My current DVD player is a Sony, and was the latest and greatest hometheater thing back in 2002.
These days it is showing it’s limitations. No MP3 playback, No CD-R playback, no options to select NTSC or PAL output (which means half my DVDs are not usable on the crappy TW TV).
Any recommendations for a new DVD player? Is it worth considering a DVD recorder/player?
Thanks to the gurus out there.
Truant
I’m no guru, but if you have a crappy TW TV it won’t matter if the player has PAL output if the TV isn’t NTSC/PAL compatible. My player has NTSC/PAL output but the TV doesn’t have PAL, so all you get is a very noisy and unstable b/w picture with sound.
Wrong, WRONG, WRONG!!!
Either you’re not doing it right, or your player’s fecked, Sandman (I answered this in another thread, but you never replied, so I thought you had got it working).
Anton, I recommend you get one which also plays DivX. I’m in EXACTLY the same boat as you (WOuldn’t be surprised if we have the same player, from the sounds of yours).
As for recorders, well, if you can stretch to it, why not?
EDIT: Here you go, Sandman… forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=46617
OK Stu,
are you up for buying a new one at some point? Recorder would be ideal.
We can compare notes if you like.
(not that I have any notes yet)
[quote=“Truant”]OK Stu,
are you up for buying a new one at some point? Recorder would be ideal.
We can compare notes if you like.
(not that I have any notes yet)
[/quote]
Well, not that I’ll be buying one anytime soon (I made a thing so I can see the PAL on my TV now), although you know I like to look round the shops 
.
I meant to say, another important factor if finding one that will be easy to… erm… “set up”… you know… for those other regions, like.
Oh yes, that goes without saying. I actually have several regions on DVD, all legitimately bought when I was living in one place or another, so if I don’t find a player I can set up correctly, I’ll never be able to watch them.
I was looking at the recorders in Costco a while ago, but at the time the price seemed a bit behind the times I thought.
The problem I find with Taiwan, is it is difficult to find a model they sell here that has info on the web.(i.e available in other places)
I would recommend holding on for a bit till the Blu-vs-HD settles down. Maybe a 3 month or so.
Or you could get you a PSIII. Blu-ray and games in one. Easy to set up. HDTV ready. (get the higher lvl one)
But I would never realy recommend one, I’m getting a Wii.
I can not see a reason to have recording on the DVD player. That’s what the computer PVR is for.
I meant to add… There are two types of recorders, one has a hard drive and one records straight to DVD (no hard drive). At least some (probably all) of the hard drive ones can also transfer to a DVD if you so desire.
HDD would be the way to go. I wonder if anyone has got a TIVO to work in Taiwan…
I did a bit of research today at a 3C and online, and the match that seems to reflect an excellent DVD recorder that is available in Taiwan in the Philips DVDR 560H, which is a 160g HDD DVD recorder.
One thing I need to check out before I go ahead, is the ability to convert this machine to region free, for when I take it back home, not to mention the DVDs from regions other than Asia that I have previously bought. Any clues where to find the info?
The Pioneer 490V and 696AV should be coming out soonish. They both play Divx, upconvert DVDs to 1080i and/or 720p resolution, and should be region-free-able. The latter is supposed to be under NT$10k, the former considerably less.