Page 1 of CINEA SV300

The Cinea SV300, from a Dolby company, is a DVD player incorporating proprietary technology encoding "screeners" for AMPAS and BAFTA members and has been distributed to all their members, each member receiving an individual traceable machine, as will be the coded discs (which will be region free). It`s also a regular player and region based depending on where the member is. The players are made in the Phillipines.

Since the relevant numbers are relatively so small I would imagine the basic box can be hacked. And it`s a pain these days to have a machine that`s for general purposes is region restricted so I`m wondering if any resident genius yet has had experience with how to expand it.

Cinea themselves have recently upgraded and expanded the machine and it`s now multi-region so all is well.

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Cinea themselves have recently upgraded and expanded the machine and it`s now multi-region so all is well.

Hi Voltaire51 - can I ask where you heard that the SV300 had become region-free? I have been sent an upgrade disc ("Release 1.1") which I have installed, but the machine will still only play region 2 disks. Cinea are still saying that the machine can`t be set to region-free (eg in their faq at http://www.cinea.com/sv300faq.html#regionfree, although that might be out of date). It`s particulaly annoying because the BAFTA screeners Warner Bros have started sending out are half region 1 and half region 2, meaning I have the hassle of connecting different machines in order to watch the screeners. So of the Cinea can be made region free I`d be really grateful for any clue how to go about it.

Cheers.

I can confirm, I upgraded mine recently, and it still resolutely refuses to play region 1 disks (though it will play a region 4 DVD I`ve got - don`t know whether this was the case before).

I shall be taking this up with Cinea as they`re going to have to play ball if they want us to use this machine instead of our main players. Mine also has a problem with its SCART output on some disks (e.g the encrypted BAFTA screeners of The Producers and Narnia), which `flash` and `dim` every few seconds (completely unwatchable!). S-video seems to cure this problem.

This item was edited on Friday, 6th January 2006, 13:29

I called Cinea about this. Members of BAFTA are, by definition, in the industry and are more likely than anyone to legitimately have to watch DVDs from other regions so it`s stupid to have a region locked player. While the person on the phone couldn`t really say much it was clear from the conversation that he agreed with me, and that the studios are stopping them from region unlocking. I also got the impression that if the studios agreed to allow it, it would be pretty simple to do, so I reckon there are codes.

Any Cinea engineers want to spill the beans?!

Hi ivanmacx, yeah that`s the impression I got too, when I registered the machine, that it would be trivial to make the machine multi region if that was the company policy. Sadly, I couldn`t persuade the woman on the phone to spill the beans.

As a BAFTA member I`ve just received an apology email from UIP, who have just mistakenly sent out region 1 screeners of Munich because of "a laboratory error in the US", after the close of round one voting. I`m sure it`s a great film but with the hassle involved I doubt I`ll watch it before voting ends. I`m strongly considering relegating the Cinea player to the attic if I can`t find a multi region hack. I`ll let you know if I succeed!

Cheers

My apologies to you all for the extreme tardiness of this acknowledgement and reply but I`ve not thought about Cinea (thank god) for the past year, but that time has come around again!

It`s strange. When I upgraded in `05 my first machine did begin to play Region 1 as well as Region 2. Then it went down - this in the middle of the screeners period - and when after FOUR more attempts to get a working machine (with constant returns to Hungary) the final one was again only Region 2. Some half dozen encoded screeners I could never play when I needed to, so this dreary machine has affected voting choice. The Cinea call center seems populated by polite automata.

The Film Committee allegedly is making efforts to have these things made multi-region - but I wouldn`t hold your breath. It`s all nonsense anyway. Just how many AMPAS and BAFTA screeners have engendered piracy? Would someone please quantify?

Unlike last year when I had to return four faulty machines to Hungary my machine has worked well on the current screeners. However, it would still be great to get the thing region free so I`m reopening the discussion. BAFTA & AMPAS members, any new thoughts?

I read somewhere that this very expensive screener operation by Cinea was essentially a marketing exercise to establish the brand name for wider encryption usages and that the screeners are relatively small potatoes.

Unlike last year when I had to return four faulty machines to Hungary my machine has worked well on the current screeners. However, it would still be great to get the thing region free so I`m reopening the discussion. BAFTA & AMPAS members, any new thoughts?

I read somewhere that this very expensive screener operation by Cinea was essentially a marketing exercise to establish the brand name for wider encryption usages and that the screeners are relatively small potatoes.

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd January 2007, 08:16

Apologies for my double entry book keeping!