Info and forum posts by 'McHale'

WARNING SAMPO 620, 625, 660 USERS!!!

DO NOT. I REPEAT. DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE TO SAMPO` 3.4C FOR THE SAMPO 620.

3.4C FIRMWARE REMOVES THE REGION AND MACROVISION HACKS!!!! UNTIL WE FIND AWAY AROUND THIS, LEAVE YOUR PLAYER ALONE.

IF YOU HAVE SPECIFIC REASONS FOR UPGRADING, USE THE ENCORE OR AFREEY FIRMWARES.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

I had my dad go and find out today.

They must be the only ones on the planet who received a brand new shipment of old models.

Screw it. I have spare 6X and 8X drives to toss in anyway. I wouldn`t have left the Afreey 2X in there. I wanted it as a spare. What I`m going to do with it now is send the drive back to Sampo America and make them replace it. They say they have ALL the bugs worked out of the drives they have. If it`s still the Actima than they`re full of @#$*. Carl has been working with the Actima people and they blame the problem on the firmware and haven`t gotten a version to fix it yet.

Here`s the cheapest place I`ve found to get the Panasonic drive:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?acmicro+shopping:dmks/Panasonic_6X_DVD+stdvd-070.html

After shipping it`s 80 bucks even. STILL a great deal on a great player. I`ll have 220 bucks into this puppy (without the additional spare 8X drive) and it`s well worth it. Remember, you will have to make the drive region free by putting the RPC-1 firmware on it which is available at http://www.firmware.com.bi.

Thanks for letting me know the weather in NY as I have to go to New Jersey in a couple weeks for our monthly business meeting. Damn.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

I can`t honestly say for sure but you know what, for as cheap as a crappy blank CD is, I`d go ahead and dedicate it just as a precaution. Maybe someone has done it but I personally wouldn`t bother (or risk doing something wrong when doing it right is so important).

Try the site again. I was just at it a little while ago and it worked fine. If you still can`t get it, lemme know. I don`t use an ftp client, I just put it in my browser and point and click my way to happiness. Try the root ftp://ftp.dvd-wizards.com/ and browse to Teddystacker from there. Advantages? A little better picture, fix problems with some DVDs, other than that, we don`t know yet. Shouldn`t hurt anything but you can always go back if it does. Reports are still coming in about the new improvements from people that have tried it. Sampo never says what it`s good for.

Lemme check on the Music Match. I am actually repeating what I was told. Since I do use MusicMatch a bit I will let you know if it is or isn`t possible. If so, I will give instructions as well. I think you put them all in the playlist, right click and do something from there. I dunno yet.

If you call and say it is defective, they will give you a new one for free. It`s a replacement. You`re not returning something and buying something else. Just say you`ve been having problems with your player and want it replaced with a new one. SIMPLE. They were awesome to deal with.

Since I`m on vacation, I have no idea what my player is. It`s at my house in the box and will be that way until I get home on the 28th. The minute I find out what it is I`ll let everyone know this to.

Oh yah, it`s been about 80 degrees every day since I`ve been in Florida. Man I miss summer. Chicago is too damn cold sometimes.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

Hmmmmm.....

I haven`t heard of THAT many problems with MP3 in once place! WOW!

I guess media could be the root of the evil. Something EVERYBODY should know about making MP3 discs: MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO ID3V2 TAGS ON YOUR MP3`S!!!!!!!. Only use ID3V1 (original) tags. V1 tags are at the end of the song. V2 tags are at the beginning of the songs and sometimes gives DVD/MP3 players fits as they don`t know how to handle them. Different folders is not a problem so I wouldn`t worry about that. Go to www.area450.co.uk for a bunch of info on mp3 support. Actually, just go to that page. There`s a ton of useful info on there for everybody. My mom and dad just hang out in the message area acting all high-tech there because that`s the place to be for Sampo/Encore/Afreey/Whatever info!!!

For all those curious about firmware, there has FINALLY been a new US firmware released for the Sampo 620. You can get it here:
ftp.dvd-wizards.com/teddystacker

The info from SETUP 12345 is "VER 3.4B C2 UY 2001/02/13"

If you wanna upgrade, I think you`ll be OK. You can always go back to 3.3C if for some reason you`re not happy.

Read the instructions Clayts has on his website (www.area450.co.uk) at http://website.lineone.net/~clayton.hayward/firmware3.3e.htm. They are for the Encore (Sampo player in the UK) and cater to their firmware releases but the instructions are good. Oh yah, make sure the file you burn is called sampodvd.rom. It won`t work otherwise.

