In your quest for a regionless DVD player, you may have thought that only expensive units could have their regions changed. Not so! Wal-Mart offers a continuing lineup of region-hackable DVD players for under $100.

A recent purchase caused smiles in our house! The Durabrand PDV705 portable player turned out to be exactly what we were looking for. It is compact, rich in features, and in a few seconds with a few remote control clicks, it transforms into a Region 0 (all-regions) player.

The unit will play a number of DVD and CD formats, including: DVDs, audio CDs, CD-R/RWs, MP3 CDs, photo CDs, DivX, XviD, and JPG.

Don’t let its size fool you! The screen may be small (7 inches) but it packs a lot of features into a tiny bit of space. Many options that are only available on competitors’ players by going into Setup are accessible via buttons under the player’s pop-up lid.

On-board buttons include: Power switch (right hand side of player), Brightness, Color, Audio, Display, Subtitle, Forward, Backward, Volume, Next, Previous, Stop, Play, Pause, Setup, Directional (arrow) buttons, OK (Enter), and Open.

If you have your own S-video or coaxial cable, you can use the corresponding jack to connect the DVD player to your home TV or entertainment system.

Although the Durabrand PDV-705 doesn’t include earphones, it does come with several accessories – including a battery that appears to be of much higher quality than those in more expensive units.

Accessories include: AC adapter, car adapter, TV connection cable, remote control, two AAA batteries, rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, user’s guide, and product registration/warranty card.

If you would like to set up an audio program to fall to sleep to at night, use the ‘programmed play’ function and queue up to 16 tracks from a regular audio or MP3 CD. An added bonus: your songs can be stored in separate directories, rather than in one large root directory.

Unfortunately, the sound is flat and metallic when using the external speakers. Switch to earphones or earbuds, however, and you will enjoy good stereo sound.

How to Make it Regionless



Switch on the power.

Open the player’s lid.

Enter the following numeric sequence via remote control:

9 7 3 5

Use the remote control’s arrow keys to select ‘0′ for all regions.

Exit setup.



Now you will be able to play DVDs from all over the world on your newly-configured player.

More region hacks for other DVD players can be found at videohelp.com.

There is a link at the end of this article to a page with hacks for two more inexpensive units sold through Wal-Mart.

Disclaimer

Although entering numbers via a remote control is unlikely to void your warranty, the same sequence may not work on similar units manufactured on different dates. Use at your own risk. Remember that if you buy hacked chips or install non-manufacturer firmware, your warranty will be invalidated.

Now – grab some foreign DVDs, prop up your feet, and relax …

©Copyright Kathy Steinemann: This article is free to publish only if this copyright notice, the byline, and the author’s note below (with active links) are included.



By: Kathy Steinemann

About the Author:

Perhaps you are a foreign language student or teacher. Maybe you are getting in touch with your roots and you wish to watch DVD titles in the language of your grandparents. Or possibly you just like watching movies from other countries. You purchase a movie, put it into your DVD player, and receive a ‘Wrong Region’ error.

What do you do?

The popular Philips DVP642 DVD player can easily be made region-free (or ‘regionless’) with just a few clicks of the remote control. This stylish silver-grey unit is available at your local Wal-Mart and many other electronics outlets. In Canada, it can be found for under $60. Sometimes it is sold region-free right out of the box (although the packaging will state that is for a specific region only).

This Phillips product fits easily into a small space. It is approximately 10 inches deep by 17 inches wide and less than 2 inches in height. It is packaged with a user manual, quick-start guide, audio and video cables, and remote control complete with batteries.

The unit plays a wide variety of formats: Mpeg4; DivX 3.11/4.x, 5.x., and 6.x; DVD+R/+RW; VCDs; SVCDs; picture CDs; MP3-CDs; and CD-R/-RW.

Some of its features include: progressive scan, 4 x video upsampling (54 MHz), and 192 KHz/24-bit audio DAC.

The mechanical spin mechanism is whisper-quiet, picture quality is excellent, and so is the audio. An added plus: once you enter the region hack, the DVD player will automatically adjust for NTSC/PAL TV signals.

Region Hack



Set up the DVD unit using the quick-start guide.

