There will be an influx of orders

Optical media is so yesterday.

http://www.amazon.com/Orei-DVD-Z1H-1...dp/B004ZHE9AG/

Handy for the car on long road trips, when you've got kids and want something cheap

It's that, or bundle of dvd's from the library for all the kids guff.

Cyberhome is a hackable inexpensive make that always comes up on these threads. I had one that worked for about 8 years and then just died, but at $30 that worked out at about $4 a year so can't complain.

I always recommend the Philips cheapies as they are easily made region free and have no issues whatsoever with PAL disks.

I always used to go for the DVD players because they also play all your downloaded DivX/Xvid files, but you can now get the Blu-Ray players for under a hundred bucks, and they have Netflix and other stuff built in too.

I got two of these recently:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i00_details

Plays stuff from USB drives, DivX, BluRay, Netflix, no issue with PAL disks, region free hack is easy.

The player I suggested is also on Amazon as "multi-region", confirming it's easily done. It's $7 more than walmart for the slight addition of a piece of paper telling you how to enter the hack.

The first review on Amazon confirms (and indeed, corrects the vendor's) usage of the hack

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-DVP356.../ref=pd_cp_e_1

Still think this is the best deal right now at $35-40 depending on what the selling price is on Amazon. Dual voltage, plays all regions right out of the box with no hack needed, selectable PAL or NTSC output depending on the TV you have it connected to, PAL to NTSC (and vice versa) conversion, 3' HDMI cable included, upconverting (if you like that type of thing), plays basically anything you want to throw at it, USB port and small. The remote is a bit dodgy but it works, that's the only thing I can say against it. It's not a big name brand but the quality of the picture is very good, and you get to laugh an the awesome English translation of the user manual!

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-SD4300...1661209&sr=8-6

I just ordered this one for the kids that had the hack codes listed in the reviews, I like it when I don't have to Google!

This is what my Father in Law got me for xmas! http://www.amazon.com/Philips-DVP-35...1710523&sr=8-1

I bought this one - and it worked! Rejoice! We did:

Just purchased today..for the price you can not "beat-it"
1. No DVD in the tray. The tray closed. The unit and TV on.
2. Press "Setup" on the remote.
3. Press the "down" arrow repeatedly until the top heading shows "Preferences."
4. THEN enter this 6-digit code: "138931"
Immediately the screen will show "Region Code 1".
5. Press the "up" arrow and "Code 1" becomes "Code 0". All Region or Region Free.
6. Press "Setup" to exit.
7. Turn off and then back on to remove green bar along the top of the screen

Glad it worked