Basically ALL dvd and Blu-ray players can be unlocked easily. With the right gear. For example when we had the store an representative from for example Pioneer visiting could bring an special remote control that contained functions for unlocking. :-D so it’s a code entered trough remote on most of them. :) Also progressive is better than interlaced in every way. Converting it to progressive give you a smoother picture. Here in Europe everything and the kitchen sink support progressive. You’d be hard pressed to find anything that’s interlaced only. Why would anyone want to keep that? It’s time for you to upgrade those monitors that don’t support it.
Progressive is only good if the source is progressive. If the video is interlace better to let the deinterlacer in the TV do that. A cheap dvd player playing an interlace disc in progressive mode looks far worse. Compare the svcd the first time I played in 480p vs the second time in 480i. If the disc was recorded in 480p then obviously that will look better bit for a 480i disc the TV will do a better job by far.
@ of course. I just wanted to mention that all, even reputable companies, created unlocked models AND the ability to unlock those that were not. Even Sony has had unlocked models. Granted, it was fairly late in the game and the model was about as cheap and crappy built as the one you just looked at, cheap but just about good enough.
I bought a regionless DVD player a couple years ago. I bought a DVD from Amazon, but the third party seller sent me region 2. My players wouldn't play it. And I couldn't find information to unlock them online. Not my models. I did change the region on my computer. (You can only do that so many times) . Then I learned about players without regions. I bought one, it works. It will play almost anything except Blu-ray, or some other format I don't use, plus it will play from USB stick. (Limited, mostly MPEG 1 , and audio, and pictures) More interesting stuff! (BTW, before I got the regionless DVD player, I got a refund on the region 2 DVD, but didn't have to send it back!)
Dvd still very useful as archive format. Stored correctly they will last decades. These days bluray player because it plays all the optical disc formats.
These were sold under the Polaroid brand in the UK, by Asda when they were owned by Walmart in the early 2010s. £10 as I recall. TBH though I had one in the bedroom for several years and although I wouldn't say it was good, it never gave any trouble. In the end the DVD loader became a donor for a Sansui "CD" player that failed. The Polaroid had started becoming a little flaky (probably power supply) and the Sansui's loader had started to disintegrate (plastics went brittle).