Note: If you play mini-DVD`s on your Sampo, you may or may not be able to play them with this firmware. It hasn`t been checked yet. If you don`t know what a mini-DVD is or currently have one, don`t worry as you will probably never will use this anyway.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

Jack,

The only thing to really make sure of is the manufacture date. You NEED 10/2000. This makes the difference between a great player and a good player. If they don`t have it, don`t worry as you can swap out the drive yourself.

As far as the drives go, this is a great webpage with info about drives. http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/dvd/page0.htm

If you can get a Panasonic 8584 it seems to be a great drive to swap it with. We are currently trying an 8X Afreey drive which could end our problems. We will test this a bit further before we make the full suggestions. It is an option though.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

OK. This is only MY opinion so no flames please.

If you are in the U.S. and have a Sampo DVE-620 you probably have the 3.3C US firmware on it. I`d say stay with it for now.

All of the firmware updates are for the UK version of the DVE-560 (Encore 450). While they have made some small improvements, they really aren`t necessary or add much benefit. In fact, they add a bunch of menu options for things our players don`t have. Doesn`t hurt anything to have them there but I`m anal about having menu options that don`t do anything. Again, my opinion.

There has been a new US firmware released for the Sampo DVE-660. If there isn`t one already, a new firmware will be released VERY soon for the DVE-620 so I`d say wait for that. If you can`t, use the 660 update as it will only add the decoder menu options. But again, I`d say hold off for a new US firmware.

Here`s the benefits of using the UK firmware. They are updated (seamingly) often. They release them to fix problems with new DVD`s that give the UK units fits. I`d imagine if you use multiple region DVD`s you`d suffer the same problems so this would be a consideration to upgrade to the UK firmware. Rumor also has it that each new version makes the picture quality a little better (as far as pixalation goes). I haven`t noticed the improvement on the few that I`ve watched just for that purpose.

REMEMBER: Anytime you do a firmware upgrade you run the risk (it has happened to people) of killing the machine and forcing you to send it in to get fixed (or find a friend who can burn PLC EEPROMS - good luck).
99.99999% of the time they go smoothly but I do know of a few that killed their machine by way of power outage during the upgrade or some other goofy thing.

Some people feel confortable slapping every release of the firmware on to test it. I don`t recommend that for everybody. Personally I`m appreciative they do because they are our eyes and ears on these releases as nobody tells us what they fix. Sampo/Encore/Afreey/Whatever just gives us a new firmware version with no explenation. Bastards. ;)

The 30 second version, if you have a US Sampo DVE-620. Wait for the official US firmware that should be here soon.

My 2 cents...

Lemme know if I only confused you more. I confuse mysels sometimes. :)

For UK related questions (and great Encore support and downloads and general info, check out Clayts` Area 450 site at http://website.lineone.net/~clayton.hayward/index.html

-McHale

oh yah, as far as getting an S-Video to coaxial adapter, this will give no benefit over using the RCA cables through your VCR. All those are intended for are devices that ONLY have S-Video out to be played on a monitor or TV with no S-Video capability. It`s not as bad as you think. Use the RCA cables until you get a better TV. You will notice significant improvement with S-Video and even more with component out, but it`s not like listening to analog vs. DTS. I bought a new 36" Panasonic Panablack 2 years ago and they didn`t offer S-Video at the time. I didn`t think it was a big deal so I bought it. Now I want a TV with component out but I`ll be damned if I`m gonna toss a 1000 dollar TV for that. When it dies (or HDTV forces me to), I`ll buy a new one.

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

Well...

Some people don`t have any problems at all. I have had 4 so far and they have all done it - some worse than others.

This is an awesome player for 140 bucks. Don`t let me get you down on it. Without replacing the drive it`s still worth it. If you spent an additional 100 bucks on a replacement internal drive it`s even a better deal as the replacement drive will not only fix all the problems but give you better quality on mini-dvds!!!

Regardless of audio problems, the player still pauses on occasion for a couple seconds once in a while. But I don`t think I ever had a problem with audio through the analog outs. I ran that way for a month or so. I do have audio problems now probably at least once or twice per movie.

If there was a DVD drive that was new (and quiet) I`d be happy to replace the drive in my Sampo at my own expense. Simply put, with all the crap it does (mp3, VCD, CDR, CDRW, etc.) AND the fact it has some nice "extra" features, I will buy another if mine craps out tomorrow.

