LG BH200: Hidden Hacking Options - Page 6

I'm New here in this forum.
Thanks for everything allowing me to read finally on my new BH200 I bought in France (FNAC) BDR coming from Canada and USA.
If that could help my Default String is : 46 52 00 91 00 05 00 40

Note: you've never talked about the 4th "91" for France. Something strange here?

Before I was using my HTPC with Power-DVD and AnyDVDHD. My HTPC is working very well but it's too noisy and not easy to live with every day.
I really would like to help to make this BH200 BDR region free.

peterjcat already reported that 91 is the 4th-byte code for France, in post #95 of this thread.


It is likely that there have been 4th-byte codes assigned to Region C countries, but we just haven't found them yet. peterjcat only tested about 35 of the 128 possible codes. Either we need further testing (a tedious job) or an owner's report from someone who bought a BH200 in a Region C country (e.g., Russia, India, China, Mongolia...), to give us the ability to play Region C BDs.

And if we are really lucky, one of those 128 possible codes just might be a magic one that enables all BD regions.

Looks like India is in Region C. Anyone interested in Blu-ray Bollywood movies might consider Region C important.

Alas,it was not to be... The guys on the web-based manual source turned out to be wankers, but thanks to PayPal, I got my money back... So it's back to risky testing

Hi guys

46 52 00 91 00 05 00 40 has anyone tought if this string from france the 91 is region 2 region B network update someone could actually add it to the list

OK, I found a couple Region C model codes:

A6 - CIS (Russian Commonwealth)
C2 - China

I don't have a Region C Blu-ray Disc to test these, of course, but if you set the 4th byte of your EEPROM to A6 or C2, the System Information screen does say BD Region: C.

(You can also use the corresponding codes with the PAL bit turned off, i.e., 26 or 42, if you don't want to enable 50Hz output.)

So, I guess we now have a way to play DVDs or BDs from any region on the BH200, albeit with a bunch of remote button presses required each time you wish to change the BD region.

By the way, I also found a bunch of other model codes:

AC - Australia
AD - New Zealand
C4 - Japan
C5 - Korea
D2 - South Africa
and about 10 more

However, I didn't try all possible codes and I didn't find one that caused the System Information screen to report BD Region: ANY. If anyone wants to continue the search, I can provide you with a list of those codes that I tried, to save a bit of work.

Well after a bit of a panic last week, followed by a weekend of watching many BDs, HD DVDs and SD DVDs, I decided that the disc errors I was getting from futzing around with the EEPROM were just a coincidence. I have now tried a bunch more codes using the same technique as before, ie trying a Region B-only BD for each code and then checking the System Log for the version name.

I have now checked 00 to 60 and have unfortunately come up with no region-free code. I did, however, find a Region C code: 26 will give you Region C (and so will A6 if you want PAL) and is the code for Russia (well, CIS, which Russia briefly was post-USSR, some of these names are quite interesting).

I'll keep going just in case there is a region-free code in there. After that we may have to look at the other bytes or just forget about it.

Beat me to it! Well done.

We should have divided up the job, to avoid all that duplicate effort!

You said you checked from 00 to 60. I presume that's 60 hex, not decimal? The only ones I checked above 60 hex were 61, 6A, 71, and 7F. They were all duds ("Non name model"). However, when the code was set to 7F (actually, FF), the machine took a lot longer to power down than normal, so it seemed to have some unusual effect (though I didn't test that multiple times, so it may have just been coincidental).

Yeah, we should have. But never mind. Yes, 00 to 60 hex and now all the way to 7F. So there's no magic region-free code, unless there is something in 80-FF which seems unlikely since all those have been the PAL versions of 00-7F.

Did any of the country codes report Region 0 for SD-DVD? Maybe Region 0 by EEProm will be RCE friendly.

dring and petercat:

As before...Wow. Great work. Sorry to hear it was a duplicate effort, but even that has its benefits (you independently verified each other's work). In any case, much appreciated. Thanks!

Sorry, no Network Update with the 26/A6 (Russia) or 42/C2 (China) model codes.


No Network Update with 11/91 (France) either.

Has Network Update capability been found with any model code other than 00/80 (USA) or 01/81 (Canada)?

