NTSC/PAL DVD players. Are they region free?

[Fstevens]

On Yamaha's Canada website there is a listing of Yamaha DVD players that have NTSC/PAL conversion.

http://www.yamaha.ca/av/DVD_Products.jsp?from=products

Does this mean they are Region free? Has anyone had any experience with these Yamaha players? I noticed that Best Buy carries one of the models (DVS5950B).

[mfabien]

Read all about Region codes in the following link. NTSC/PAL is another matter that may complicate things further (read page 2):

http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdl...gioncodesa.htm

[eljay]

Players that can play both NTSC and PAL formats are not necessarily region-free, but they can most often be made region-free quite easily.

In my recent quest for a new player, I sampled - and very easily freed the regions of - the following players:
- Yamaha DV-S5750
- Toshiba DVD-SD3990
- OPPO OPDV971H

I tested them out with a Region 2 / PAL DVD and was happy to see that they handled it very well.

[57]

The following site has pretty good information about both topics.

http://www.220giftcenter.com/dvd.htm

I cannot comment on the pricing.

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

As eljay mentioned, many players can be made region free. Just search the web for region free and the player model. Be aware that it could invalidate the warranty.

[Fstevens]

Originally Posted by eljay

Players that can play both NTSC and PAL formats are not necessarily region-free, but they can most often be made region-free quite easily.

In my recent quest for a new player, I sampled - and very easily freed the regions of - the following players:
- Yamaha DV-S5750
- Toshiba DVD-SD3990
- OPPO OPDV971H

I tested them out with a Region 2 / PAL DVD and was happy to see that they handled it very well.

Thank you for everyone's help. The links are a great help in understanding this. My sister who lives in Spain has brought me some DVD's (Region 2 & PAL) from Europe and obviously I would like to be able to play them. I don't mind purchasing a new DVD player to facilitate this.

Which of the above players did you like and how do you make it region free? Where are they available in my area?

Does my display, a four year old (Sony 60XBR800) have to be PAL ready or does the dvd player handle the entire conversion?

[eljay]

Which of the above players did you like...

Both the Yamaha and Toshiba worked fine, but I settled on the OPPO because it worked best with my TV.

...and how do you make it region free?

If there's a hack for the player you buy, it'll likely be posted here. If it isn't, just Google model # +region +hack (or something similar).

Does my display, a four year old (Sony 60XBR800) have to be PAL ready or does the dvd player handle the entire conversion?

You set the player to output NTSC regardless of the input format and it handles the rest.