I have a Pioneer DV-444. It seems everyone wants to have sold me a multiregion version. I already have the player, so that's useless.

Can't find anyone selling mod chips, anyone know of someone?

Greetings!

Even if you get the region issues sorted out, you still have to worry about the video format (NTSC vs. PAL). For this reason, I have my computer's DVD software rigged for region 2 (it can handle the PAL signal), while my regular video DVD is region 1.

That reminds me. I am rather frustrated that the new Wallace and Gromit shorts are only available in the US as Windows Media downloads (license protected, of course...) from Atom Films, while a DVD is being released in the UK. They will not even sell the DVD to anyone in the US.

Is there anyone in the UK who would be willing to have a paypal balance sent their way to cover a preorder, shipping and handling?

Right, I forgot about that.

I have a DVD burner, but I suppose at this point unless I resort to Windows, and possibly even then, transcoding to NTSC will be a pain.

I found this pretty informative. It looks like it should be a lot easier to convert from PAL to NTSC, but also that DVD's typically store the data as a universal 24fps stream and use header bits to tell the player how to convert it to PAL or NTSC.

http://www.divx.com/support/guides/guide.php?gid=11

Well, the thing that concerns me is actually figuring out how to deal with menus and the like. I'd prefer to convert to a NTSC DVD and be done with it, instead of playing games with SVCD.

There may be something of interest for you here.

Also, the Pioneers in my local store (Hong Kong) all seem to be NTSC/PAL capable out of the box, even the very basic ones. Maybe you will get a pleasant surprise when you try it. Or is it your TV that is monolingual ?

Regards

Mark

It's the TV that sucks.

Ah. So you need a $30 player mod, and new 42" plasma TV ? Something for Santa's extra wide sack ?

Or maybe an external signal convertor ? I think these run $250-ish.

Regards

Mark

Have a look at http://www.dvdupgrade.ch

4 of my dvd players have this guys mods (although I didn't fit any of them myself).

Hi

most Pioneer DVD players will output ntsc as a PAL signal if you tell it to. Theres a button ypu press on start-up and you can select how you want ntsc to be outputed - as ntsc or pal. Mine does, and plays all dvds.

Happen to know which button? I don't remember seeing that. I suppose I can research later...

I'll have a look when i get home in couple of hours.

ok, home now...

With the player in standby, hold down >> >>| then press standby/on to switch the tv system.

The TV system changes as follows:

Auto --> NTSC
NTSC --> PAL
PAL --> AUTO

The players display shows the new setting.

Hope this works on your player!
Phil

I'll try it Saturday (I'm 300+ miles from my player)

Thanks!