Purchased June 29^th, 2002

When my Panasonic A-300 DVD player died, I weighed up my purchasing options. After doing my research, I purchased the Daewoo 5800. It does PAL<> NTSC conversions internally, has component video & DTS audio, and can play MP3 discs I purchased the player from my local Sam's Club store for $90, plus $5 for a 1 year warranty.

Out of the box, the 5800 is a Region 1 player. However, after inputting a set of commands through the remote, the unit was soon changed to an all-region player. After hooking it up to the TV, I played a few discs. The first 2 discs I played paused for about 10 seconds each, then resumed. It has not occurred on any discs after those, and playing those same discs again did not produce the pause. I'm putting it down to the components being a bit stiff, but I'll watch for it again. Picture is great. I thought there was an audio issue, as 2 of my PAL discs had volume levels which fluctuated during playback. However, after changing one of the Audio settings in the Setup menu, the discs played back beautifully (Anthony Warlow makes for a good sound check). Speaking of the Setup menus, there are options to change the Audio, Video, parental locks etc. In the Video sub-menu, you can choose either NTSC, which will force all discs to output in NTSC, or MULTI, which will output the signal in the discs native format. The player is also auto-voltage (110 - 240v).

There is an upgrade that you can do to this player which will add a PAL option to the menu (forcing all discs to output PAL) & all disable the macrovision. I hooked up the player to my SV-5000W & played a disc that stated that it was macrovision enabled. The picture was fine. I thought this meant that I did not need to do the upgrade. However, I found that while the picture is fine while WATCHING it through the VCR, the minute I went to RECORD with it, the Macrovision cut in. I have since done the upgrade & now I can copy DVD's onto VHS for my kids to watch. For information on the region remote hack, plus details on the PAL / No Macrovision upgrade, click here.

There is one thing this player will NOT do & that is correctly convert an Enhanced (Anamorphic) Widescreen PAL disc to NTSC. It stretches the picture. This is a flaw within the chipsets of some players. However, I have 2 ways I can get around it: I can watch it through the SV-5000W which WILL do the conversion correctly, or select "Wide" mode on my TV, which simulates wide screen mode.

For $90, this is a great little unit that will enable me to watch all my discs. Highly recommended.

Purchased Oct 2003

I bought this as a player for my children I got it at Target for just over $60. I had read where it could be made region-free with some remote keystrokes & was also multi-voltage. It does PAL<> NTSC conversions internally, has component video & DTS audio, and can play MP3 discs

Out of the box, the 5200S is a Region 1 player. However, after inputting a set of commands through the remote, the unit was soon changed to an all-region player. After hooking it up to the TV, I played a few discs. The 3 discs I tried (Region 1, 4 & all) all played flawlessly. Picture is good (I have only hooked it up through AV connectors).

NOTE: There are supposedly 2 batches of these players available & they each use a separate set of keystrokes to make it region-free.

METHOD 1:

First press "SETUP"

Then press IN ORDER:

"1"

"3"

"6"

"9"

"LEFT"

"LEFT"

"LEFT"

"RIGHT"

Then a new menu item called VERSION will appear as the 4th topic on your SET UP menu. Use the Down arrow and select by pressing Play. Now you can set the region code "0" for code free or each region number by pressing the Right arrow key. Then exit to the main page and your selection will be set.

METHOD 2:

Open tray

Press 13790 (watch for x's in upper left of the screen)

Close tray

The last digit "0" is for bypass.

(I used the first hack on my machine, but if one doesn't work, try the other).

UPDATE 04/13/2004 - I have had a few discs lock up on this machine. The Extras disk of Start Trek III has a lot of problems. The Lion King 1 1/2 also had a few instances where the machine would pause for about 15 seconds, then resumes playing at the later spot on the disc.

UPDATE 08/13/2004 - This player's playback progressively got worse & worse. I eventually gave up & sold it for parts.

Purchased approx. April 2004

I have been looking for a home theater system for a while, but anything decent was going to cost $$$. One day a friend showed me his new home theater system - the Samsung HT-DB120. Nice & compact, it has a built in AM/FM radio, 5 speakers plus a subwoofer, built in DVD with DTS decoding. And he only paid $200 for it. After fixing his wiring connections for him (the center was connected as a rear surround - made for some interesting effects!!), I played Air Force One. It was pretty nice. Not window shattering loud, but it did kick it. I did some research over the next few days to see what this unit was all about. I found that it could be made region free & playback PAL DVD's. So I printed out the instructions, went back to my friends house with Air Force One & my PAL version of "The Dish". I asked if he minded & he said OK. I entered the key sequence & tried AFO to see that, at the very least, I hadn't screwed up his Region 1 playback. Still loaded OK. I then swapped it for The Dish. It took a bit longer to load & I thought "Damn" Then it kicked in with the Village Roadshow logo & loaded the menu. WOOHOO!!! I started playing the movie & noticed that Sam Neill's character was about 7'6" tall. I went into his setup & found he had it set to Letterbox format. A quick change back to 4:3 & the picture was perfect. So off to Best Buy & $200 later, there I was with my first home theater.

