The Tatung DV-900 is a true World-wide compatible DVD player. Although its video quality is not up to par with higher-end players from major manufacturers, Tatung has brought to market a very practical DVD player for those that have the need for a unit that will work anywhere in the world and/or will play any commerical DVD from any region of the world.
Overview
The DV-990 is a region code free DVD player that also has built-in PAL/NTSC - NTSC/PAL and international voltage conversion. Also included are all needed AV outputs for international use including a European SCART connector. Other bonuses include two-microphone karaoke input and a built-in Dolby Digital/DTS decoder with 5.1 channel analog audio outputs (standard digital optical and digital coax outputs also included)
My Code Free DVD Experience
Once a while, in my search for topics and products to write about, I come across something totally unexpected. Attending the San Diego Comic-Con (the largest convention in the U.S. covering Comic Books, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy - refer to link below under "Additional Resources") I came across two interesting booths selling DVDs from various regions and also selling Multi-Region DVD players.
I was especially attracted to the Tatung DV-990, which was selling for less than $200. Taking a chance, I pulled out my credit card, purchased the DV-990, and some Region 2 and 3 DVDs (both in PAL and NTSC).
After a little bit of a glitch setting the unit up (had to do with system settings). I successfully viewed my Region Code 2 (PAL) and Region Code 3 (NTSC) DVDs and was very impressed. Admittedly, this unit does not deliver the stellar DVD image you would expect from higher-end units. Scenes with intense reds and/or blues, experience some color edge bleeding. But, for the purpose I purchased this unit for, I was quite impressed with the DV-900's automatic region and NTSC/PAL detection.
All you have to do in the setup menu is tell the DV-900 what system your TV is (PAL/NTSC/Multi) and the unit does the rest when you insert the disc. The PAL/NTSC conversion wasn't perfect (on a 4X3 image there are still slight black lines on the top and bottom of the screen and some digital artifacting on fast moving scenes) but was much better than I would have expected.
In the audio category, both the analog and DD 5.1/DTS pass through was fine, the sound quality and accuracy of the surround sound decoding was comparable to other DVD players I have encountered in the same price class.
Other features that impressed me as I was using this unit included its ability to play both DVD+R and +RW discs recorded on my Philips DVDR-985 DVD recorder as well as CDrs and CDrws. Everything I put in it seemed to play well, except for a homemade VCD (VideoCD) I made on a PC; although this unit will easily play commerically made VCDs. In addition the remote control is very easy to use and has the ability to zoom into any image by a factor of 8X and also has has easy forward and reverse slow-mo and fast-motion access. The DV-990 has a very quick response for skipping or access chapters on the disc.
Conclusion
The only major complaint I have about this unit is the skimpy owner's manual and its somewhat weak English translation from either Chinese or Japanese; the sentence syntax is somewhat off in some sections. Also, the owner's manual is a generic manual used for more than one Tatung model DVD player, so references to progressive scan do not pertain to this unit. In addition, the reference to progressive scan includes an erroneous statement that progressive scan units will display a 1080i resolution image from a DVD; obviously this is not possible, except in the few newer DVD players that now have DVI outputs.
The only reasons I did not give this unit a full five-star rating, was because of the weak owner's manual and slight video image imperfections. I wouldn't recommend this player as the main player in a high-end home theater system. However, if you are a real fan of international films, are frustated not having access to that special foreign film on DVD, and desire a unit that will satisfy your hunger, then you have to seek out this player as a second unit specifically for that purpose.
