DVD Player

[JimKlein]

Does anyone know where I can get a DVD player, either online or local to play DVD's from China?

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

[owenkrout]

You can find one here: http://www.palelectronics.com/secindex.htm

 

And for only $75! Pal Electronics has been around for a long time, being a catalog order company before the web came along.

 

For those who don't know. You need a "Code Free" or "All Region" player because most DVDs are encoded according to the area that they are to be sold in and most players sold in the US will only play code (or region) 1 disks. In China you get disks from many regions. Hong Kong is a seperate region from the mainland. Also you get a number or region "0" or "All" disks which may or may not play on a region "1" player from the US.

[tonado]

Check out this DVD forum. DVD forum here

 

Most of the DVDs from China are pirated copies. They can be played in most DVD players. Avoid RCA brand because they have problems loading disks. Apex makes good inexpensive DVD player. I recently bought a Go-Video DVD/VHS combo player which seems to work pretty well.

[tonyuab]

most of DVDs from China are ALL-region which means it should play on any DVD player. in some cases, it's in either region 3 or 6. I would suggest you to buy an fancy one. go to http://www.i118.com/electron/

 

so far, this is the best one i've seen.

[TimD]

So how good is a Chinese bootleg DVD? Can you hear and see the audience? We bought one of the new Jackie Chan VCDs last time I was in Nanjing and during the whole movie you could hear the audience talking and laughing and the sound was like it was coming out of a tunnel.

[owenkrout]

You learn who to buy from for one thing. Some vendors have a lousy product, others tend to have good quality.

 

Here in Shenyang certain vendors are selling the rejects from the legit. factory that have minor defects. Probably disks that have been returned in the more expensive places. An occassional skip or slightly under par sound, the "extras" don't play properly, things like that.

 

It is a bit of a gamble. I have paid 20 RMB and got an obvious rip off where you could see the audience's heads. I have paid 5 RMB and got a first quality disk and everything in between. Occassionally you get one that just doesn't work. Normally the vendor will deny that you bought it from them, but occassionally a vendor that recognizes you as a return customer will exchange it for another disk.

 

I have one street vendor that I use and a couple of shops. I paid 20 RMB to get a good copy of "Brother Where Art Thou?" at the better of the two shops last week because it was one that I really wanted and I wanted it to be right.

[TimD]

I'll put this on my To Do list once I get there, to find a good VCD vendor...though most places we've bought VCDs have let us test them first in their players....same thing for CDs.

 

We needed some music for our wedding last time I was there and went into a shop and picked out two CDs. Lucky for us the one that had our first dance song skipped and the tune wasn't even sung by the origional artist....kind of comical really, we just gave them a big "Bu xie xie" and were on our way.

 

How good are the DVDs you get there. I haven't bought any there yet. Is the quality as good as our real deal DVDs here or is it the same as the VCDs?

[tonado]

I'll put this on my To Do list once I get there, to find a good VCD vendor...though most places we've bought VCDs have let us test them first in their players....same thing for CDs.

 

We needed some music for our wedding last time I was there and went into a shop and picked out two CDs. Lucky for us the one that had our first dance song skipped and the tune wasn't even sung by the origional artist....kind of comical really, we just gave them a big "Bu xie xie" and were on our way.

 

How good are the DVDs you get there. I haven't bought any there yet. Is the quality as good as our real deal DVDs here or is it the same as the VCDs?

I don't buy VCDs anymore. The DVDs in China are very good. I bought a bunch of them and left them in China for my gals. She is watching the movies to learn English.

[tonado]

You learn who to buy from for one thing.  Some vendors have a lousy product, others tend to have good quality. 

 

Here in Shenyang certain vendors are selling the rejects from the legit. factory that have minor defects. Probably disks that have been returned in the more expensive places.  An occassional skip or slightly under par sound, the "extras" don't play properly, things like that.

 

It is a bit of a gamble.  I have paid 20 RMB and got an obvious rip off where you could see the audience's heads.  I have paid 5 RMB and got a first quality disk and everything in between.  Occassionally you get one that just doesn't work.  Normally the vendor will deny that you bought it from them, but occassionally a vendor that recognizes you as a return customer will exchange it for another disk.

 

I have one street vendor that I use and a couple of shops.  I paid 20 RMB to get a good copy of "Brother Where Art Thou?" at the better of the two shops last week because it was one that I really wanted and I wanted it to be right.

20 rmb for a ridoff DVD. I have paid only 8 rmb for nice DVDs in Nanning and Guangzhou.

[Calvin]

The fake copies can be found for around 7-8 rmb, but legit ones cost twice as much. Always test them out before buying them.

[owenkrout]

No, you misunderstood what I was saying. I was pointing out that you never know for sure what you are getting. I meant that I have paid 20 RMB for what was supposed to be a legit DVD only to find out when I got home that it was an obvious rip-off. On the other hand, I have bought many for 5-7 RMB that turned out to be very good quality. I have gotten everything in between. I recently bought several from a shop where the PSB squad was just finishing their check of the shelves and one officer was actually taking a break sitting next to the check-out counter when I left. This place is legitimate, I figured. Wrong. Most of the disks purchased there were junk. Some were even mislabled. The best thing to do is find a good vendor and stick with them.

 

Testing them doesn't always help. Sometimes they are fine except for a flaw in one spot on the disk. That could be anywhere on the disk, but due to the way the disks work, it is more likely to occur at the end of the movie. The shops I use most of the time recognize me and will allow me to exchange a movie as long as I am discrete about it so other customers don't know they are doing it.