Pioneer DV275S Silver Progressive Scan DVD Player
A good one-trick-pony
It does what it says it does; I've tested it with a European DVD (from Germany).  It apparently has an (undocumented) PAL ~> NTSC converter, but perhaps the presence of this feature is assumed (what would be the use of a DVD player that reads a Region 2 DVD but doesn't convert it from PAL to NTSC?).<br /><br />Its picture quality is close to my much more expensive Pioneer DVR-520H (multi-region playback is the one thing the DVR doesn't do), the main difference being in a particular anomaly which makes a person's face distort when the person moves; it looks as though you are watching the person's face through an opaque window (like through the opaque glass of a bath shower door); as the face moves, parts of it get bigger and then smaller as if the glass has different thicknesses throughout.  This type of distortion is more pronounced on this unit but it is also noticable on my DVR.<br /><br />The only differences in playback functionality, compared to my DVR, are pretty minor, such as how you go about doing frame-by-frame playback.  The DVR has a separate set of buttons for this function while on this unit you must first press Pause and then FF or Rewind (big deal!).  Also, the DVR has sound in its slowest FF mode while on this unit there is no sound and its slowest speed is much faster than on the DVR.  Again, big deal.<br /><br />On the other hand, there are also minor advantages on this unit; both units have 4 FF and Rewind speeds but unlike on the DVR, if you keep pressing FF (or Rewind) past speed #4, this unit cycles back to #1 (the DVR just stays on #4).  Very minor differences both positive and negative.  The only other thing worth mentioning is that this unit has fewer video setup options; it just has basic contrast, color saturation, etc.<br /><br />If you're on a budget or simply need a one-trick-pony (multi-region) DVD player, this is a good choice.<br />[...]