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  • DVD players

    One thing I can not fathom out is while DVD players are kind of inexpensive, they don't last very well. Picked up my 3rd DVD player which is a Magnavox this past weekend for about $38 from Sam's Club to replace a 2 year old Koss DVD player.

    I remember my first DVD player cost about $150 but that was in 1999 or so.

  • #2
    Re: DVD players

    We've had Curtis Mathes DVD players we bought in Christmas of 2001 and
    they are still working fine. What exactly went wrong with the DVD player ?
    Some brands are lousy like Samsung...
    Check out my blog on Kona issues :
    The Kona Blog

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    • #3
      Re: DVD players

      I was watching The Longest Day and every 2 or 3 minutes the player would pause the movie and then continue on. About 40 minutes into the movie the player stopped. It wasn't the first time this player stop while playing a movie but it never did it as this frequencey of stopage. I figured the player had it so I decided to buy a new one.

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      • #4
        Re: DVD players

        probably doesn't matter to you but if you were to get a dvd player like this one (philips) for around $50 or $60 (free shipping) from amazon, you can use a hack to make it region free so that you can watch dvds from any country vs. most dvd players which allow you to only watch region 1 dvds, from the u.s.

        http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...onics&n=507846

        just thought i'd mention it.

        (my old apex <also region free> has been running trouble free for about 4 years now so maybe you've just been unlucky?)
        525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

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        • #5
          Re: DVD players

          Are there other brands of region free DVD players readily available in the U.S. and/or Hawaii?
          I'm still here. Are you?

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          • #6
            Re: DVD players

            hi mel,

            my impression is that if you buy region free dvd players, they'll make you pay bigger bucks than buying a "simple" dvd player with known ways for hacking it so that it then becomes a region free player.

            later tonight, i'll look for the site that has that info. cool site. simple hacks. basically, just clicking a number of buttons on your remote in precisely the correct manner and presto, it's now a region free player. worked on my old apex and now on my philips player. my wife's from japan and she can watch her japanese dvds and i can watch u.s. stuff on the players.
            525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: DVD players

              I found these posts to be very informative, as I did not know that DVD players were programmed by region, i.e., US DVD players only programmed to play US DVDs, but not Japan DVDs. Not that I've ever attempted to play a non-USA DVD on a DVD player here in the US. What is the thinking behind the regional settings on the DVDs that prohibit specific DVDs from not being played?

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              • #8
                Re: DVD players

                I am aware about the region restrictions on the DVD players and on the disc themselves. As to why, I have no idea. Then again the places I go to buy DVDs now (in this case Costco, Tower Records, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club) seem to sell region 1 DVD which is for North America.

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                • #9
                  Re: DVD players and other stuff

                  hi. sorry i didn't post this earlier but got busy.

                  check this out:
                  http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...hilips+DVP+642

                  the site in general is awesome. a lot of info on how to hack stuff. my philips was successfully hacked just using that page (link above). just press a few buttons in order and viola! region free.

                  keep in mind that not all dvd players can be hacked.

                  as for buying region free players, sure you can. in general, my impression is that they charge more but some prices seem okay. i don't know anything about these sites but i'm just putting them here so you can see for yourself:

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

                  http://www.220-electronics.com/google.htm

                  now why do they do it? beats me. seems pretty stupid. it's like, how frustrating would it be if music cds could only be played on some players?!?! stupid.
                  525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: DVD players

                    If people stopped pirating DVDs these restrictions imposed on DVDs would
                    not be necessary in my opinion. Just imagine you invest 100 million or more on a
                    film you want to protect that investment.
                    Check out my blog on Kona issues :
                    The Kona Blog

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: DVD players

                      queries:
                      What is "region", and why would it have anything to do with DVD technolgy?
                      also, anyone have a succinct explanation of the difference of
                      DVD-R and DVD+R?

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                      • #12
                        Re: DVD players

                        http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.10

                        http://www.videohelp.com/dvd
                        Check out my blog on Kona issues :
                        The Kona Blog

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                        • #13
                          Re: DVD players


                          cool. mahalos!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            to aaron

                            hi aaron. you may be right, but i don't get your logic. you wrote: If people stopped pirating DVDs these restrictions imposed on DVDs would not be necessary in my opinion. Just imagine you invest 100 million or more on a film you want to protect that investment.

                            how is that related to dvd players being unable to play dvds from other regions? if someone in the u.s. can make a copy of a dvd that's meant to be played only on u.s. players, how is that protecting the dvd from being copied?

                            my serious guess is that it's due to the age old problem of things being developed in various places by various companies and no standard being set. everyone's hoping that their gizmo will be successful and become the standard... remember vhs vs. beta? beta was better but vhs won in the end. sad....
                            525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: DVD players

                              I was referring more to the copy protections imposed on DVDs and the illogical
                              DMCA -Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Anyway to answer your question this
                              FAQ might better explain it better than I can :

                              http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.10

                              Motion picture studios want to control the home release of movies in different countries because theater releases aren't simultaneous (a movie may come out on video in the U.S. when it's just hitting screens in Europe). Also, studios sell distribution rights to different foreign distributors and would like to guarantee an exclusive market. Therefore they required that the DVD standard include codes to prevent playback of certain discs in certain geographical regions. Each player is given a code for the region in which it's sold. The player will refuse to play discs that are not coded for its region. This means that a disc bought in one country may not play on a player bought in another country. Some people believe that region codes are an illegal restraint of trade, but no legal cases have established this.
                              Check out my blog on Kona issues :
                              The Kona Blog

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