DVD player for Region 2 (Japnese DVDs)

I like to buy some DVDs of Japanese films. They seem to be sold only in Region 2 format (for Japan). So if I buy a DVD player in Japan to watch these on, will it work when I bring it back to the US? Or is there a place in the US where I can buy the DVD player that works on the Japanese DVDs? Many thanks for any suggestions!

Hey there. I got my region free DVD player from yesasia.com. It wasn't to expensive (about $90.00) and does everything I need it to do. I've had it for over a year and have never had any problems. I think you can also go to playasia.com and they may sell them to. Hope that helps.

Unlike many other countries in the world, Japan only seems to sell Region 2 DVD players, while many other countries sell "region free" DVD players. Some players have a "remote hack", where you can enter a code on the remote control, to change the Region code to "region free". It's best to surf the net first to found out which ones will do this. For example, Pioneer doesn't a remote hack.

If you take your Region 2 DVD player to the US, it will work, but will not play Region 1, US DVDs.

If you check out ebay you can find dozens of "region free" dvd players for reasonable prices.

Also there is computer software that will make your dvd player act as a region 1/2 or any region player as well. Though the better ones do cost a fee I think.

I got mine from Amazon.com for about 50 bucks.

I have a custom made computer (sounds fancy but it costs 1/2 the price of a similar one in a so-called discount electronic store..). my CD/DVD reader and burner is from LG and the program to play discs is called Cyberlink DVD suite. I got a few free DVDS from Japan that came with Japaneze magazines and they work just fine. Oh yeah, I live in North America.

DVD drives on computers are also Region coded. They allow 5 changes to region code, after which they will stay on the last selected Region code. Those DVDs on Japanese magazines are likely to have been Region free.
You can get programs such as AnyDVD to trick the computer into thinking the DVD is Region free.

Thank you all so much for great advice and very useful information!

Yes, DVD players are region coded, however there's software out there that tricks the DVD player into becoming region free, without changing the actual hardware setting. Such as DVD Region + CSS Free, though it costs like 40USD.

Computer DVD players that is.

John, if you look back 2 or 3 posts, I said something very similar.....

videohelp.com - DVD Hacks section.

You need a region-free (RPC1) player or recorder.

Pretty much any DVD player or recorder that is listed that can be region-free'd will work anywhere in the world with any DVD from any region of the world.

Typically, you can easily find one for $50 in the USA that can be made so. In japan, I would not imaging it would be more than $100 for one.

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On the PC, simply run a program such as AnyDVD and you'll be able to play anything on it.