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In search of THE DVD player!

Im currently looking for a DVD player that plays VCD/XVCD/SVCD/DVD-R/DVD-RW, thats region free, thats has progressive scan, and that can take a PAL movie and convert the ouput signal to NTSC so I can watch the movie in color with the screen centered on my NTSC TV!

I found one that has it all except region free...its the Apez AD-800( http://www.apexdigitalinc.com/html/AD_800.html )
Is there a way to put a chip in it to make it region free?And if yes will the chip affect visual quality?

Does anyone know any Standalone player thats meets all my requierements??????


PS: Ur opinion on the AD-800 would also be very appreciated (Ive seen reviews that said it suked ...but I think this is THE place to review a DVD player!

u should be able to hack it so its region-free, check the www.nerd-out.com fourms or VCDHelp DVD Hack section for that info

tx!

wait wait wait...
DO NOT GO WITH THAT APEX

go with a 1100 or 1500 or 100, definately. If they says its not region free they are. if they really arent you can check out www.vcdhelp.com, they have all the hacks right there

APEX 4 LIFE

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"I love the Power Glove. Its so bad."

I couldnt find any region free hack for this dvd player..
someone prove me wrong........Please!

The Yukai/Mustek-520 is a great little player for XSVCD's

Costs about £90 here in UK and plays XSVCD's with 720x576 6000kbps, wont play high res Mpeg1 though.

Also converts NTSC to Pal and vice versa, and plays SVCD's encoded at 23.97fps, so no pulldown needed.

No the greatest pic for DVD playback, but thats what my Toshiba DVD player is for and i imagine most others have a proper DVD player too.

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Don't knock it if its free, if you could do better why are you downloading it

Redemption, i checked this dvd player ( http://www.mustek.com/html/prod_img/v520/index.html )
and in the specs it only sais
Video System NTSC/PAL
which means it reads NTSC/PAL discs!
but maybe im wrong!

Did U ever convert the signal from PAL to NTSC?

My Yukai broke down after putting an svcd in to it, it just turned of and never went on again .

I have played svcd´s on it a lot of times before, but but..

apex rules

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Jesus fucking christ my sig was huge so Dwaggy replaced it with this message

the apex 1500 is a great unit. im actually on my second one (first one had some power problems, wouldnt fully turn on) but it works good. the remote is a piece of shit tho.

ive heard the 1600 plays dvdr/dvdrw but that they took out s/x/vcd support in the later productions of it. not sure if its true, worked at a electronic store and heard the rumors.

pioneer dv-525

had it for 3-4 years, not a single problem. plays vcd/svcd/xsvcd/xvcd/dvd-r/blah.blah.blah

haven't tested region-free since anything outside region 1 i might get would be in svcd.format

I bought a new Yukai now, costed abot 2000 sek, 200 $ in Sweden.

Has played EVERYTHING i ever put in to it, and it is small and beautiful .

After I used the hack on my AD-1000 (Apex), it was region free (checked it), Macrovision free (taped off it), plays VCD, SVCD, XVCD, DVD+R, and DVD+RW. I haven't checked if it can play DVD-R, DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM, so I can't comment on those. I don't think they make um anymore, haven't looked, but if they do, get one, they're only like 40 or 50 bux. They look like shit, but play everything, and you can upgrade the firmware/background shot.

Perfect in my book.

I got a AD-3201 also, and it has component video hookups, as well as Optical outs for audio, but haven't really pushed it any. SO I don't know if it can play burnt DVD's. I'll let ya know.

my ge 1101 plays everything i put into it... and i only payed 100... isn't buy what you can afford then realizing it has more capabilities than you originally needed, but need later on... isn't that a great thing?

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What do you get when you cross an owl, with a bungee cord? My Ass.

the yamakawa dvd-218 is what you are looking for. i have one, and it plays everything. just one thing tho. the dye on the cd-r must be dark. the darker the dye, the better it reads the disc. if the dye is a light green like most cd-r's, you will get alot of artifacts on the screen. but if its a dark green, almost blue, then it plays flawlessly, with a few blotches, maybe 2 or 3.

