PS2 ... our Godsend!

Just thought I'd share this if anyone else finds them in the postion we found ourselves when we moved to the UK. We have an extensive American dvd collection. When we were buying our dvd player my husband did all the research and bought a Phillips brand player that you could supposedly make regionless. Much to our dismay and utter disappointment, we couldn't change the region.

We brought our American PS2 and Wii with us, not knowing if we'd get them to work here or not. My husband figured out how to get both systems up and running much to the kids' delight. Our clever 9-year old then reminded us that the PS2 would play dvds and lo and behold we can now watch our American dvds without having go out and buy a new dvd player. Hurrah! We'd have never thought about using the PS2 as a dvd player because we never used that function on it when living in the states.

Just thought I'd pass this tip in case anyone else is in the predicament that we found ourselves in.

If your PC has a dvd drive it should also play your region 1 dvd's, ours does.

If your PC has a dvd drive it should also play your region 1 dvd's, ours does.

Very true but I hate watching films or programs on the pc. I can't kick back, relax and stretch out on the sofa. Plus it's hard to gather the family around the pc to watch stuff together.

True, I guess I'm just used to our monitor...it's bigger than our TV.

You can also hack the Wii a bit to play DVDs as well.  The only requirement is a copy of Twilight Princess for the initial install.

Multi region DVD players are fairly easy to come by over here.
Mine has a code to enter on the remote to access the menu, I've then set it to Region 0 which allows playing of all DVD's without having to keep swapping between regions

Multi region DVD players are fairly easy to come by over here.
Mine has a code to enter on the remote to access the menu, I've then set it to Region 0 which allows playing of all DVD's without having to keep swapping between regions

We supposedly bought a dvd player that could have the region changed to regionless. It didn't work. I can't justify buying a new dvd player right now since we only need one. But when we're in the market for a new dvd player we'll be sure it's regionless right out of the box.

Anyone know if the PS3 will work. I hate buying a new one for the blue ray capablity.

Anyone know if the PS3 will work. I hate buying a new one for the blue ray capablity.

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=50253.0

It will, but keep in mind not all Blu-ray's are region free.

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

I have just found a couple of places that sell software so that you can hook up an extrernal HD to your PS2 throught USB and steam downloaded (legal of course) videos to your TV.   I use a 200 Gb HD that is just hooked up to it all the time. I can watch anything. 

I have just found a couple of places that sell software so that you can hook up an extrernal HD to your PS2 throught USB and steam downloaded (legal of course) videos to your TV.   I use a 200 Gb HD that is just hooked up to it all the time. I can watch anything. 

Do you have a link for that?

http://www.broadq.com/en/index.php
They will send you a free CD. 

We use our (US) Xbox 360 to watch the DVDs we brought with us. 

We've also got a slingbox hooked up back in the US and we view it on my laptop, which then gets hooked up to our (UK) TV via HDMI cable so there's no need to hover around a laptop screen.  We could watch DVDs on my computer as well, but it's just easier to use the already hooked up xbox. 

http://www.broadq.com/en/index.php
They will send you a free CD. 

The only part that loads is the main page. None of the information pages load, and I can't even see a place to attempt to order anything even if I wanted to order the item blindly...the site doesn't seem to be about hooking a HD up to your playstation 2 at all, unless I'm missing something off the main page.

Here is where I learned about it. http://www.pixelheadsnetwork.com/2008/08/11/episode-81-building-blocks-2008-broadq/
if you do a Google search for BroadQ that is the company, you can get their phone number and call them for a free CD.  It looks like their website is having some issues right at the moment.