LifeOnEarth Attenborough Reg2 PAL

[loopstick]

We just got done watching all the Cosmos DVD's I bought many years ago from PBS. Now it's time for Life on Earth, by David Attenborough. PBS doesn't distribute this. The BBC does but only region 2 (and PAL I think):



Because it's standard shipping from overseas I still have a couple weeks to figure out how to deal with it. So these days what's the best way to deal with this. I'm not afraid to throw money at the problem. Right now all I have is a cheapie Magnavox BDP170MW8 which doesn't seem to be convertable. I have a decent HP Pavilion PC. The thrifts seem to have tons of DVD players. What are some good options? (I'm in region 1, NTSC/ATSC)?

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[Electronic M]

IIRC some of the cheap players have service menu options that allow them to play PAL discs in NTSC. There are some old threads here that explain it in more depth.

[jr_tech]

Some info here:
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=262500

jr

[loopstick]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Some info here:
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=262500

jr

I missed that thread. I did a google site:videokarma.org dvd region and missed it (should have used "PAL" instead of "region"). OK so AFAIK the DVD player I have now won't convert. So I'll be watching auctions, thrifts, etc for one that does. Plus I'll look into using PC to convert disk format. Thanks for all replies.

[loopstick]

I followed jr_tech's suggestion and maxhifi found a unit at London Drugs (Canada):

Viewing PAL DVD

Canada is not that far from here but it seemed the unit was out-of-stock everywhere. I figured British expats were the guys who would know so I did a lot of googling and found this (no affiliation):

Bombay Electronics: Region Free DVD Player w/ HDMI Output

And I bought this:

Pioneer DV-3022KV 1080p HDMI Upconverting Region Free DVD Player

The DVD arrived a few days ago:



It's region 2+4 colour PAL UK (region 4 = Australia):



Four disks, 13 episodes:



Most complaints about these conversion jobs is that although they play region 2 PAL fine they have trouble with region 1 (North America) so I put in a region 1 DVD for reference:



So far so good, now the Life On Earth region 2 PAL:



Attenborough talking about fossils in Lake Superior rocks:



The quality of the Menu slide (with the frog) was perfect but I did notice some small grains and VHS-like artifacts in the actual program. I don't think this is PAL-related, there have been similar observations from UK viewers. Here are some interesting comments about the less than optimal manner in which the DVD set was "mastered":

at least 8 generations of tape transfer

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