Page 1 of Multi region player`s worthwhile ??

I`m in the market for a £200 DVD player and top of the list is the Toshiba SD210.

The cheaper ones on offer are region 2 but for a small premium the multi-region ones seem to be a good idea, i.e. allow me to get discs from the US, etc.

However, with the introduction of the enhanced regional coding (REC ???), will my multi-region player be effectively reduced to a region 2 player, or possibly worse, i.e. is struggles with *any* region with the REC coding ??

Apologies if this is a commonly asked question but a quick trawl through the messages didn`t really answer the point.

RCE (Region Coding Enhancement) protection has been around for a while, though only on region 1. Most multi-region players are advertised as being RCE compliant these days.

And just to clarify matters, RCE will only ever affect multi-region mods that attempt to determine the region automatically. If your player allows you to set the region manually, there`s no way on earth it can be defeated.

So don`t worry about it. Just buy a multi-region player with a mod (or hack) that offers manually selectable regions, and you`ll be fine!

Mike

Yes, buy multiregion!
R1 discs are often better produced available earlier and almost always cheaper. RCE apparently can cause some problems but I don`t think it`s as effective as the studios hoped it would be. I`ve not had any problems with my LG playing R1, but to be fair I only have 8 R1 discs, and I don`t know if any of them are RCE, that tells you something in itself though.
Good luck boyo.

This item was edited on Thursday, 8th November 2001, 19:25

Thanks chaps. Looks like I might be making a few calls at the weekend !!

My feeling is, if it has a remote hack to make it multiregion you will always be OK, but if you are relying on "chipping", there could be problems with any future changes (as has happened to friends of mine with the occurence of RCE.)
Is this viewpoint sensible?

My understanding of Mike G`s response above was that I should look for a multi-region player that allows you to manually choose which region you want to use, either from the hand-set or some other method, i.e. don`t rely on one that does it automatically.

Or have I missed the point ?

No, you haven`t missed the point, Nick - that`s spot on.

There`s no distinction between remote hacks and chip mods when it comes to this issue. Whether you go for a chipped player or a remote hackable one, make sure you can select the region manually.

Mike

I sit corrected - thanks for clearing up my misconception on this point.