Frustration

[chickenfeet]

The list of movie and TV titles that are only available as Region 2 DVDs is beginning to bug me. The three that bug me most are Virgin Spring, Delicatessen and A Dance to the Music of Time. I think a multi-region DVD player may be necessary at some point.

Comments

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

A lot of them are hackable, particularly it seems the cheap ones. Not sure whether our expensive surround sound one is, but if not the £30 Pacific ones at Asda are! I know we saw Pacific ones in Target or somewhere like that when we were in the uS so I assume they're available in Canada too!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Mine isn't hackable. The trouble is what I really want is a good quality, progressive scan player that is region free and can replace the Denon I am currently using. I don't think having an additional cheap player for non-region 1 discs would make sense. I would just get frustrated with the quality.

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

Ah, we have a collection of crap TVs, so quality isn't a huge issue. Maybe when we get a decent one we'll start noticing! Actually, our best TV is my old 20", currently not connected at all, though it needs degaussing. We have a 14" that detunes itself after 30 minutes and a 28" widescreen inherited from the ILs that is OK some of the time and washed out the rest of the time.

Hmmm, scrub that our best TV is the_muttster's computer monitor. That has a great picture :)

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

Excuse the blethering, I'm avoiding heavy yard work!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately (in this context only) my DVD player feeds a 61" HD rear projection TV and a very good 6.1 channel sound system so putting a crap front end in doesn't make sense. I managed to find one good quality easily hackable player (from Neuston) but the buggers have gone and discontinued it.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Ooooo, Delicatessen. That one should come with every DVD player sold!

[nikkyb.livejournal.com]

You could also just play them on your computer ... and connect your computer to your TV.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Its an option but probably only viable if I put in some sort of media hub. A composite AV output running over 40 feet of cable is probably going to look awful.

[nikkyb.livejournal.com]

Does your DVD player play DVD-RWs?
It's not too hard to rip a DVD to your computer and then reburn it to another DVD. By doing that you lose all the region information.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

No, nor do I have a DVD burner. My current player will play VCDs but not SVCDs so that is not really an option. I am thinking that maybe the best option is something like the Neuston Virtuoso Digital Media Center. That could be hooked up to the TV and the apartment ethernet with minimum fuss and then any content from either of the Macs could be made available on the home theatre. Right now though I don't see any distributor in Canada.