Interesting side note, when I was in Hong Kong, EVERY DVD player I saw on the market had no region coding. God that was awesome!!!

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

Regarding MP3Files: The Sampo will find the mp3`s if you have subdirectories. I burn mine with NO files in the root and have subs like 60s, 70s, 80, 90s, etc. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REMOVED ID3V2 TAGS FROM ALL OF YOUR MP3S!!!!! The 620 doesn`t like `em. Use MusicMatch Jukebox (www.musicmatch.com) to remove them all at once.

As far as the replacement drive: The drive in the Sampo is nothing more than a 2X PC DVD-Drive. Swapping it is just like swapping a CD Drive or DVD Drive in a PC. Just a few screws and a power cable and an IDE cable.

The sound and pausing problems are definately drive related. When swapping the internal drive with a better one (that is RPC-1) it fixes all the problems. I believe it may have something to do with the limited cache of the original drive. I dunno for sure by Sampo has finally acknowledged the problem and have been good to work with so far. If you have a unit built in 10/2000 or newer, you shouldn`t have any problems since they are now (or were) using Afreey drives which seem to be better. The old drives were Actima 210 drives and pretty cheap.

I just spoke to Mike in tech support at Sampo and he is checking what the drives he just received are and if they are NOT Actima, is going to send me one.

I just bought Scary Movie (very, very dumb movie by the way) and it has all sorts of fits. Matrix plays flawlsessly. This movie pauses and skips all over the place when watching the bonus stuff. It won`t take more than a few minutes to test the new drive.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

I didn`t notice the audio problems that much when I was using the analog outs. Now I use the optical exclusively (to my DTS audio receiver) and that`s when I started to notice the audio dropping out. I know a bunch of others with the same problem.

The problem is with the dvd drive that they used in the older models (pre 10/2000). The newer drives (10/2000 on) seems to fix the problem and Sampo has seemed to finally admit to it.

I know people who have swapped out the internal drive for a 6X Panasonic and it now is flawless.

Since my unit is brand spankin new, Sampo is gonna give me a new drive if I have to drive to Taiwan and get it myself!!!! (Well, I can`t drive across the ocean but you know what I mean).

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

Glad to hear it. In fact, I tried to order a couple and they were out. YOU PROBABLY GOT `EM!!! GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Seriously. Be glad you got it when you did. Rumor (and I stress to ANYONE reading this) has it that the MPAA has fated the Sampo lines like they did to the Apex 600a so the newer ones won`t be able to be hacked. Also on the rumor mill is they are being discontinued. I will be talking to Sampo next week and I`ll prod them for information.

Luckily, the Sampo didn`t get the hype that the Apex did and I don`t think the MPAA are smart enough to check out these forums so it may be just speculation. But one of the MPAA members might have a smart kid or something. :)

None of the above have been confirmed so don`t get excited yet, but for anyone reading this and debating when to get one, now might be a good time to purchase it.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

Mine just came in from 800.com on monday. I guarentee the codes work. What you could let us know is if the Manufacture date is 9/2000 or newer. Mine is 9/2000 but I`m thinking that newer ones (which have different internal DVD drives) are better. Just a theory so don`t worry if you get one that`s 9/2000. Mine is 9/2000 and don`t have any problems.

Also, for cheaper DVD`s, places like circuit city, best buy, and wal-mart are among the highest.

I usually check out www.closeoutvideo.com. I picked up a DVD that was 30 bucks EVERYWHERE (even online) for 17 bucks there.

I also use a DVD search engine at www.dvdesp.com when I`m searching for specific titles.

Of course, you can check out amazon and cdnow but that`s usually a last resort for me as I`ve had better prices elsewhere. I also buy used here and there.

-McHale

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

Actually, the Sampo (US) has an additional code that works in the 3.3c version that didn`t work in the UK (3.3D) version. It changed the DVD LOGO when you first turned on the machine (LIKE ANYBODY GAVE A s*** ENOUGH ABOUT THAT!!!!)

Anyway, here` all the codes and descriptions I`ve collected so far... Enjoy. These have been tested on 3.3C (US) and 3.3D (UK) and the differences between the two have been noted. Enjoy...

p.s., if the formatting is all screwed up it`s because I had the bright idea that it would look nice and pretty once it was open on the viewing page as opposed to the SUBMIT REPLY page.

