I was landed with and Alba 108xi as an xmas gift, after a brief flick through the web I was left feeling I had been given a crappy DVD player, and was thinking about taking it back, I`d read tons of hacks and cracks, and their just seemed to be to many to make sense, however, I tried all of them and this is what I found....
Multi Region Hack
Your read lots on this one, secret codes 2812 enter 1,1 etc etc. Only one of them worked for me, Ive tested it several times, and it really is a working hack.
OK, Power on the DVD and open the draw, press SETUP on the remote, now scroll along using the right area key until you highlight CUSTOM SETUP, DO NOT press enter! Instead key in 3333, you are now taken to secret menu 1, highlight the region codes and select 0 for all regions. It took a bit of fiddling about to actually change the region, you have to highlight the region menu so it goes yellow, and then faff about with the arrow keys, but it doesnt take a genius to work out...
VCD Playing
Their seem to be tons of patches for this, press the same number tons of times as the draw is closing, key in 2218 as it closes then press 1, all of which do work, but its very hit and miss, and most frustrating. But their is a much simpler way to play VCD.
Insert the disc and close the draw, wait for it to load and the LCD to display STOP.. Now, press PROGRAM, 1, ENTER and the press PLAY, VCD will now load and play, tried and tested a number of times, perfect each time...
Few bugs, I burned 3 episodes of south park to a VCD without a menu page. After the first episode ended the second did not follow, however, easy to get round, say you want to play episode 3 on the disc, you would key in the same commands, but replace the number 1, with the corresponding episode number, eg want to play episode 3, key PROGRAM, 3, ENTER , PLAY.
You might get round that if you burn a VCD menu, but I have not yet tried to, but it would make logical sense.
Playing SVCD
Not tried yet, but i assume its the same as a VCD, will have to report back on that.
Playing MP3
Still cant get it to play anything MP3 wise thats burned with a drag and drop app like Easy CD, i will keep trying..
What with things like Secret menu 1 being found I would be suprised if a secret menu 2/3 etc etc didnt exsist, will report back if I find any more, but the above hacks work fine!
Overall its not a bad little DVD player for £70... Doesnt look to hot, but overall im very hapy with how its turned out!
