A few weeks ago I decided to spice things up in the bedroom and buy a cheapy DVD player. No, not for that. Who watches that on DVD anymore? It's all about the internet nowadays. Seriously, I just wanted to be able to watch an episode or two of "NewsRadio" before I turn in each night (it's comfort comedy), reading books be damned. Plus, it'd be nice to have on those sick days when I'm bedridden. But I digress.
I ended up getting this Philips player from Target. It turns out that by entering a simple code via the remote, it becomes region free and can play DVDs from across the globe. (Cue "A Whole New World.")
So where do I go from here? There are only a handful international titles that have ever piqued my interest: the UK's "Spaced" and Japan's Grindhouse set. But I already have the superior Region 1 version of the former and I don't really want to drop 100 large on the latter. Plus, a complete Grindhouse DVD is supposed to be released Stateside...sometime. But then again, I'm still waiting for the long-promised Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.
I'm sure at some point I'll pick up a Pulp concert DVD. And maybe the Special Edition of the Fratellis' Here We Stand. But those are the only interesting things currently on my radar.
What else is out there? Any kick-butt special editions that we're neglected over here? Great movies and TV shows unavailable to us Yanks? Awesome concerts or video collections by cool bands that aren't quite mainstream in the US?
And what online vendors would you recommend a budget-conscious person shop at?
Note: I tried my damnedest to have the DVD display in the picture above read "80085," to no avail.
16 comments:
amazon.co.uk
That comment made me look for my own interests, and I see that amazon.de has the Falco biopic for E14,95.
Are you going to buy it? And does it have English subtitles?
I can't find any mention of subtitles...but I'll probably get it along with the first season of Kommissar Rex, since Marty has my VHS of that and I doubt I'll ever get that back from her.
On second thought, why wait on shipping? I should have these later today.
I'm turning you in...after I watch that new episode of "American Dad" that I downloaded yesterday.
I think I'm already banned from Austria. So no biggie, both the tv show and the film are Austrian.
"Zis is how ve say goodbye in Austria, Dr. Jones."
try some euro porn.
WHOAH!!! Stop before you waste any money on European DVDs! True, your DVD player can now play DVDs from any region. However, your television is still the American NTSC standard, not the European PAL standard! So basically, you won't be able to watch them unless you get a double standard TV, which is pretty darn expensive. Otherwise, any PAL DVDs that you play, will be in black and white with a bad vertical hold problem. However, you CAN buy DVDs from Asia, and play them worry free. Here are a few of my fave sites:
http://www.yesasia.com/us/en/home.html
http://www.hkflix.com/home.asp
http://www.pokerindustries.com/
BTW, region-free players are soooo 1999. All the best Britcoms, are waiting for you on some torrent site, waiting to be downloaded. That's the real benefit of this player. The Divx feature is awesome, and perfect for playing .avi files that you "find" online.
These DVD players work with any format; PAL etc., I've tried mine, works fine.
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
The IT Crowd
The Mighty Boosh
But as Mehrdad says, most of this can be found online.
SBN1 - When it comes to porn, I'm a USA #1 guy (mostly). Maybe I just need my horizons broadened.
Mehrdad1 - spyrdrz is right. The DVD player (or maybe the TV) has some decoder in it and R2 discs play fine - tested mine, as well as his, which is the next Philips model up. We tried one of his foreign discs with no problem. And I downloaded an R2 DVD of Pulp videos and that worked fine.
Thanks for those sites. I think I may have actually shopped at HKFlix before. In the early '00s I was on a big Chow Yun Fat kick and bought several of his R0 DVDs (City on Fire, Prison on Fire, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, etc.).
The DIVX feature is awesome, though. I've been getting a lot of use out of that, mainly on spydrz's player (his is hooked up to "the good TV"). Already caught the whole run of "Life on Mars" UK and started "Ashes to Ashes" last night.
srah - A friend of mine raves about "The IT Crowd." And I can finally see what all the fuss (coming from you, mainly) is with "Boosh." Ever see "Peep Show"? SBN1 above claims that's the funniest show ever.
Wow, things sure have changed! Do you by any chance know which Philips players can play PAL disks? My parents have the older DVP642, I wonder if that one plays PAL discs?!
Either way, The IT Crowd and The Mighty Boosh are worthy of the hype. For starters, look for: Black Books, Fonejacker, Q.I., and I'm Alan Partridge.
But again, these are all waiting for you on thepiratebay.org!
Oh yes, definitely watch QI. And Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In fact, I'm not sure if either of those is available on DVD, but they are online!
Mehrdad1 - You can check here to see if it is unlockable.
Thanks for the recommendations. That goes for you, too, srah.
Mehrdad1 - Scratch that last link. It's a scam.
Try this one instead.
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