Play a DVD title for your default region just to make sure that your machine is working properly.

Remove the DVD and power down for a few seconds.

Turn the power back on and open the DVD tray.

Wait for the NO DISC message to appear.

Open the DVD tray.

Enter the following codes carefully via remote control: 7 8 9 OK 0

(SEVEN EIGHT NINE OK ZERO)

The screen will display information showing the default region and the new one.



The ‘0′ in the numerical sequence above refers to the region. Zero is regionless, and should work with just about any DVD. If for some reason you want to limit your DVDs to another region, enter another number in place of the ‘0′. For example, to play only region 2 DVDs, you would enter: 7 8 9 OK 2.

Philips USA provides good support for their products, and offers software upgrades for future DVD enhancements at their website: philips.com/usasupport. Other users have written reviews and comments at videohelp.com – which contains region hacks for thousands of DVD players – an excellent site.

Note: entering codes via remote control will not void your warranty. A hardware hack will. Although this hack has been used by thousands of users worldwide, try it at your own risk.

Now that your DVD player is regionless, the wonderful world of foreign DVD titles is available for you to explore and enjoy!

©Copyright Kathy Steinemann: This article is free to publish only if this copyright notice, the byline, and the author’s note below (with active links) are included.



By: Kathy Steinemann

About the Author:

This review and regionless hack applies to the following DVD / MP3 / CD player: Diamond Vision DVDV807-03. The DVD player’s manual also includes instructions for the DVDV807-04 model, so most of this information should apply to it as well.

Whether you intend to watch foreign language videos in order to learn a new language, or because some titles are not available where you live, DVDs from another region will probably be unplayable on your current DVD player. However, a DVD machine can often be converted (hacked) to a different region via a remote control sequence or firmware upgrade. Sometimes you can even buy customized chips to modify the hardware.

The simplest and least expensive way to hack a DVD player is to find a cheap unit that can be fine-tuned via a remote control sequence. That is what this article is all about.

The Diamond Vision DVDV 807-3 player is front-loading. It proved itself to be reliable during my testing. There are a couple of annoyances, however:

1.) The DVD-spinning mechanism tends to be a little loud (minor inconvenience).

2.) If you try to operate STOP, OPEN, and PLAY buttons too quickly, the player sometimes locks up. Powering down and restarting always resets the player successfully.

The region-free hack works as follows:

1.) Turn on the power and wait until the ‘NO DISC’ message appears, then press OPEN/CLOSE on the unit itself to open the door of the DVD player

2.) On the remote control, press SETUP. A menu will appear onscreen.

3.) Enter the following number sequence via remote: 1 3 8 9

4.) A different menu will appear. Your cursor should now be sitting in a box with the current region displayed. Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys on the remote control to display a specific region’s numerical code, or select ‘0′ (regionless).

5.) Press ENTER and then SETUP to exit.

6.) Your DVD player will now play DVDs from other regions. The code only has to be entered once. Powering down will not cause the Diamond Vision to lose its region-free setting. An added plus: it automatically senses PAL/NTSC signals.

According to videohelp.com, this region hack will also work with many other Diamond Vision DVD players.

This unit is a pretty standard economy DVD player. You can usually find it for well under $50 in most Wal-Marts. It is approximately 9 inches wide by 10 inches deep, and the remote control is a little nicer and bigger than what comes with a lot of discount DVD units.

This machine provides several types of video and audio output:

1.)Y/Pb, Cb/Pr, Cr

2.) RCA

3.) S-Video

For a budget player, it certainly is a bargain, considering the capabilities.

*Note: You can determine the region code for any DVD by looking at the packaging. You might see something that looks like a button with a globe in the background and a large number. The DVD may specifically state something like ‘Region 1′. If no code is shown, it may be regionless right out of the box. Some older titles, budget productions, or remakes of older films often do not have any region protection added.

Current region codes on commercial titles range from 1 to 6.

It’s a good move if you decide to purchase this unit. You should definitely get your money’s worth.

©Copyright Kathy Steinemann: This article is free to publish only if this copyright notice, the byline, and the author’s note below (with active links) are included.



By: Kathy Steinemann

About the Author: