail. in NA) and this one has the most flexibility; It will play almost any AVI or MPEG file, burn/read to dvd-r and +r and the on-screen menu will display more than 30 characters per title, all very useful. Also, exceptional picture quality. The only one comparable in picture quality is a low-end Toshiba, only 25-30 quid in the UK, which is reasonable. But--ony 15 character display, apparently must only burn to dvd-r (not a terrible limitation, but)...If anyone can recommend an extremely veratile divx player avail. in the UK, would be much appreciated!! Thank you all!!

It's an incredibly bad idea to use this player full time with an adapter. You'll need what's called a "step down converter" to convert European power to work with a Canadian DVD player. The step down converter will generate heat as part of the process of stepping down the electricity. Step down converters aren't really meant to be used for hours at a time because they generate heat. You can do it, but it's not recommended. If your LG player has a switch that can convert it from North American power to European, then you would just need to use a plug converter and that's OK for long time use. Most DVD players can't do this, but I've seen a few that can. I also need to warn you that it can be surprisingly easy for DVD players to get damaged on shipment overseas. About 4 years ago I got the bright idea of trying to do what you propose (my player did have a switch to put it on European power) as a gift for my girlfriend and my player got damaged somehow in my carry on luggage. I ended up just buying her a player there and it didn't cost much more than I paid in the USA. I had no idea it was possible to buy region free players in her country, but it was. Learn from my ignorance.

As hech54 so well put it, Europe is not in the stone ages and there is no reason at all to do this. In fact, I can promise you that it's much easier to find region free players in Europe than North America.

[MJ]

I understand your fustration. IMO, there are only two DVD players that do DIVX well and that is the Oppo 980 and LG 830/831. It's interesting that the LG's are only available in Canada.

That being said, I'm not sure if the 830 is worth it since it lacks HDMI and a USB port, which the 831 has.

Jeff

[victoriabears]

I have bought so much gear from the UK, its works fine on 110 and mostly handles PAL and NTSC.

Buy most stuff in Nort America and it only works on 110 and plays NTSC, very frustrating and take the advice, buy one in the UK.

[Lonsman]

I have bought so much gear from the UK, its works fine on 110 and mostly handles PAL and NTSC.

Buy most stuff in Nort America and it only works on 110 and plays NTSC, very frustrating and take the advice, buy one in the UK.

Well, I don't know. I've been investigating and a lot of people say no problem with running the player on an upconverter for a long period. That's what people who change continents do. They don't swap all their electronics (stereo, computers, vcrs, dvd players); they just use upconverters (or downconverters, if coming to N.A.) and nobody has reported problems. Upconverters and downconverters can be had very inexpensivley these days.

[Lonsman]

I understand your fustration. IMO, there are only two DVD players that do DIVX well and that is the Oppo 980 and LG 830/831. It's interesting that the LG's are only available in Canada.

That being said, I'm not sure if the 830 is worth it since it lacks HDMI and a USB port, which the 831 has.

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff. Don't really need teh HDMI, but wasn't aware of the USB port...hmmm...
I'll also look into the Oppo 980
Cheers!