My father-in-law is looking for another DVD player that will allow him to play PAL DVDs and output an NTSC signal to his television set; he is not picky whether the signal is composite, SVHS or component video. He currently has a Daiwa player and Liteon LVW-5005X recorder that will do this, but the Daiwa just died, and he is looking for a replacement, having just discovered that both products are discontinued and no longer available.

Any suggestions on affordable alternatives? We're in Canada, but are willing to import from the U.S. if we have to, though not at the expense of losing the warranty.

I just discovered that The Source is selling off, presumably because they are discontinued, a pair of DVD players that The Source web site (thesource.ca) says do on the fly PAL to NTSC conversion, for $40 each: Vieta 45 and Trent DVD-3500. The site also says that the JVC XV-N450B does, as well, but the Canadian JVC site makes no mention of this feature in the product description.

And my father-in-law got his Daiwa working. But he is still thinking of getting a PAL to NTSC DVD player just in case they become unavailable in the future.

So, any ideas are still very welcome.

Well, he bought both the Vieta and the Trent today, at my suggestion, so he could try them both out and see which he liked best. In the end, he decided to keep both, because he realized that he should be able to keep at least two of the machines running almost indefinitely now that the has 4 discontinued products working.

Can't remember the model number, but the so-called Vieta says GO.VIDEO all over it, with not a trace of the Vieta name.

A number of the current Phillips players do this, and can be made region free.

Thank you. I checked the Philips Canada site and the first DVD Player I checked did indeed do on-the-fly PAL to NTSC conversion.

Great information!

FWIW, I've used Philips DVP-5140 & Cyberhome units to play PAL DVDs on NTSC TV set. The Philips unit I received arrived "unlocked" out of box (no need to set any codes via remote). It played my Region 2 & 5 movies w/o hassle.

Futhermore: using a simply RCA/S-Video connection to my DMR-eh75v, I was able to record some PAL discs to HDD then dub a disc as usual. This was just experimenting on my part. btw, these were not commercial/retail DVDs...just sports DVDs I bought from somebody Down Under. Rugby and Cricket.

Great info! Thanks.

The DVP-5140 that Chick mentions (above) is currently on sale here for $49.99, so Philips obviously includes PAL-NTSC conversion even at the relatively low end of their lines.