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Inexpensive solution for those wanting to view PAL DVDs in NTSC-land

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I've seen a few posts from people wanting NTSC conversions of some of the PAL produced projects so they don't have to watch the DVDs on their computers. Here's a relatively inexpensive solution that has worked for me these past few years.

I recommend the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300 for playing PAL formatted discs in NTSC-land. It's readily available at Best Buy or Walmart either instore or online usually for $40 or less. I've had one for a few years and, although it's not my main player, it certainly does the job well for the price. It can be easily hacked to play any DVD regardless of it's region code and also properly sizes the aspect ratio of anamorphic widescreen PAL DVDs. I have even use it to convert PAL content to NTSC for my own DVD releases.

Just thought I'd share.
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I can vouch for this player as well. I have one and, being away at college, it is my main player right now. There have been very few discs that it hasn't played without flaw, of any sort, and I've played PAL and reigons 1, 2 and 4 without issue.

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I'll third that - that thing will play anything! If you're dead set on an NTSC disc, though, you can download AviSynth and use Citizen's conversion scripts to make a quick, easy and good-looking conversion.
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or you can get the OPPO digital upconvert DVD player,this thing is awesome
DJ
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I think i need to pic this up. I drive me nuts when studios will release one movie on DVD in PAL but not in NTSC and crap like that
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Just wanted to bump this up because the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300 is also readily available at Walmart. I've updated the first post with that info.
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another good one is radioshack's version. aspire digital AD-N820B. i won it at work and the thing plays everything.

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I saw the Cyberhome 300 at Fry's, and was this close to buying it. How does it do with DivX/XviD/MPEG4?

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Most of your cheap DVD players will play PAL discs. That's the way it is. I've used ones from Akai, Coby ...

There's one from Phillips which plays AVIs well ....
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There's also the Phillips 642 which does PAL NTSC conversion, butit also plays DivX Mp4 files.
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Most of your cheap DVD players will play PAL discs. That's the way it is. I've used ones from Akai, Coby ...

There's one from Phillips which plays AVIs well ....


Yes. Many will, but I've had a few that did not do the anamorphic PAL to NTSC conversion properly. The Cyberhome for sure does that.
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Originally posted by: Harlock415
There's also the Phillips 642 which does PAL NTSC conversion, butit also plays DivX Mp4 files.


That is one I have, LOVE IT!! Until I get my HTPC up and running that is!
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This is kinda turning into a player love-fest, to which I'll add:

I've got an LG LDA-530. I don't know if it's available in the US, but it can be found at Future Shop here in Canada. The 'regular' price seems to be about $100, but it comes on sale now and again for as low as $79.99. I actually talked the sales guy down to $89, bought it, and then when it went on sale a week later for $79, I went and got the difference back.

It has played everything I've tested:

DVD-R, DVD+R, CD-R
MP3, DivX, Xvid, VCD, SVCD
PAL, NTSC
SRT, TXT soft subtitle formats

And, with a quick patch:

R2 PAL, R2 NTSC

It can't do DivX HR, but I think there's only one or two players that can, and they're a lot more unavailable and expensive.

Oh, and there's also a third-party firmware that fixes a few things and makes the subs look nicer (Google 'lg 9900' maybe? This player's available almost everywhere in Europe and South America under some 99xx model name.)

I've recommended this player to four people from work. Three bought one immediately and all of them love it. One is wavering, and will almost certainly get one when I tell him I only have the whole first season of The Office (UK and US) as DivX!

There's a more-expensive version (the LDA-531) that adds HDMI out and internal scaling, but since I've got a pretty bare-bones TV (for now), I don't need to spend another $100 for that.