Blu-Ray player that can play all regions of DVD?

[Jeikobu]

In the future I want to buy a Blu-Ray player. I don't care about being able to play all-regions of Blu-Rays, because the only ones I think I'll be interested in are Japan and America, which have the same region. However, this is not true of Japanese and American DVDs, as I'm sure you all know. So, is there a Blu-Ray player that can play both region 1 and 2 DVDs? Also, would such a player come in standalone form as well as being available as a drive I could have in my computer?

[manono]

http://www.world-import.com/region_free_blu_ray_DVD_players.htm

[jman98]

A very cheap solution is to buy this player refurbished from Best Buy:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Insignia%26%23153%3B+-+Refurbished+Wi-Fi+Built-In+Blu-ray+...&skuId=2097354
Then go here and download and install the region free firmware for the NS-WBRDVD2:
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=190357

I personally did this and I confirm that it works. However, I want to warn you that the downgraded firmware does not like BD-R LTH media. As long as you avoid using that media or are willing to upgrade/downgrade your firmware as necessary depending on if you want region free or LTH to work, then you could do that. I can personally confirm that this player can play region 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 DVDs (I don't have region 6 DVDs to test but it should work) and region A and B BluRays (I don't have a region C BluRay to test with, but it should work). Finally, note that this player forgets the region free setting every time you power it off, so it resets to region 1 and region A. Keep the code handy so you can change it to another region as necessary. One more thing - I confirm PAL to NTSC conversion works fine. But this player will not play VCD or SVCD, which sucks a little bit.

[Jeikobu]

Thanks for the info. It concerns me though that that player has only a 2.3 of 5 star rating.

[jman98]

Thanks for the info. It concerns me though that that player has only a 2.3 of 5 star rating.

Beggars can't be choosers. If you want cheap and region free, you follow my advice. I you want to worry about the "star rating" then you either go to manono's link and pay a lot more or you live without region free. It's that simple. You want region free in the US/Canada then you take what you can get. There are not many options.

I'm not here to tell you that the Insignia is perfect. Not at all. But for a CHEAP region free player for BluRays and DVDs, it does what you want. There is one thing I had forgotten about that I will warn you about. I have an old Samsung LCD HDTV that's about 5-6 years old. My TV does have a true 1080p picture. However, it runs at 60 Hz. I have always had problems if I try to get 24p display working from BluRay players. Basically my TV won't display the picture. The Insignia is set up in a default mode where it automatically tries to detect the video output mode it uses and it tries to use 24p on my TV. This is bad on my TV. If you have an HDTV as old as mine, it may be bad for you. If you have one made 3 or fewer years ago, you'll probably be fine. I had to actually connect the player via component video and change the setting there to get it to work. Most home users would honestly have been unable to do that. Some of the bad reviews may have been from people with older TVs like me but they didn't know how to deal with it. Or as a refurb there is always some chance that they just got a bad one. It happens. The Insignia is not a plays anything type player and it's annoying that the region free firmware doesn't like BD-R LTH discs at all, but that's how it is for 50 bucks.