I bought an Oppo BDP -83 several years ago specifically because it had such great upconversion, can convert PAL to NTSC without any issues and is very easy to modify to make it region free. Before this player, folks had to solder chips onto DVD players to make them region free and it sometimes didn't work so well. The ribbon strap replacement for the Oppo to make it region free is extremely simple to install and has worked seamlessly, with no issues when one does firmware updates.
I am an international and outside of mainstream film fan and have purchased many DVDs and Blu-Rays from other regions and I must say that the Oppo with the region free mod is essential, if you plan to get enough movies to justify the cost of the modification.
I purchase most of my discs from either amazon.co.uk or yesasia.com. Just look around amazon.co.uk and see if there are things you are interested in. It could even be things that are not necessarily foreign films, but get better releases in Europe in terms of extras, the quality of the transfer, etc. One such example that comes to mind for me is Arrow Video, a UK based distributor that has some great Italian Horror, Grindhouse and Japanese film release in region 2/region B. Optimum Home Entertainment is another that comes to mind off of the top of my head that is also UK based and has some nice releases that aren't always available here in the US. If you start looking at reviews of particular films sometimes you will find out that sometimes best copy you are interested in is from another region outside of North America, like I said, even if it is an American made movie. Also, sometimes it is just cheaper to get a copy from the UK on amazon.co.uk, than to get it from amazon.com.
