Region 2 DVD Players
When I was in the UK a couple of weeks back I picked up the DVD of BBC’s “The Office.” Anyone who’s read this blog more than once knows of my love for this BBC program. So far only the first series of “The Office” has been shown in the states with no word on when the second and final series will be played. Good news, for me, is that the second series of “The Office” on DVD is to be released in Britain this October.
For those of you who don’t know, every DVD has programmed into it a region code. The United States and Canada are region 1. England is region 2. And so on. A DVD player purchased in the States will play region 1 DVDs, but not region 2. The DVD of “The Office” I bought is region 2 format and would not play on my 4 year old DVD player. So, it was time to do some shopping.
![[Daewoo S150]](http://www.jonahweiland.com/images/daewoos150.jpg)
When I got back to the states I checked out eBay to see if there were any affordable multi-region (also known as region-free) DVD players available. Just a few years ago production model multi-region DVD players were quite expensive. There were a few cheaper models - including one from Apex that became quite popular - that could be modified somewhat easily, but often times they’d have troubles playing certain PAL format discs. On eBay I found numerous multi-region players available at a very affordable price. I decided to pick up the Korean made Daewoo S150. At a closing price of $49, I felt I couldn’t go wrong.
From what I can tell the Daewoo S150 was designed to be used in multiple regions around the world to support multiple formats, but it’s not shipped region free, but programmed for the specific region it’s being shipped to. It came with a manual that included english instructions and has english menuing. It works perfectly fine with my system and is in fact leagues better than my five+ year old, $200 DVD player I had been using. The Daewoo supports VCD, DVD-R, CDR, MP3s (with a nifty playback menu system), etc … all formats that my old DVD player did not support. It plays my US DVDs just fine as well as the single Region 2 DVD I own. The player was shipped in Region 1 playback mode, but by typing in a very simple code with the remote control, a “hidden” menu was revealed that allowed me to choose what region I’d like the player to be. I chose “region free” so I don’t have to change it ever again.
The only drawbacks to this player is that it doesn’t have any sort of display on the front of the player and the remote control must be pretty much right in front of the DVD player to work. Not having a display isn’t a big deal for me as it’s only really useful for CD playback, which I rarely do. As for the remote, I simply programmed my Sony Commander universal remote and that works just fine. Another plus to this DVD player is it’s half the size of my old DVD player. If you like all your equipment to be the same size width wise, then you won’t like this player, but seeing as how most of my equipment is odd sized (my TiVo box is smaller than my Amp or VCR), it doesn’t bother me at all.
The sound quality seems just fine, at least in league with my old player. While I have a nice sound system set-up, my amp is five years old and doesn’t have all the surround sound digital bells and whistles you’ll find on new systems. That being said, I played a couple of CDs and DVDs loudly the other day and everything sounded crystal clear. Also, the video playback is actually a bit better than my old DVD player. I compared the film “Run Lola Run” on my old DVD player to the new Daewoo and it’s actually quite a bit crisper on the new machine.
Now, you ask, why would you go out and buy a multi-region DVD player for only one DVD? Well, I’m not stopping with just one. Rich Johnston gave me a laundry list of British television series I need to check out and I’ve already got one disc on order. These are all programs that will NEVER be made available in the states and may not even air, even on BBC America. Plus, often times movies and US Television programs are released on DVD in the UK well before the US. Good examples of this are the TV show “The West Wing.” The first two seasons are available in the UK on DVD, but it’s no where near being released in the US. The movie “28 Days Later,” which hasn’t even opened in the US yet, is just now available on DVD in the UK (I’m considering ordering this based on the positive reviews). “Bowling for Columbine” is another example, yet it will be available in the states in a few short months.
If you’re a big time DVD file then you probably should look into a region free DVD player. If you’re looking for an affordable player, I’m quite satisfied with my Daewoo S-150.
