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DVD Regions - Any Workaround?

Hi. I was wondering whether it would be possible to tweak my DVD player so that it can play DVDs from Europe. I live in California and I own a Pioneer Elite DV09 DVD player. I find that there are a number of British titles (mainly British TV shows) that I'd like to have, but they aren't available in the US. I can source the titles from Amazon.co.uk, but I need to be able to play them. I'd value any advice on any fix anyone is aware of to get around the region restriction. Thanks!!
John.
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rwwear
2,867 posts
 
You can buy the mod from one of the websites that I gave you and do it yourself or send it to them and let them do it.
bubba966
4 posts
 
Keep in mind that if you get your DV-09 modded for region free, or region selectable playback that you still won't ba able to watch European discs on almost all US monitors. The European discs are PAL formatted, not NTSC formatted. So you'll have to get a video standards converter. Tenlab makes some great converters.

I've got a Pioneer DV-333 that's been modded for region selection, as well as a Tenlab standards converter for PAL DVD's. Works great. And Amazon.co.uk is great for UK discs. Can't say the same for Amazon.com though.
rwwear
2,867 posts
 
The Sampo that I bought has the Pal, NTSC converter built in. They are the same machines that Sharp sells. Of course, Sharp covers up the button to switch between PAL and NTSC on the remote. Some people have drilled a hole in the remote to access the button. You can download and flash the Sharp unit with a CDR and make it codefree also.
bubba966
4 posts
 
Though the Sampo doesn't do nearly as good of a job as a standalone standards converter does. Or a converter in a world wide VCR. I believe that the Sampo also has the same problem converting 16:9 transfers that other built-in converter players have.

If he's wanting to get the highest quality playback, the standalone is the best way to go.
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