Page 1 of Durabrand DVD-1005 multi-region hack update and progress report

Ok, so you were grocery shopping in ASDA and saw a Durabrand DVD-1005 DVD player for £17.97. You threw it in your basket along with your pizza, beans and oven chips as a 2nd DVD player for your bedroom or for the kids. You thought `Can't go wrong for less than twenty quid!'
So you get it home, plug it in and, Wayhey!, it plays CD, MP3, DVD, DVD-R DVD+R and even DVD R/W`s - not bad for the price!`
Then you have a look at your DVD collection and notice all of those 'USA Blockbuster' Region 1's you bought for £25 each when you were younger, had no kids and a lot more disposable income! 'I wonder if there's a multi-region hack for this DVD player?' you think. So you have a look on the DVD Reviewer website and see the post from 'jimlfixit' about it being the same hack as the Durabrand DVD-1000. You punch in the code and … nothing. You try again … and again … nothing! Once more in case ididitwronglasttime … no change.

Ok, so I've had a look around to see what I can find out about this player. It's a pretty generic device made in China and sold to ASDA in the UK via parent company Walmart in the US by a company called Lennoxx - who have a website but as it states, are just a trading company and I would think therefore unlikely to give and technical information or divulge the details of their supplier.
So, basically we're down to working with what we know already.
Being from the same supplier, I started playing around with the same type of remote codes as the DVD-1000. So far, I've only managed to get the firmware revision out - in my case v1.35UK.
This was from the following-
Open lid. Press stop. Then 1 2 3. This then shows the firmware revision.

Unfortunately, this seems to indicate that a region specific firmware is flashed to the device prior to shipping and the device is therefore NOT REMOTE HACKABLE.

However, the firmware could well be updateable from CD if the firmware for the other regions (or a multi-region firmware or modified firmware) is made available.

I leave you with these rather less-than-conclusive findings in the hope that it will be of use to one of you.

Paul-ok

Lennoxx actually make the Durabrand 1000 as well and that is supposed to be Hackable ,They also make the Durabrand 2005 player ...and they also state that they actually Manufacture those items...see this page

www.lenoxx.com/DURABRAND/welcome_to_the_durabrand_page.htm

Athough I do notice the 1005 is not on the list ...well not yet anyway.

So it may be worth asking them as they may not just be a trading company.

Not a great deal of help I know ...but thought the info may be a little bit usefull

Hackeroonie

This item was edited on Thursday, 23rd February 2006, 01:24

OK I found it. No new firmware required. Can be done on the remote. See my new post. (Got no reply from Lennox btw).

Paul-ok

Nice One :) :) :) :)

Hackeroonie