Beans DVD

I am now the proud owner of a ridiculously named Beans DVD player (S-901HG — a Google search shows it’s quite easy to find on lots of Japanese auction sites). My old DVD player — a Shinco, something I had bought online from Hong Kong 5 years ago — has been sick for quite a while now, and it got to a point where it would only play my discs every once in a while, and even then, with skips and freezes. I needed to replace it with another region-free player (my DVD collection is composed of 3 regions: US, Japan, and Hong Kong), and didn’t really know where to look (I know they must sell in Akihabara, but didn’t know where), so started doing some web searches yesterday at lunch time, and found a link to RegionFreeJapan.com on some message board. A few clicks later, I had ordered the S-901HG, and it was delivered early this morning. At 8700 yen, this thing is a hell of a good deal: it plays not only every single disc in existence, but even cooler, does DivX files, and even has a memory card slot and a USB port! I tested watching some files from CDs I had burned, DVDs, and even with a USB drive plugged in, and everything worked fine. And come on, the brand name on it says Beans! It’s definitely some sort of China-made player, but it does what I wanted it to do, and at a price that I was happy to pay.