AbsoluteDestiny wrote:Import dvds from the US like everyone else does. It's cheaper that way in any case.
(You also wont have the footage quality problems that you get with crappy PAL releases)
Agreed, all of my anime is Region 1 (NTSC). Providing you have a multiregion drive/player, it's just like watching a normal DVD.
A good starting place (although I suspect there are much cheaper places to buy from) is
http://www.dc-dvd.co.uk
I'm also restricted to what I can buy because I don't have a credit card (just a Solo, Debit card) but these guys accept it. They also sell TV's and multi region DVD players (got my Sony from there a while back, a pretty good price also)
As for PC DVD drives, you could try
http://www.overclockers.co.uk They are one of the cheaper hardware retailers I've found that accepts Solo, they are also very good with deliveries too. They come retail boxed and what not as you'd expect. Some drives they offer a region free modding charge for £5.00.
Alternatively Liteon drives are easy to region mod, it's a simple Windows program that turns the region counter off (actually most of the time with drives it's as simple as flashing new or modified firmware).
Liteon drives usually come bundled with PowerDVD, and a friend of mine in Chicago told me that she got Cyberlink Medi@show bundled with hers (an editor, don't know too much about it, but looks a bit like Windows movie maker).
If your DVD player software is limiting what regions you can play, you can download DVD genie from
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/dvdgenie_download.shtml and that basically disables the software region lock and allows configuration of the software.
I can't link you to the DVD drive firmware page, because I'm not sure if it's one of those topics that's best avoided.
But if you decide to flash the firmware, you should do so at your own risk!, There's always a possibility you can choose the wrong model and kill your drive altogether
So there you have it, providing you have some money, that should be mostly everything you need to get started.