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going by the jpg, i will take a little dull video over the last release anyday.

im mainly looking for a dvd player that converts a PAL signal to NTSC internally.I dont care if it reads everything!

Apex 1500, with bios hack... enough said.
(Region Free and Macrovision Removed)

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"I love the Power Glove. Its so bad."

Me too

I'm looking for a new player too.

I had an Apex AD-5131 (nice for VCDs because it had a multidisc tray), and was fairly satisfied with it. Then I got something up my butt about wanting to flash it, but it wasn't flashable, so I exchanged it for a newer AD-5131 one that had flashable firmware - now I've lost VCD support...doh.

Is Apex dropping VCD support across the board?

Can anybody recommend a player with multidisc capabilities, that supports all VCD types?

Thanks.

Get a tv that can play both formats

Sure my apex 1500 converts pal both svcd and vcd to NTSC
but you get a distortion of the picture.

its get flatten and if you go the other way around from ntsc to pal the picture get stretched out.

If dont download pal anymore if i can avoid it.
It depends on how picky a person is to watch it.

My zenntih DVC2550 which does not play vcd or svcd and does not play cd-rs just crapped out on me. Im looking for a dvd player that supports VCD, SVCD, and cd-r and/or cd-rw

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I'd say that the Pioneer 535 is possibly one of the best dvd players ever, has played everything i've ever thrown at it - if you can find one second hand, grab it...

looking forward to the new divx/xvid dvd players too, although i don't quite like the fact that they are based around sigma's chips - the robbing swines!

-D

NextBase

I have NextBase dvd player... its pretty cool, and plays EVERYTHING i throw at it... i got it from Frys electronics for like 50 bucks, on the box it only says dvd/vcd/mp3/cd-rw but it plays much more than that =) Grab it if you can, its a good buy.

http://www.nextbase.com/dvd/xd921a/index.php

I just bought an APEX-1600 for my buddy for 69$ and it lists
Plays DVD-VCD-SVCD-CD-CD/R-CD/RW-HDCD
Microsoft Windows Media Player
JPEG Compatible
KODAK Picture CD Compatible
MP3

I wanted him to have a player in his little game room so we could pop in mp3 dics of movies I burned or whatever to have on the 2nd tv while we play Madden - If this player has problems I will most definitely be on here letting everone know about it !

i've been hearin rumors that apex is droppin vcd support fully with the newer models....is that tru?

Yes , APEX is dropping VCD support on the current models [ but not SVCD ] .
-- DGP --

Dont know if you are in the UK.

Naiko 2081 from Safeway at £60.00.

Multi-Region out of the box, PAL-NTSC & NTSC-PAL converter, plays everything.... only thing it doesnt do is Macrovision free.

i've got a mintek 1600. it seems to play everything, not sure about region or dvd-r. i had a pioneer dv-333 and it sucked ass. it played vcd/svcd for a while, but then it just started crapping out. eventually it wouldnt even turn on and fire started shooting out of it. whatever you do, don't get a pioneer. cheaper models, mintek, apex seem to perform better.

Sampo DVE-631cf is a great unit.
Plays everything that you put in. Plus more.
MP3 display of more than 20 characters so no more of those short names.
Plays raw vob's and mpgs - plays Pal DVD's on NTSC tv (but if you have NTSC TV anamorphic PAL DVD's wqill be stretched to full screen and you have to manually adjust picture).
It has Compact Flash card slot to view pictures from your digital camera.
And you can install HD inside to store your MP3's or other files in it.
really amazing
check www.area450.com for more info

Ok, now that everyone and their mom has recommended the cheapo player that they are using, go to www.vcdhelp.com and check the player compatibility list and the reviews over there. (All of this information has already been compiled over there)

fwiw, I picked up an Apex 1500, used the hack from the nerdout.com pages, and am able to play VCDs and SVCDs just fine.