-McHale

SETUP 12345 CHECK FIRMWARE VERSION

I tested these commands on VER 3.3D C2 E 2000/08/09 and VER 3.3C C2 UY 2000/05/25)

SETUP 38883
CHANGE REGIONS

REGION ID>>REGION 1 (USA & Canada)
REGION 2 (Europe, Japan, South Africa, Middle East)
REGION 3 (South-East Asia)
REGION 4 (Central & South America, Australia, New Zealand)
REGION 5 (Former Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, Africa)
REGION 6 (China)
BYPASS (Will Play ALL Regions except some Region Code Enhanced Discs)
SETUP 590419
SET CSS AND MACROVISION

CSS >>AUTO (Plays ALL DVDs)
OFF (Will NOT Play Copyrighted DVDs)
MACROVISION >>AUTO (Copyprotection ON)
OFF (Copyprotection OFF)
SETUP 72555
TOGGLE PAL/NTSC/MULTI MODES
(Europe/USA/all?)

SETUP 62555
US Changes The Logo - LOGO PAL, LOGO NTSC
UK Didn`t do anything. :(

SETUP 8888
cycles the output from composite round the other options from the setup menu.

US Y/CR/CB, S VIDEO
UK SCART COMP, SCART RGB, SCART S-VID, S-VIDEO


Side Note: Region 7 = Reserved
Region 8 = Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)

RE: Sampo 620 USA player hack and Macrovision info needed

>A- Can you get rid of Macrovision on this player( The USA player)

yes

>B- Can this player playback NTSC disk on PAL TV and
>PAL disk on NTSC TV ( I dont have a multisystem TV)

yes

>C- Does this player have any known problems after the hack

no

>D- How is the Audio Video Quality on this player

pretty damn good. As I`m sure you know it has DTS out to plug into your receiver so that`s awesome. Using the component out for video is great. I run mine through my VCR as well in case I need to watch a movie at a friends house who can`t play PAL DVDs.

>I need to get two of these in one week

www.800.com for 139 bucks.

-McHale

RE: Sampo DVE-620

Thanks for checking. To be honest, I don`t think it makes a difference now that I`ve been reading multiple newsgroups on Sampos (and Encores).

With people PUTTING the US firmware on their units, I`m convinced that the units being sold for 139 bucks will do what mine does.

The reason mine was so expensive is because they flashed from 3.3c (US) to 3.3d and put the MAV hack on for macrovision. Because of all that hassle they charge what they charge. To be honest, if we didn`t have the newsgroups and I didn`t know anything about firmware or ROMS and all that stuff, it would be well worth it.

As far as Pan & Scan goes, your unit behave as everyone else`s does. I had the same question when I got my unit. I`ve seen many DVD players (Apex included) that when you set it to Pan & Scan, it would either zoom in to fill the screen (losing stuff on the left or right) OR it would stretch the top and bottom making everything tall and thin. I have seen consistantly people with the same complaint so yours isn`t broken.

If anyone`s interested, I`ve taken a slew of photos that shows exactly how to take the unit apart, remove the old DVD-ROM and face plate, and the ground screw to remove. Of course I realize that it isn`t a big deal to do what I did, but for anyone thinking of putting up tutorial web pages, the pics are done.

I`m probably going to replace the internal DVD-ROM drive with a Panasonic 8X DVD and put the RPC1 firmware on it. I understand that it will fix all the audio and freezing problems.

Not much more to report on this end.

-McHale

RE: ENCORE- hack - no more flashing back and forward.

HEY!!! I`m <NAME REMOVED BY MODS> (that`s what I get for sending EMail from my work address. At least they didn`t post my phone numbers!). I was in the news and I missed it? Crap!!!

I informed them it was missing from the page and believe me, I sure wish I could take credit for it, but I sure as hell didn`t come up with it. I got it right here. I first saw it posted by Chris W. Thanks a ton Chris. Here`s the post:

Sampo etc. Macro Hack
posted by Chris W on Thursday, 21st December 2000, 11:41 Forum: Hack Help
People might want to try the following sequence instead of the usual 38883 when you`ve got the 3.3e firmware.....

SETUP
590419

This may get you to a more interesting loopholes menu :-)

[I don`t have one so cant test it but thought people might be interested in trying before it becomes a dvdtimes exclusive]

Chris

This item was edited on Thursday, 4th March 2021, 08:53

RE: cheap R1 & R2 DVD`s

For R1 Discs, I go here. It`s a search engine of the major people selling `em.

http://www.dvdesp.com/

Also, try www.closeoutvideo.com. I saved 15 bucks on ONE DVD there. Everyone was selling it for 30 bucks and they sold it for 15. QUICK shipping. They say on their webpage if it`s in stock or not and also sell used DVDs.