At this point, it looks like we can change the BD Region supported by the BH200, but we haven't (yet) found an "all BD Regions" mode.

For those who wish to switch among different BD Regions, I would suggest the following:

• to play Region A discs, set the 4th byte of the EEPROM to 00 (for 60Hz-only displays) or 80 (for 50/60Hz displays), or to its original value if your BH200 was purchased in a Region A country.
  
• to play Region B discs, set the 4th byte of the EEPROM to 20 (for 60Hz-only displays) or A0 (for 50/60Hz displays), or to its original value if your BH200 was purchased in a Region B country.
  
• to play Region C discs, set the 4th byte of the EEPROM to 26 (for 60Hz-only displays) or A6 (for 50/60Hz displays), or to its original value if your BH200 was purchased in a Region C country.

To perform a network update if the Network Update menu item does not exist under SETUP>OTHERS:

• set the 4th byte of the EEPROM to 00 (for 60Hz-only displays) or 80 (for 50/60Hz displays).
  
• power cycle the BH200 using the POWER button on the remote, to make the menu item appear.
  
• perform the update by using the Network Update menu item.
  
• set the 4th byte of the EEPROM back to your preferred value.
  

Instructions for changing the EEPROM are in the first post of the BH200 Mini-FAQ thread.

Any comments or corrections?

I think all the unassigned model codes default to the behaviour of the 00 (USA) model, i.e., DVD Region 1, BD Region A, Network Update available, and NTSC/PAL according to the high-order bit of the code.

Looks great, a lot less wordy than my version.


Any assigned Region B model code will do. I just thought A0 was a more aesthetically pleasing, "uncluttered" number than those others, and kind of congruent to 80 for Region A.


Many TVs in the USA and Canada do not support 50Hz video input. When you enable the BH200 PAL capability, the startup images (e.g., splash screen, initial Home menu, any error messages) are transmitted at 50Hz and will therefore not display properly or at all on many North American TVs. I am not sure at what point it will switch to 60Hz output, other than loading an NTSC DVD -- I'll have to do more experiments to determine that. But the bottom line is: if your display cannot support 50Hz video, you should not enable PAL. (Unfortunately, unlike some multi-region DVD players, the BH200 will not convert PAL to NTSC.)


Thanks!

I never found one, but I was a lot less thorough than peterjcat.

Interestingly, neither the model code for LG's home, Korea (45/C5), nor her similarly well-wired neighbour, Japan (44/C4), enabled the Network Update capability.

I've got the RMTM hack in place so the info screen always showed Region 0. My impression is that there are only two kinds of value for Byte 4, though: official model versions, which are each locked to the BD and SD region appropriate to that country, and all other values which default to the US. I don't think there's any region-freeness in Byte 4.

I would guess that it's in Byte 5 if it's anywhere. My backup unit should arrive in a couple of weeks so I'll feel better about playing around with that byte then.

FWIW I am using 90 or B0 for Region A and A0 for Region B because they're only one letter away from each other. Next job is to program the remote to do it automatically!

Latest version of the mini-FAQ looks perfect, Bradavon.

90 and B0 aren't official codes, so they're the same as 00/80 (Possibility that those codes may be used by future firmwares, but I'll cross that bridge etc). A0 is Spain.

Just learned that my Harmony Remote can only learn sequences of 5 commands in a row, so I've got buttons saying: "Change" (Pause-1-4-7-2) "BD Region" (Right-Right-Right-Right-Right), "A to B" (Right-Up-Pause) and "B to A" (Right-Down-Pause). Actually works pretty well since the BH200 queues remote commands nicely. Takes about 5 seconds.

What I mean is, everything that isn't an official code defaults to the behaviour of the official US codes 00 (NTSC only) or 80 (PAL/NTSC). 90 and B0 don't differ at all, they're just a keypress down or up from A0 and so quite handy for changing between BD regions.

(I keep forgetting you don't have a BH200 yet, all credit to you! But when you're in the EEPROM menu you have to cursor across to each digit and then up/down to change them, you can't just type the numbers in. So it's faster to get from 90 to B0 than from 80 to B0.)

And yeah, A0=B and B0=A is confusing but at least there's some system to it, you just have to remember "It's the opposite to what I'd expect". Or you can program your remote control and never have to worry about it