I am considering which multi region player should I buy. Shall I go for the Philips DVD 711 or the Pioneer DV530M?
Can someone point me in the right direction to which one I should choose. If there are any better multi region players out there please let me know, my price limit is £200.

There are two that I am aware of that are under £200. The first is the Whalfedale 750s, available from most Tesco stores. Around £175. The second is the Samsung 709 which is just under £200. Both can be made region-free using the remotes supplied with them.

Samsung is very good player especially with the latest Firmware and using either an AIWA remote control or a All-For-One control from Argo's can be made region Free, It is one of a few players that have so far been proven to work with the new Region Encoding on film's like "The Patriot"
Check out http://www.709online.com for more info on the Samsung.

Sorry last post has wrong info in it, I have just learned that the Samsung can be hacked with the remote control

The Scan SC2000 which retails at £175 from http://www.scan.co.uk is a great machine.

Region free or can be set to a specific region and macrovision can be switched off.

Great price and works with new region coded discs.

should have added the sc-2000 also plays MP3 discs as well as audio, even CD-R or CD-RW!

http://www.scan.co.uk/sc-2000.htm

I've used it happily for a while now.

I also have a scan SC2000 and I am very happy with it!!

Thanks to everyone for some very helpful information. I have decided to go for the Scan SC2000. Better start ordering my Region 1 discs now!