DVD player compatibility PAL & DVD-9

[W_Harding]

Can anyone direct me to information on DVD players that will do PAL to NTSC conversion and play DVD-9 format discs?

Background: My wife's Coby DVD-224 player, which played all the weird Chinese format discs, died last week. She needs a replacement weird Chinese format DVD player with PAL to NTSC conversion capability. Although the Coby is still available, its reputation for reliability is very poor, so, I am not really eager to go that route again. It is my hope that someone on this forum will have some experience with the kind of player I need and give us some good advice. Thanks in advance for your helpful suggestions.

Bill

 

[Adam]

Hi, Bill. You have a few options. There are several players out there that will do what you want.

A quick look on Amazon found an inexpensive player from Philips, the DVP5140 for $48.

In addition, Oppo is a brand that gets good press around here (and everywhere that I've looked so far), and at least some of their players will do PAL to NTSC conversion. They cost more than that Philips, though.

Adam

 

[W_Harding]

Hi, Bill. You have a few options. There are several players out there that will do what you want.

Adam

Hi, Adam, Thank you for your quick response. I visited Circuit City this past weekend and saw several Philips players. One had a sticker on the box that read something to the effect “King of compatibility. Will play any disc.” I asked the salesman to hook it up to see if it would play DVD-9 discs. It would not recognize the disc at all. The information on the Amazon website says nothing about PAL / NTSC conversion.

I went to the OPPO website and found that all three players currently offered will do PAL / NTSC conversion, however, I do not know if they will handle the DVD-9 format or the CDV discs from China. I sent an e-mail this evening to OPPO asking about Chinese disc compatibility. I will let you all know what they say once I get a response.

Bill

 

[Adam]

Bill, the first customer review on Amazon for that Philips mentioned that it will do the conversion, and that's what I went on. I just checked Philips website, and the specs for that player do include PAL and NTSC. I'm not pushing that player! Just mentioning what I've found.

I bought an SDAT player a few years ago that worked great. I don't know if those are even offered anymore.

As for DVD-9, are you just referring to dual-layer discs? If so, I'm shocked that any player at Circuit City couldn't handle one. I believe you...I'm just shocked. Was the disc that you tried coded for a different region? That might explain it. The Philips that I mentioned apparently needs to be "hacked" (using the easy instructions found on the first customer review on the Amazon page) to make if region free. The ones on display at Circuit City almost surely haven't been hacked. You could always bring one home, try it out, and then return it to Circuit City if it doesn't play your discs or do the conversion. Just a thought.

Adam

 

[W_Harding]

As for DVD-9, are you just referring to dual-layer discs? If so, I'm shocked that any player at Circuit City couldn't handle one. I believe you...I'm just shocked. Was the disc that you tried coded for a different region? That might explain it. The Philips that I mentioned apparently needs to be "hacked" (using the easy instructions found on the first customer review on the Amazon page) to make if region free. The ones on display at Circuit City almost surely haven't been hacked. You could always bring one home, try it out, and then return it to Circuit City if it doesn't play your discs or do the conversion. Just a thought.

Adam

Adam,

Thanks for the additional information. The disc I tried at Circuit City was indeed a Chinese disc. You are probably right that the player was not set to be region-free which may then account for the inability of the player to recognize the disc. Yes, the DVD-9 I was referring to was a Chinese DVD-9 (dual layer) disc.

I did a little more research after reading your first post. The Philips DVP3140 as listed on the Amazon website does indicate that it will convert PAL to NTSC. The same player listed on the Circuit City website makes no mention of this capability and when I was in the store and inspected the box there was no mention of PAL / NTSC capability. I will check out the Philips website next.

Thanks again for your help.

Bill

 

[W_Harding]

Philips DVP3140 follow-up

This is a follow-up to my earlier posts. Adam, thanks for the tip on the Philips DVP3140.

I did end up purchasing a Philips DVP3140. I used the hack to unlock the player and make region-free. So, I then checked it out on a couple of the Chinese PAL DVD-9 discs and it seems to work just fine. I also used it to play CD music discs with very good results. The remote is compact, a little too compact in my opinion. The number keys in particular seem to be too small. The on unit display is rudimentary, but at least if has a display unlike the Coby DVD-224 that it replaced.

I had thought about buying another Coby player, however, since the warranty on the Coby is only 90 days compared to the Philips one year warranty, I decided to pay a little extra and get the Philips. In addition, the Coby DVD-224 has rather poor customer reviews on the Amazon.com website. The main problem seems to be reliability. In defense of the Coby, the one we owned lasted just a little over two years. Not too bad considering it only cost $19.00 plus tax.

Bottom line, the inexpensive ($39.95 at Circuit City) Philips DVP3140 will play Chinese DVD and CDV discs once the all region code is enabled. I hope that this post will be useful to someone else looking for an affordable all region player.

 

[jliedeka]

I guess you've got it figured out but I'll weigh in with another option in case someone else has this issue. My Oppo 981 does a great job with PAL discs. It can be unlocked for region free but I never needed to do that. I have a region 0 disc from England that plays better on my Oppo than my other region free player.

Jim

 

[W_Harding]

Oppo

jliedeka,

I did get a quick reply to my e-mail request for information from OPPO. Here is what their customer service said:

"These discs are supported through the DV-980H."

We ended up deciding to go with the $39 Philips rather than the $169 OPPO almost purely on the basis of cost. We did also consider that the system this player would be used in could not take advantage of any video or audio performance advantages that the OPPO may have over the Philips. If the Philips had not worked out, the OPPO would probably have been our next choice.

Bill

 

[Adam]

Bill,

As someone who paid $600 for a second-generation DVD player back in late 1997 from a specialty dealer, it absolutely blows me away what we can buy at the local store for $39 these days. I'm really glad that player worked out so well for you.

Adam

 

[W_Harding]

Adam,

Thanks again for your suggestion on the Philips player. It really narrowed down my search and saved me time.

… it absolutely blows me away what we can buy at the local store for $39 these days.

I work in the semiconductor industry and I am constantly surprised at the electronic equipment one can buy for so little money. Where is the profit? As electronics consumers, we sure have it good.

Bill

 

[allargon]

I'm glad the Philips player worked for you. The PAL to NTSC conversion is rare with name brand units but seems to be all the rage with cheaper units. One person mentioned that his $20 Wal-Mart RCA player did so as well. My theory on this is that the cheapest Chinese units are the same as the ones sold to the average Chinese person as well. Therefore the units need to be able to play PAL and NTSC discs, so a simple firmware switch is necessary to determine what to output. Again, that's just my theory.

Many mentioned the Oppo. The only Blu-Ray player that comes to mind that is able to perform such a feat is the LG BH200. It can easily be made region free as well as perform the PAL to 1080i/p60 conversion when upconverting. (I don't think it will do native 576i to 480i though.)