Well, I finally broke down and bought it

[Calhoun07]

In the same week my rent was due, my car broke down and needed to be fixed, I managed to scrape up enough money for a Malata region free DVD player.

I ordered it on Tuesday after much deliberation (the fact that an earlier modle sold out quickly was much of my motivation, and the fact I was willing to spend a hundred dollars or so on a new DVD player that could play VCDs, I thought this wouldn't really be that bad for me) and I had it overnighted (only fifteen dollars!). So I am hoping it will come tomorrow. I was hoping it would arrive today, but apparently they mail packages out noon the day after you order them.

[BlackCat]

Did you already have a previous DVD player or is this your first?

[joshualane]

That's fantastic Calhoun, enjoy it! Do you know what you're first other-Region DVD purchase is going to be?

[Matt Hazuda]

Aren't all DVD player capable of playing VCDs? At least I thought they were

[Joe Wagner]

Originally posted by MDawg957
Aren't all DVD player capable of playing VCDs? At least I thought they were

I think all of them are capable of playing the officially released VCD's but some DVD players aren't capable of playing VCD's that a person creates - this is mainly because of the coloration of the CD-R disc. I know that my Panasonic DVD player can't play CD-R's but my cheap $60 Apex plays them perfectly fine.

I know that I recently have started putting all of my Static Shock, Zeta Project and other toons onto VCD and have found my Apex player to be invaluable since then.

-Joe!

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Most modern DVD players today can play VCDs, but this was not always the case. A lot of the earlier players can't (older than 3 years, like my trusty-but-long-in-the-tooth Toshiba), but most players less than 3 years old can.

-- Ed/Ace

[Matt Hazuda]

Thanks for the info guys. When I bought my JVC player last November(thank you Best Buy preffered customer weekened ) that was one of the features mentioned, but I just tought it was a normnal thing.

[oranthal]

Originally posted by Calhoun07
In the same week my rent was due, my car broke down and needed to be fixed, I managed to scrape up enough money for a Malata region free DVD player.

I ordered it on Tuesday after much deliberation (the fact that an earlier modle sold out quickly was much of my motivation, and the fact I was willing to spend a hundred dollars or so on a new DVD player that could play VCDs, I thought this wouldn't really be that bad for me) and I had it overnighted (only fifteen dollars!). So I am hoping it will come tomorrow. I was hoping it would arrive today, but apparently they mail packages out noon the day after you order them.

i read somewhere that there are some DVD's have encoding on them that will not work on multi-region DVD players. they purposely do this so people won't buy DVD's from other regions.

[Calhoun07]

Originally posted by oranthal


i read somewhere that there are some DVD's have encoding on them that will not work on multi-region DVD players. they purposely do this so people won't buy DVD's from other regions.

The nice thing about Malata that I learned in reading up on players is that you set the region code to get around the RCE. My understanding from what I've read online at different sites is that a region free player may have trouble with RCE discs (region coding enhancement, what you're referring to) but a multi region DVD player can play DVDs from any region, including multi region RCE discs. (So in retrospect, my first post was slightly wrong, it's not a region free player, but a multi region player.) The Malata is set to be region free, but in the event you have an RCE disc, you can go in and select the region coding for that disc and play it just fine. Which is one more reason I decided to go with this player over all the other ones I checked out.

To answer some other questions, I already have two region 2 DVDs, Family Guy Season 1 and Help, I'm a Fish, but I will be buying Futurama once I get my DVD player!

And I already had a Toshiba, but wanted a new player to play VCDs and decided to invest a little more to get one that can play any kind of video disc.

And my Toshiba can't play VCDs. I tried with the Star Wars Holiday Special. I am looking forward to making VCDs on my computer, that's for sure!

[Matt Hazuda]

Is the player you got Calhoun capable of converting PAL to NTSC or did you have to buy a convertor box? I ask this because you said you have Family Guy, which I know is PAL, and since it'll probably never get a US release I may have to think about making an investment down the road to get my Family Guy and Futurama sweetness.

[Adam Tyner]

Toshiba players can handle VCDs, but not CD-R media. Because of that limitation, homebrewn VCDs won't work.

Yup, Mdawg, the Malata can convert PAL->NTSC. I'm kind of in a strange boat, as my portable DVD player (an Audiovox DVD-1500) can play both PAL and NTSC media, but it's locked to region 1. I can still play R0 PAL discs, but the material I'd want to play most -- R2/R4 box sets of TV series -- remains inaccessible. Since I already have five things in my apartment that play DVDs, I'm not really itching to add a sixth anytime soon.

[Matt Hazuda]

Should have just went to Calhoun's link to begin wiuth and save everyone the trouble of answering my questions . Anyone have a site or personal review of the player?

[finbarlafume]

If you're buying region 2 disks be sure to check out Amazon Germany as well as Amazon UK.
I've noticed that prices in Germany appear to be cheaper than the prices in the UK and Ireland, so I've been buying a lot of disks from there recently. ( The disks tend to be identical to the UK versions... just with German writing on the box )
A good example was the original V mini series.
The version on sale here was 25.99 Euro but the version on sale in Germany was just 14.99 Euro.
Plus, as the German prices are in Euro it'll be easier to work out how much they'll cost you as the dollar and Euro are pretty close in value. At the moment one Euro is worth about 98 US cents.

[oranthal]

Originally posted by Calhoun07


The nice thing about Malata that I learned in reading up on players is that you set the region code to get around the RCE. My understanding from what I've read online at different sites is that a region free player may have trouble with RCE discs (region coding enhancement, what you're referring to) but a multi region DVD player can play DVDs from any region, including multi region RCE discs. (So in retrospect, my first post was slightly wrong, it's not a region free player, but a multi region player.) The Malata is set to be region free, but in the event you have an RCE disc, you can go in and select the region coding for that disc and play it just fine. Which is one more reason I decided to go with this player over all the other ones I checked out.

ah. i didn't know that. i always thought that a region free player and multi-region player was interchangably.

[GL2k2]

All I gotta say is I gotta get me one of those.