The unit is a slim but fairly hefty unit. Each speaker & speaker wire is color coded, so it was relatively easy to connect everything up. Also, they have wisely given ample wire for the surrounds to reach a back wall.

It has DTS & Dolby Digital decoding on board - an excellent feature at this price level.

This has performed wonderfully. No, it won't compete with a system that costs '000's of dollars. But for $200 - an awesome buy.

Purchased approx. Oct 2002

My vote for the "value for money DVD player" is the Norcent DP 300. I previously had a Cyberhome which was good but stopped playing DVDs (CDs worked fine) and the support eMail I got back means I wont be buying that brand again. The DP 300 is a tiny, full featured DVD player which can be "region free hacked". (Be aware - there are a few different versions of this player. If you are going to hack to make it region free, please read this message thread before you do anything).

I have it connected to a Sony 27" Wega and have been watching Black Adder, Dr Who and Lord of the Rings Part 1 all in Aussie format. Sound is great on my Sony 5.1 home theater system; as good as the DVD player that came with the system.

The only negative for me is the remote control (cheap and has a short range). Note that it does not have a front panel display. This was fine for me, as its going into the bedroom.

I just bought the Daewoo S151, and I finally got it working (it was operator error). It is a really compact unit, which I like, and it played my US-formatted DVD just fine. Because this is the first multi-region player I've ever had, I don't actually own any PAL DVDs. But I have a friend nearby (hint hint) who owns the Kath and Kim DVDs (hint) who might let me give them a go on the new player (HINT!!!!!!). Course I may have to return the aussie CD's she loaned me first, and I'm not ready to part with them, LOL. And shoot, for $40, I'd probably keep this player even if it DOESN'T play the aussie ones.

I found (this player) at "The Brick", the "Real Canadian Superstore" Canadian Tire for $49.95. It may be available in the USA. The beauty is it works with 120 or 240V. Features include: DIVX compatible, Memory Stick/SD/MMC compatible, USB 2.0 port, built in AC-3 decoder, 5.1 ch. output, YUV/COAX/OPTICAL output, 10 bit video encoding, 96khz/24 bit audio DAV transfer, compatible with DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW/VCD/SVCD/CD/MP3/HDCD/CD-R/CD-RW/CD+R/CD+RW/Jpeg. Full Karaoke function, PAL/NTSC playback, selectable screen aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9), 120V and 240 V. I put in my Hoges DVD's and it worked fine on my NTSC TV set.  I even got the region codes changed to all region: "open tray, enter 9735 to access region settings". I was pleased to have found this.

Purchased for $70.00 from Comp USA (although other retailers stock it too). This player will play DVD's, VCD's, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD's and MP3 files on CD-R(W).  According to the manual DVDs must be labeled for ALL regions or Region 1 (USA) in order to play on this player, yet after entering a code (turn the unit on, thenon the remote press 7 8 9 then OK then 0) it allowed me to play Region 4 (AUS) no problem at all. My parents sent me DVDs of home movies from Australia and it plays them no problems too.....not to mention burned copies of Region 4 movies, that previously had to be viewed on a PC.  Ease of use is another bonus with this player for those of us who are technically challenged. All in all, for the price, this is a decent player that allows you to watch a little bit of home.

Purchased approx. June 2001

'I find it to be excellent. I am not one of these people who notices the difference between VCR and DVD (for example), but I do watch a fair amount of TV and I find the picture the same as everything else. I have several tapes from home - Brides Of Christ and The Games on tape and they all work very well. I have had no problems with chewed tape. I bought mine new from Etronics.com for (I think) $395 + shipping'.

