Dreamcast Revision History

I used to have a DC with 20+ games. Ended up selling it to get a PS2. I went to a friend's house a few days back and brought all my DC games since he still has one. Now I totally regret selling mine. So I'd like to get a new one, but I'd like to be able to boot homebrews, backups, and games outside of my region (NTSC). There were some absolute japanese-only gems on the console, and I own a few.

I remember when Sega was still making the console, near the end of its life they started releasing consoles that wouldn't take CD-R media or imports, no matter what tools you used. When did they start to do this? I'd like to ebay one that I'll be able to play imports and homebrews on with minimal trouble, and without a modchip. I also like to keep my originals pristine, so I usually make backups of those and just play off of the backups.

I somehow remember it was the consoles marked October, 2000 and beyond, but I could be wrong. What would be a good manufacture date to shoot for if I want to play CD-Rs and imports?

Thanks for any help!

About that date. Also revision two are the ones that do not play CD-Rs.