I live in North America and have a region 1 DVD player. I burn VCDs to CD-R using Dazzle and Adaptec hardware and software...when it comes to getting shows from the UK, am I better off to get PAL videos and convert them to CD-R and buy a DVD player that supports CD-R (I saw a beauty made by Panasonic...plays MP3 disks too), or should I get a DVD player that is region free and will play region 2 DVDs...(frankly, I'd rather buy DVDs than convert VHS to MPEG-1...I only like to do that with stuff that I have on VHS which is ultra rare and won't make it to disk anywhere)?

What do you think? Is there a player out there in North America that will play both CD-R and perform as a multi region/region free player? That's what I'd be after...in an ideal world. My TV, of course, is an NTSC TV...will that be a problem for playing region 2 disks in canada...even if played on a multi-region player?

Kind regards,

Richard.

-- Richard Landon (ramj@pacificcoast.net), July 13, 2001

Answers

If you live in Vancouver ot Toronto, go to chinatown and there you will find all region DVD player which can play CD-R, VCD in PAL or NTSC, MP3 and karaoke. The price is about CAN$350+. Or you can buy a VCD/SVCD/MP3/karaoke player (PAL/NTSC) for about CAN$119. Another option is buy a DVD player that can hacked to multiregion. You can check which one that works from www.vcdhelp.com DVD player section.

-- mr cdr (mrcdr@zzzzzzzzzzz.com), July 13, 2001.

There are is a distinction between players of that type to look out for: code-free (region 0), and true multi-region. A multi-region player will play any DVD without hitch; a code-free one may have problems with the new RCE (region 1) discs.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), July 19, 2001.