Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pokesplort]

ok, i'm sure its not that difficult to track one of these down right? hi mart? emart near me didn't seem to have a good selection of dvd players, maybe i'm blind. but anyways, is it gonna cost me and arm and a leg? is there a way to get around it with a regular korean dvd player? should i just have my mom send me mine? mostly i dont want a bunch of korean dvd's that i wont be able to play when i get home and i've already convinced some friends to send me some dvd's to keep me occupied. or if anyone could tell me what phrase i should use to specify what kind of dvd player i'm looking for? any help is appreciated in advance, thanks all!

[polonius]

I just bought a region free dvd player in Yongsan yesterday for 40,000 won. I haggled with him. He wanted 46,000.

I think that is a fair price.

[Easter Clark]

You can hack just about any DVD player you buy. If I were you, I'd go to the store, write down the model numbers of the ones you like, then google "(Samsung 57Av3) region hack" It usually involves pressing a sequence of keys on the remote control. If you can find hacks for one of the models you like, buy it.

It really is easier than it sounds!

Or, just take the DVD player out of the equation and use your computer.

[Gollywog]

I brought a DVD player with me. But to hack it, I have to enter a complex code each time I turn it on. Not fun.

So I bought a cheap Korean DVD player, the NS-6000B.

http://global.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=131301332&pos_shop_cd=GE&pos_class_cd=300004039&pos_class_kind=S

It is region free. It seems to be solidly built. But it sucks royally.

For one thing, it keeps reverting spontaneously to Korean menus and the default settings. So to use it I have to change it back to English and redo the settings almost daily. It claims to play movies from the usb port, but I can't get it to do anything but display jpegs. The menu system for files on a DVD is atrocious. I have not used it in weeks, it is such a pain.

I think most of the cheap DVD players are probably mechanically reliable these days. They boast about having Sanyo drives or so and so's Japanese chips. And then then are assembled in China.

So what's the difference between them? The interface, or operating system. Now, how hard is it to design a usable menu system for a DVD player? Apparently very hard, if it is a Korean DVD player.

Apparently Koreans are impressed by unduly complicated interfaces, thinking if it is complicated, it must do more things. On my microwave, the same key will do three different things, depending on what order you push them in. Yet what one key will do, two other keys will also do. And none of them will let you change the power settings. In the supermarket, they have 10 feet of tuna, with 30 different varieties, so Koreans say Look at how much different food we have! But they are all tuna in oil.

But I digress.

Anyone want to buy my DVD player?

Next time, I am going to look for one with multivoltage settings that is more likely designed for the international market, not by a Korean doofus.

Oh, and one more thing. The DVD player has a bright blue LED stripe along the bottom front. You know how Koreans love to put bright blue LEDs on everything these days, like my mouse. Annoying, but you assume it will go off when you turn off the DVD player. Wrong. Turn it off with the remote, and the LED stays on. Want to go to sleep? You need to get up and push the mechanical on off switch on the DVD player. Then the blue LED will turn off. (Hmmm, I wonder if that's why I am losing the menu settings? If I leave the blue LED on all the time, will the menu settings stay in memory?)

What were they thinking?

[Easter Clark]

I have owned probably 4 or 5 DVD players that I hacked and I have never had to enter the code each time I turned it on--if you enter it once it should be enough...

[gteacher]

[Gollywog]

OK, you know-it-alls, when I looked up my DVD's hack, it warned that it might be necessary to re-enter it each time the unit was turned on,and that has proved to be the case.

Do you think I am hallucinating or psychotic, like another ranting poster?

Unfortunately, getting advice about DVD players on the Korean market is not easy, in part because the reviews, if any, are in Korean.

If posters want to be helpful, tell the OP which model DVD player you have bought in Korea, and whether you like it. Be specific about the pros and cons.

Asserting that another poster is simply making things up about what he personally experienced is not very helpful.

[red_devil]

Got a good one from YesAsia.

[BritishinSuwon]

I'd say go to Technomart or Youngsan and get one there. If you don't speak Korean, there will be some booths at either place with people who speak some English to help you out.
I bought my DVD player from Youngsan. It's an offbrand (not a major brand), but it plays DVDs from all regions.
The brand I bought is called "DMTech". Model number DM-350. It cost me 40,000W after haggling it down from 50,000W.
It works fine, with no problems.

[blade]

[Easter Clark]

Mine's an LG DV392H. I got it online and found the hack here.

Gollywog--

I didn't mean to say you don't know what you're talking about. I was just stating my experiences. In your case you were unfortunate enough to have a DVD player that requires re-hacking upon powering on.

The lesson here is to do research before buying!

[blade]

[Gollywog]

The Korean player I bought was region free out of the box. Apparently many of the cheaper ones are.

However, it is illegal to sell a region free DVD player in the U.S., and presumably other Western nations. I believe it is even illegal to sell one in the U.S. that can be converted to region free, though this is obviously not strictly enforced. This may be why my older DVD player recorder does not allow a permanent reset of the region codes.

I tried finding a hack for the Samsung DVD-VHS that came with my apartment, but was unable to. So you may have trouble with the more expensive Korean models. It is a piece of junk, anyhow, that, believe it or not, only has monophonic output from the DVD, and VHS. And it costs a small fortune. I don't use it.

However, if anyone can find a region hack for it, I will give it another try. It is the Samsung SVC470 combo player.

Also, keep in mind that some DVD players have no English menus or instruction books. This model is only in Korean.

[samd]

Hey GW,

Well done on using this thread to have a whine about Korea.

Looks like you'e the only one having problems though, everyone else seems to be doing fine with their purchases.

[Captain Corea]

I got a DVD, Divx, blah blah blah player that also has a USB port - love it.