got my multi-region DVD player!

Oh, and I had a West Wing fest last night too

Yay, West Wing! 

I could be wrong but I think most DVD players are multi-region. You just have to look up the code to make it multi-region and key it in with the remote control. We have several DVD players and never bought one that stated on the box "multi-region".

Our Sony player is one of the ones that isn't, mores the pity. I've never been able to find the code to unlock it, although I have been told we can take it to the Sony Centre and they will enable it - for £45

So we just ended up getting a cheap Philips that is multi region. It pixelates the image which sucks but it generally does the business.

I could be wrong but I think most DVD players are multi-region.

They are, since all the software has to do is look at the region code on the disk and see if it matches.  The difference between them is whether the region lock can be overriden with a simple code or whether it needs to be done internally (e.g. by cutting or reconnecting a link on the circuit board).

Remember that region 1 disks will be 525-line (U.S.) video format (although from a technical point of view that's nothing to do with the region coding), so the TV will need to be able to display American-format video as well.  That's unlikely to be a problem if you connect via RGB or Y/Pr/Pb component video.

I bought a cheap £17 DVD player and found the hack to make it region-free.

Neither difficult nor expensive...