Page 1 of region hack needed

Hi, just bought Akura adv559a from makro - am planning to send to my sister-in-law in USA so she can play pal disks. I`ve tested by switching tv to ntsc and akura to ntsc, pla playback was pretty good. Now need to ensure it`s region free so she can play her region 1 ntsc disks. Anybody got a remore hack (have searched usual sites), or can point me in right direction?

cheers for help

ps £20, 110-240v, pal/ntsc output, nice neat and v.small player

sorry, meant to post on hardware

This item was edited on Sunday, 27th November 2005, 10:31

Quote:
am planning to send to my sister-in-law in USA so she can play pal disks.

She won`t be able to play her PAL DVD`s unless her set is able to accept PAL signals, second time this has popped up this week further info here.

As far as I know most Akura stuff seems to be MR out of the box, though this probably won`t help you for your original purpose.



I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.

You seem to be saying that when I switch my tv to output NTSC (and the picture turns black and white for UK terrestial channels so I know it`s switched), and then switch the Akura to output NTSC signals (menu selected), then a PAL disk won`t play. Well it does. I`ve tried DVD set to Pal and TV to NTSC and it won`t play, same with other mixed variations (obviously PAL to PAL plays :) ) Bottom line is it plays when everyhing is set at NTSC.

So, as I understand it, certain DVD players, like the Cyberhome (mentioned in the link) it converts - on the fly - PAL to NTSC. Apparently the cheaper players do it by discarding the extra frames. I`m no expert but have an understanding that it can be done, JVC, Pioneer, Cyberhome, Coby - all have players on sale in the US that can do it. Look at ebay.com (US site) and search for PAL.

I do not have a region 1 disk to test whether or not it is MR out of the box. The instructions say it conforms to DVD standards and will only play region 2. I have however burnt a DVD using shrink and set region to 1, and it played it. But I think Shrink removes the protection that would stop it playing on a region 2 only box RCE?
There must be a code?

Quote:
You seem to be saying that when I switch my tv to output NTSC (and the picture turns black and white for UK terrestial channels so I know it`s switched), and then switch the Akura to output NTSC signals (menu selected), then a PAL disk won`t play. Well it does.

Yes I am.

Despite the fact you have set the DVD player & the TV to NTSC, the disc itself is still putting out a PAL signal (theres no standards conversion going on inside), which the TV is still capable of recognising.

I tried this 2 years ago trying to put a PAL DVD recording, playing on my Cyberhome cloned portable player (set to NTSC) on a US Hotel TV, without much joy I might add.

As stated for it being MR out of the box, I took that information from a quick search of the region hack forum for the brand name. Another quick search of the hacks listed on the site list of remote hacks lead me to this sole hack. I have no idea if it will work mind.



I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.

This item was edited on Sunday, 27th November 2005, 14:51

so what makes the Akura different to the Cyberhome CH300 that can recode from pal to ntsc? If you look on videohelp and read the reports it clearly recodes. Some don`t, which might have something to do with the chipset and firmware, but he - as I said I`m no expert.

That hack dosen`t work.

The player doesnt recode, the DVD is read as PAL & squirted out of the box as a PAL signal irrespective of what setting you have (granted it may not play in quite the same way) of NTSC.

Unless the TV in the US is PAL compatible, your gonna get a blank screen.

Quote:
If you look on videohelp and read the reports it clearly recodes.

Would you mind posting the link to where it states that the Akura is capable of that, such information is useful as I am planning on emigrating to Canada & if the unit does this I will get one myself.



I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.

I have the Akura hooked up to my tv, and it does exactly what I have described. The manual states under video "outputs:pal/ntsc", which I think is the key.

If you look at:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=2664&Search=Search&#comments

Basically people all over the US & Canada reporting that this player does the conversion. I think the Akura is doing the same thing, discarding the extra PAL frames and providing a very watchable NTSC conversion. When watching you can tell the difference, it`s not as smooth as PAL playback, but it`s not too bad. The disk I burned using shrink was an episode of Lost - so it would have been NTSC, and I set the region to 1 (instead of 0). It played it no problem. But as I said, I think retail disks have RCE which stop thenm playing. Again, I might be misunderstanding the international protection system here (RCE prevents disks from playing in other regions players?)

The issue for me, is whether or not it is region free out of the box, because not withstanding the RCE thingy, ideally my sister-in-law would want to leave it hooked up and play her US region 1 disks. I`ll contact Akura this week and check.

I can`t find anything under that link or indeed Akura adv559a.

Interested to know what Akura have to say though.



I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.

that link is for the cyberhome ch 300 - and was provided to illustrate how certain players do convert. As I said, I think the Akura behaves the same. The cyberhome has been out for a couple of years but I`m guessing the Akura adv559a is fairly new - so maybe a better chipset (or the same one!).

Any comments on what the cyberhome does? Most on that link appear to think it converts.

And here`s a bunch of players that do the conversion as you watch

http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?catalog86_0.html

So why wouldn`t the Akura?

OK I see where you are going with this & read the CH comments earlier, but was looking for the Akura.

Unless you actually know that the posters on that forum are using TV`s that are actually capable or not of displaying PAL information. Your not proving that the player does any actual decoding in itself.

TV`s in US that support PAL are rare, players with built in standards converters are a fair bit more expensive.

For the vast majority of people to the best of my knowledge in the US use TV`s that cannot decode material in a PAL format.

& at the risk of getting into a Paull & Phellings argument, I am going to leave it at that & state I hope it works out for you.

All the best.



I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.