I know its a steep price, but if you go back to the straight import price of $642, with todays exchange rate thats £352 which is not bad for a 400 disc dvd changer of this quality. As neither Sony or Pioneer have any plans for a european mega-changer there doesnt seem to be many other options to us - though I'd love to be corrected on this one !

Can you get a US one delivered to a friend in the States and then have them ship it over as a gift ? At least you would save the duty payments.

The other problem is that these units are manufactured as R1 only, and there is no quick multiregion change - the circuitry has to be modified to make the unit multi region and to give playback of both PAL and NTSC. To me this is essential as I have discs from all over the place. To this end, it may be that the JVB route is the only way ?