why I LOVE the internet

When I was in Austin in July I bought a cheapass DVD player at Best Buy, because our spare one here was going on the fritz. (Like, I'd have to bang it a la Fonz to get it to work.) I needed an American DVD player because the "spare" tv in the bedroom is an American NTSC one that won't get European tv but is fine for watching DVD's, etc. So when I bought the new DVD player at Best Buy my main concerns were size (will it fit in the suitcase) and...well that's it, really. Size.

So, I looked over the DVD players and bought the smallest (and cheapest, it turned out) they had. Best Buy's own brand, called "Insignia". It cost, like 25 bucks. Fit in my suitcase, weighs like 5 lbs or so. I had wanted a multi region player, but Best Buy does not sell those...they are mostly only online for about triple the price and size.

I noticed, as I was setting it up back in Norway, that the new cheapass DVD player had the capability to work with PAL TVs. I also noticed, in the instructions, that there was really no mention of it being a "Region 1 ONLY" dvd player, just that it was a Region 1 player. So I started to think that maybe, just MAYBE there was a hack somewhere that would enable me to make it a multi region player. ( We had done this with our Norwegian Grundig DVD player to great success, so I know it's easy to do.) This would make it infinitely more flexible as I can watch my strange stuff I borrow from friends in the bedroom while Rich does his channel flipping in the other room. Hmmm..

I did a google search. "Insignia NS DVD1". Hit enter.

And here was my hack.

An additional minute to follow the hack on the DVD player, and I am now really pleased to say I have a multi region player for the spare tv as well.

This is SO SWEET!!!!!! I fucking LOVE the internet.