This player is PERFECT for US Customers who want to be able to view ANY DVD, and who hook up their player through a Surround Sound Receiver, or if they want to hook up directly to their TV now, but want to be able to add a Surround Sound Receiver Later.

Many of the rare DVDs you'll find in our catalog require a special player such as this to play them in the US and Canada. If you've already read the "DVD 101 Tutorial", you thoroughly understand the reasons to own a player like this.

We STRONGLY recommend owning a Region Free DVD player so that you can play DVDs from anywhere without having to concern yourself with regional coding. We do NOT sell the cheapo models, but you can get a low end model on eBay, and even though shipping will probably be most of the total cost, you can still get them dirt cheap.

Since we specialize in DVDs, we are very critical of various potential shortcomings.

We were impressed with even additional features on this model in choosing to make it available to our DVD customers, but even when we first began evaluating various region free players and wholesalers, we used several additional, premium "requirements" beyond the "cheapo" models that play DVDs with any regional coding, and beyond PAL/NTSC "compliant":

Our ADDITIONAL PREMIUM Requirements:

1) Non Distortion of Widescreen Image on ANY DVD - this is a big issue with many widescreen PAL DVDs hooked up to a full screen US TV.

2) Progressive Scan / Image Quality- A standard DVD player's 480i output displays 30 frames (60 fields) per second, a progressive-scan player's 480p output displays 60 full frames per second.

3) All Desirable Connection Options (including not only RCA jacks and S-Video, but also optional digital outputs to hook up to a surround sound receiver).

4) User friendliness & no fancy codes to remember - The tendency for many cheaper models to need to be reset to be region free on occasion is one of the biggest hangups that make buying a premium model like this one so important.

5) Overall Quality

6) Superior Firmware for high compatibility with homemade DVDs that many DVD collectors have accumulated

This model EXCEEDED our Premium Requirements

Your DVD Player, which is still in the box, is SILVER and will be shipped directly from our wholesaler. We generally were disappointed by most of the chinese brands and models that we tested, but we were really impressed by this model. Aside from meeting the premium requirements that we had and described above, there are several additional special features that made this premium player stand out for our recommendation to you, who we primarily value as our DVD customer. Please remember that these are only things we felt were worth mentioning for going beyond our standards for a worthwhile region free player.

Absolutely Superior Compatibility with Proprietary Media formats - (DVD / DVD-R / DVD+R / VCD / SVCD / CD / CD-R / MP3 / jpg kodak cd / .mpg / .mpeg, / .vob files / Mini DVD, etc.. one of our employees took our demo unit home to verify this and was truly impressed not only by the compatiblity but also with the ability to use slo-mo and other features with these formats).

Video (Preferences) setup menu - (allows you to set desired levels for Sharpness, Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Hue, Saturation, and Luma Delay - most valuable if you prefer different settings on films than on "the news" or your primary TV uses)

Attractive Design & Quality "feel"

3D Sound Processing menu options (This is the most useful proprietary Audio tool we've come across. Settings include: Living Room, Hall, Bathroom, Cave, Arena, Church)

Audio Equilizer setup menu - (great if you want to use the MP3 functions, or if you like music DVDs, or films like "Ultimate Desires" that have a lot of music... you can choose: Rock, Pop, Live, Dance, Techno, Soft, Classic)

Great Remote Control for a chinese-manufactured player (we note this because Chinese Players' remote controls are generally awful with respect to user friendliness. This is still a major advantage of the JVC (other player we recommend)

Easy Product / Warranty Registration

Additional Details & Specs
The above information is what we felt was important and tested. The following information is supplied by our distributor, and may be of interest to some customers. We can't guarantee accuracy because we haven't internally verified any of this but we have no reason to doubt it... these specs are not critical to our customers primary use.

Additional Media Compatibility With:
DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW
Video CD (VCD)
Super Video CD (SVCD)
Audio CD
CD-R & CD-RW
JPEG Digital Still Files on CD-R/W
MPEG CD
Kodak Picture CD
MP3 Discs

Additional Specifications
Built-in 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS decoding surround sound decoder, HDCD Decoder, PCM Decoder
Front Panel Control Keys
Kodak Picture CD and JPEG Discs which enable you to view all of your digital pictures on your TV in slide show format! 96kHz/24-Bits digital to analog converter
Multiple frame ratio for 16:9 or 4:3 TV
P 10-bit video encoder
Built-in Dolby digital AC-3/5.1 channel decoder, DTS
On-Screen Display
Power Consumption: 30W
40-key full function remote control
Auto switch-off function
Slow Motion, Zoom and Screen Saver
Support 8 languages soundtrack.
Parental lock
Multi-Language On-Screen Display - English, Spanish, French & Far East
2/4/8/15/30X Fast Forward/Reverse Scan
1/2X / 1/4X / 1/8X Slow Motion Forward / Reverse Scan

Outputs
Stereo RCA Audio Output
Coaxial and optical digital output
Y, Cb, Cr Component Video Output
Co-axial x 1 for Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS
L&R Audio outputs (white and red)
Optical digital audio output
Coaxial digital audio output