Hack a region-controlled DVD player [0]

Arse.

The Sony DAV-DX155 I just bought is Region 1 only. And, obviously, I
have tons of Region 2 DVDs.

Can anyone tell me how to hack it to be multi-region?


[0] a.k.a. "Paging people who can work google"

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, vulgarandmischevious belched forth and ejected
the following:

Your exact model isn't on there but have a look about half way down the
page.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=sony&hits=50
&Search=Search

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Whinging Courier belched forth and ejected the
following:

Forget that. I've just read the hack...

 

This guy is generally pretty helpful
http://www.dvdchips.co.uk/thedvdforums/

 

I don't know the DAV-DX155 itself, but as a general rule of thumb, R2
players have the potential to become region-free players, but other
region players do not.

The reason behind this is that region 2 is the only region that has both
PAL and NTSC, so R2 players need to be able to play either. Region 1
players only have to do NTSC, so typically can't cope with PAL disks,
even if the regional protection were to be removed.

 

I would suggest it's more related to the retail price and the brand
name than the region. Cheap and cheerful players will pretty much play
anything from anywhere while the household names[1] will make it more
difficult to hack them. It was something all the temporary expats
researched heavily when I was living in Canada.

[1]Particularly the likes of Sony who are heavily involved in content
as well as playback equipment.

 

Plus the fact that Sony are part of a [film] studio, so
it is in their interest to keep the regional (and copy)
protection as tight as possible so you buy more disks.

 

I politely disagree. Especially as it's a marketing ploy.

The US has R1, and no one there has a clue about owt outside the US, and nor
do they care. So, TVs only tend to do NTSC and there is no commercial
imperative to do hacks for a R1 DVD player or to do it by default. They do
exist - many SF fen in the US buy multi standard TVs (dammed expensive!) and
hackable players, so as to get *our* SF programmes on DVD. 'Cos we get them,
and they don't.

But the region thing and TV standards aren't connected. Think about it;
PAL/NTSC/SECAM is wholly irrelevant if you play on a laptop, or whatever,
rather than a TV. But, because of the region encoding, you still need to
hack the playback software to play an R2 on a US laptop, for example.
There's no technical relationship between the TV standard and the region
encoding.

And R2 has PAL, yes, but the NTSC support is actually for a pseudo PAL
output. What's more Europe has a second PAL standard, plus SECAM.

Ali

 

Erm... I think some players will play NTSC in pseudo PAL (I know my old
Samsung did), but I think they all have to be able to output NTSC disks
in NTSC for those areas of R2 (Japan?) that have NTSC and not PAL

 

Hm. I googled:

Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada
Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand,
Pacific Islands, Caribbean
Region 5 - Russia (okay, former Russia), Eastern Europe, India, most of
Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
Region 6 - China

I googled again:

"One more note: Just because a DVD is coded for a specific region doesn't
mean it will play in all countries assigned that region. There is the added
layer of incompatibility imposed by the great and wonderful powers that be.
You also have to make sure the video formatting is the same. For example,
both The UK and Japan are included in Region 2. Unfortunately, UK users the
PAL video formatting while Japan is NTSC. In order to play a disc intended
for the UK in Japan you will also have to have equipment that recognizes the
video format. There are converters that will permit the mixing of PAL and
NTSC so if you plan on using discs from different countries consider
investing in such an additional box."

This sorta implies that players sold in Japan, as you say, will need to
output true NTSC. I don't beleive that all UK players neccessarily output in
true NTSC, but I could be wrong. With video, it used to be too expensive to
support true NTSC rather than pseudo PAL, whcih is why my late almented much
used Samsung converter deck cost a gradn!

I do, by the way, send home burned DVDs across the pond, but chums play them
on laptops, so no issue there.

Ali

 

The first Sony DVD player I ever bought had a jumper on the main board
marked "REGION LOCK" in nice big letters

 

Cunts. I think I'll take the fucker back.

 

My research of the last few days suggests that this is bollocks.

This is true.

I know.

 

Rilly? Most of my Merkin chums would disagree, ime, it's why my converter
deck was so popular. I did say US TVs, by the snip.

Ali

 

In Canada, I found it very difficult to track down a TV that would play
PAL. Even at the high end most TVs were NTSC only. They may actually
have displayed PAL but, if so, it was rarely detailed in the spec.

 

Every one I looked at said it would do PAL. I was looking at LCDs,
though, not anything else. Maybe that makes a difference.

 

I'm in a similar position when it comes to international standards -
Irish telly has a mix of VHF and UHF, and it used to be a UK telly was
no good here on its own. Nowadays a lot of stuff has a universal tuner
and choice of PAL/SECAM/NTSC so can be used anywhere and that suits me
just fine. For the makers, it's often cheaper to use just one board for
the whole world.

 

More expensive, so perhaps that influences it. Or maybe the US has realised
that there is life beyond NTSC. Or maybe it's just easier to do it for LCD -
actually, that would make sense.

Ali