Info and forum posts by 'AdamRL'

RE: Q.Just moved to USA? which player for multi-region? A.Sampo DVE-620

Hi guys,

Thank you all for your help. I bought a Sampo DVE-620 and it came on Monday ($150 DynaDirect + shipping).

Apart from the terrible AV cables provided (which I instantly upgraded to gold connectors) - the unit worked `nearly` perfectly right out of the box.

The main issue I had was with firmware 3.3c - which I upgraded to 3.4b - which fixed some color pulsing issues.

The remaining one is that on one DVD in particular, `Porkys & Porkys II` (double sided disc) - the audio and video freeze intermittently around the beginning of chapters 9, 10 and 11 (haven`t checked further).

I played around with the audio settings - cycling through them - and at one point - although I don`t know how - seemed to fix the problem. Both the audio and video freeze disappeared.

Yet when I turned the unit off/on and replayed the aforementioned chapters the problem was back - and I can`t figure out what I did to fix it.

This doesn`t seem to be a disc problem - and I`ve replaced it once.

Any ideas what might be going on?

Thanks

Adam

RE: Just moved to USA - which player should I buy for region 1-2?

That looks like it should do the trick - and let me take it back to the UK afterwards. If anyone else is interested you can find info on the codefree version of this player here -> http://www.codefreedvdplayers.com/MSDVD_SMPO_dve-620_DTL.shtml

or the makers web site here (coded) ->
http://www.sampoamericas.com/products/dve620.html

The code free goes for about $350, the standard one $170.

It`s 110-240v and plays NTSC on PAL and PAL on NTSC.

1) Does anyone know if you can still hack the latest models? (I`ve seen old threads talking about firmware regression - but just wanted to double check!)

2) Also - how legal is it to use a code free player in the US, Oregon in particular. I`ve found several sites saying you can own the player, but whether you can legally play depends on the state. Anyone know of a good link?

3) Is there a multi-region (code free) hack that doesn`t involve disabling macrovision? - if the unit still had this intact - then I would have some backup in saying that I`m not interested in copying DVDs to Tape (something specifically sighted by the legal stuff I`ve seen) - and am just using it to watch my old english (R2) DVDs.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 4th April 2001, 02:17

Just moved to USA - which player should I buy for region 1-2?

I`ve just moved to the USA from the UK.

I have a number of region 2 DVD`s which ideally I don`t want to replace with Region 1 discs.

Can anyone recommend a good sensibly priced player I can buy in the US - which hasn`t had it`s hacking capability disabled? (Up to $300 pref.) I`m not looking for a multi-disc (unless around the aforementioned price) but do want to be able to play both region 1 and 2 discs.

I realise I might have problems with PAL - although shouldn`t that be bypassed by S-Video?

Thanks

Adam