Page 1 of Best Sub-£200 DVD Player

Basically what I want to know is what is the best budget player in terms of quality, reliablity, etc. The player also, as a neccessity, needs to be region-hackable so I can play my R1 DVDs. As a nice possible bonus I would like the Macrovision to be able to be remotely disabled (if this is possible).

I would really appreciate any comments you have to give. Thank you.

Well this questions been asked many times before u might wanna check the history of this forum...

But overall the Wharfedale M5 (tescoes) is a good dvd player, cyber player from Whsmith and also the Scan SC200 is a great sub 200 quid dvd player.

I have the Scan DVD player(scan.co.uk), and macro is turned off and works 100% fine, also all regions are there and it does everything perfectly cant ague really.

The Wharfedale M5 and Cyber DVD player may not do Macro disabeling though...

Cyberhome 512 does have Macro off, as long as you have version 9.8 of the firmware (a "downgrade" from the supplied firmware) - you don`t need to buy the disc from Richer at £20 - download the disc image from http://www.cyberhome-help.de/fadm2512_english.php4 - burn it onto a CDR and you`re away!
As far as quality is concerned, the 512 is the only DVD player I`ve owned/seen, so difficult to comment, but seems good. I only have a few discs, but it flies through discs like The Matrix, which I understand has been a problem with certain players (or maybe the disc is sorted now...?)
Sound quality when playing CDs through hifi not as good as dedicated cd player (but I have a decent one to compare with), but for films it sounds good.

Many people rave about the Toshiba sound and video quality -you can get the 210 from Richer multi region for under £200. I looked into it, but the multi region seemed a bit limited - I think if you have a R1 RCE disc, you have to put a non RCE R1 in first.... I`m sure there are some people out there who are better informed than me... Anyway, Macrovision isn`t disabled on the Tosh, however, I`m sure you`ve seen mention of the Sonel external macro remover in this forum.

This item was edited on Monday, 6th August 2001, 07:31

Try the Ariston 2000 at £160 from Richer Sounds. It`s a heavily underrated machine.
It`s multiregional, disables macrovision, and can tackle RCE.

Only Optical Digital and SCART. No S-Video.