-McHale

RE: Sampo DVE-620

I dunno. One thing you will find if you attempt customer support is it is very poor (not at ALL like Encore which this unit basically is I think).

When you go into Setup and change from Pan and scan to letterbox to widescreen, I don`t notice a difference on ANY of the DVD`s I`ve tried.

My nephew had an Apex 600 (new one). When you hit any of those three, you would get something different every time regardless of the dvd.

I also have a problem once in awhile where you will be watching a DVD and the movie will just stop for a couple seconds and then continue. Once I had it where I paused the movie and when I hit play again, it wouldn`t. I had to stop it and track back to where I was. Overall I`m basically happy with the player but p***ed I paid 80 bucks too much for it.

Here`s all I have for the complete list of Sampo codes. If anyone has any more, please post them... STILL LOOKING FOR ROM FILES IF ANYONE HAS THEM TO SEND!!!!!

SETUP 12345
CHECK FIRMWARE VERSION (mine is VER 3.3D C2 E 2000/08/09)

SETUP 38883
CHANGE REGIONS

REGION ID>>REGION 1 (USA & Canada)
REGION 2 (Europe, Japan, South Africa, Middle East)
REGION 3 (South-East Asia)
REGION 4 (Central & South America, Australia, New Zealand)
REGION 5 (Former Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, Africa)
REGION 6 (China)
BYPASS (Will Play ALL Regions except some Region Code Enhanced Discs)

SETUP 590419
SET CSS AND MACROVISION
CSS >>AUTO (Plays ALL DVDs)
OFF (Will NOT Play Copyrighted DVDs)
MACROVISION >>AUTO (Copyprotection ON)
OFF (Copyprotection OFF)
SETUP 72555
TOGGLE PAL/NTSC/MULTI MODES
(Europe/USA/all?)
SETUP 8888
cycles the output from composite round the other options from the setup menu.

SCART COMP, SCART RGB, SCART S-VID, S-VIDEO


Side Note: Region 7 = Reserved
Region 8 = Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)

If you set the DVD to bypass, will it allow Region 7 (if ever available) and Region 8? COOOOOL!!!!!!!!

-MikEy

RE: Sampo DVE-620

I bought mine from www.neworleansx.com for 212 plus shipping and stuff. They gave me 2 codes (not the good one) when I got it. After I ordered it, I found one on the web for 149 bucks.

The one I got was made in Taiwan so it was designed to be any region and changed before shipping. The one`s made in the US are programmed region 1 but the guy from Sampo America (who didn`t speak English so good) said they were exactly the same and the codes all work. If you still have your box, see if it says made in Taiwan or Made in the US on it. That will be the clincher for me

Anybody reading this that wants the link for 149, post interest and I`ll put it up here. It is a pretty decent DVD player and if the 149 buck job has all the bells and whistles it`s a definate must have for anyone looking to get one...

-MikEy

RE: The sixth sense

I`m in the US (region 1). Playing it on a Sampo 620 with region coding and macrovision off. Works A-OK here...

The ONLY thing I can think of is secure all connections. I had wavy lines once in awhile and when I replaced all the cables with new, it went away. I swore they were good...

-MikEy

RE: Sampo DVE-620

DeCSS (which STILL is wrangling around in the courts) removes CSS protection from DVD`s which allows them to be copied on to a hard drive and played as a regular .mpg file. If you copied the file to the laptop (without removing CSS) you wouldn`t be able to play it.

As the DVD drive is a PC based drive (uses a HD cable and all), maybe they put it in for something PC related? I dunno. Turning CSS off makes it so you can`t play any DVD`s with CSS protection. Leaving it set to AUTO allows you to play a DVD regardless of CSS protection. Why someone would turn it off... NO IDEA!!! You will never want to turn it off (of course unless you don`t want the babysitter using your DVD player).

Out of curiosity, was that a region 1 DVD player or was it something else? When I purchased my 620, they sold it for 70 bucks above everybody else because they said the US made 620 wouldn`t allow any of the codes to work and only the one imported from Taiwan would work. Sampo America said he was wrong but I want to find out...

-MikEy

Can someone E me the Sampo 620 ROMS?

I cannot find ANYWHERE on the web I can download the ROMS (everything up to 3.3E). If anyone has any, please send them and I will put up a SAMPO webpage...

<EMAIL REMOVED BY MODS>

This item was edited on Thursday, 4th March 2021, 08:52