'I own a Samsung SV-5000W and love it. You can plug an Australian (hence PAL) video camera into it and it will CONVERT it so you can watch your recordings and it will also record to a VHS tape.'
Quality of PAL to NTSC Conversion - 'When watching a pre-recorded PAL tape (like a movie that you've bought), the image is clear and pretty much normal. The occasional tape will be a little jittery (like the tracking is a smidge off), similar to when you've had a tape for a while and it starts getting worn out. Blank tapes with stuff recorded on them depends greatly on the tape. e.g. a tape sent to me of the State of Origin seemed VERY jittery, like it needed tracking or the tape was old. From afar you didn't really notice, but after watching for a while, it was a similar effect to looking at a computer monitor with a bad refresh rate. Now, this may not be the case with ALL blank tape recordings because I don't know if it was a brand new tape or one which had already been recorded on. It was still very watchable, but all the same it was noticeable.'
'I purchased it online at a site which has since changed it's name and is now called Etronics.com. I had a trouble free sale, but I'm not sure if the company only changed name or whether the company itself changed hands, so I cannot say whether the shopping experience will be the same now'.

(ED NOTE: This VCR had stopped functioning at one point. It was taken to a repair shop on Thursday, diagnosed on Friday & fixed by Saturday. Repair was 3 capacitors in the power supply. Total repair was $65. There was a $30 diagnosis charge, which was taken off if repairs were done. Karen reports that the service was prompt & pleasant. They answered calls & e-mails within a decent time frame. The company is

Rex Service Company
730 W. 111th Street
Worth, IL 60482

Tel 708-448-5558
Fax 708-448-7396
800# 800-HI REX TV
EMAIL doug@rexservice.com).

I ordered my VCR from Etronics.com ($377 inc. shipping). The day it arrived, I could not get to unbox it until late in the evening. I plugged the coax cable from my satellite box into the VCR & from the VCR to the TV. I turned it all on & ... nothing. I unplugged & replugged, I went through the instruction book 3 times & still there was no picture. I then connected the Video & Audio outs to my TV. SUCCESS!! I now had the VCR menu. Turns out that, when they get delivered from the factory, the menu setting for RF OUT is set to OFF, meaning no signal through the coax. I turned the setting to ON, tuned the TV to the channel & reconnected the satellite box. SUCCESS AGAIN!!

The picture is as clear as you would hope from a VCR. The rewind & FF speed is fairly good. The remote is good, but it only controls the VCR - no option to control other equipment. Input format is automatically selected (but can be overridden if needed). Output format is selected via buttons on the front of the unit, or by the remote.

Overall, I am pleased with the units operation (once you get past the tricky setup). So far, I have found a things that bug me a little & one fault that I had:

1 - I must have the VCR on to watch my satellite TV. There is no passthrough of signal when off.

2 - The on screen display only stays on screen for about 5 seconds. Annoying when I'm rewinding a tape to a certain spot.

3 - When the machine is turned off & back on, the display on the VCR defaults to the channel, even if the clock was the last thing showing.

4 - Because the RF connectors are not the standard screw-on connectors (they are slide on, like in Aus), the cables are a bit loose. Use the Video/audio out of possible.

5 - This thing runs HOT!!!! Make sure nothing is on top of the unit.

Fault - This unit stopped playing tapes after about 4 months. I got it repaired - blown transistors.

But I bought it to convert my PAL videos & DVD's & this it seems to do very well.

I would recommend Etronics.com. Their price was the best, it was delivered on time, and in good condition.

PAL tapes work great converting to NTSC (American TV format). I bought it from www.DVDoverseas.com Total cost shipping & everything was $394.00. The VCR arrived two days later overwrapped and in excellent condition. VCR was from Samsung U.S.A. with appropriate guarantee and warranty documents. Have found out that some other sites with lower prices are actually shipping gray market devices without the proper documents.

Equipment:
Panasonic A300 DVD
Samsung SV-5000W VCR (reviewed above)
RCA P46291 46" NTSC TV
John Farnham 33 1/3 DVD - PAL Format
The Main Event DVD - PAL Format

(NOTE: I initially did some of these tests using Karen in IL's VCR, to help me decide if it would do the job I wanted it to do. I thank her & hubby Serge for the use of their equipment).

I connected the composite Video of the DVD to the Line In Video & stereo Audio to the Line In Audio connections of the VCR.

I inserted DVD of John Farnham 33 1/3. The VCR auto detected a PAL input & I selected NTSC output on the VCR. The picture appeared sharp with only a hint of flicker on the menu screen. I pressed play & the first song clip played. I was amazed at the quality of the conversion. There was no discernable flicker at all in the picture. It played in it natural widescreen format & colours were great. All tones appeared to be correct. I then selected the documentary on the disc. Turns out that this is in B&W anyway, so colour testing was not an issue.

I then tested The Main Event. Again, all conversions took place & the concert began. Colours were again good, but the flicker was more noticeable in this one, particularly in the crowd scenes, where there were just white dots on a black background. But as we're supposed to be watching John, Olivia & Anthony, the good news is that the flicker was barely there - certainly not enough to distract from watching.