LG BH200: Hidden Hacking Options - Page 2

would I need to have a region B BD to try it out?

I think a bit of a EUREKA is in order.

Setting Byte 4 to 96 changed my US BH200 to Region B. As reported in the Region Info screen, and verified with Region B The Simpsons Movie (Australian, Fox, region locked).

Thanks Brad & AlfaGT!

What does "06" do?

I should add that using the last 5 bits for complete region control makes sense. You need 2 bits for Bluray and 3 bits for DVD; what I dont understand is the pattern, could really do with a Japanese or Austrailian BH200 EEP readout.

Going all out straight away with "9F" for the BH200 might be risky (Might also be Region Free ).

ill try this when i get home if nobody else beats me to it.


I assume 82 works as well, i think thats what i set mine too....whichever string is listed first on the front page of the faq. just checking.

ah, nevermind. i just read the update that 82 disables the Update option. need to make a note of that and change it to 8D when i get home.

If the last 5 bits control Regions......
96 - The last 5 bits are set to 22
Zone B - Region 2?

It still doesnt make sense as to why the USA is 0 though.

SD DVD Region was 0 as set by the RMTM CD. It looks like, if you run the RMTM CD, you can't subsequently change the SD region code using the Byte 4. SD region coding can only be changed using the RMTM CD again. This doesn't seem to be a problem except in testing what the EEPROM string means. Anyway, under 96 PAL playback is fine and there is no Network Update option.

Region A playback is not possible with 96 (tested with The Lives of Others, Sony, US, Region A Locked). However, you don't need to reboot the BH200 to change the BD region code. I was able to swap between Region A and B and play Region A- and B-locked movies using PAUSE-1-4-7-2 and changing Byte 4 between 8D and 96.

I guess we need some more non-US BH200 users to post their Byte 4s and see if we can work out the patterns. Ones I have tried are:

00 = 0000 0000 = R1/RA/NTSC/Network Update
80 = 1000 0000 = R1/RA/NTSC+PAL/Network Update
82 = 1000 0010 = R2/RA/NTSC+PAL/No Network Update
8D = 1000 1101 = R4/RA/NTSC+PAL/Network Update
96 = 1001 0110 = R2?/RB/NTSC+PAL/No Network Update

I don't know if the binary values are in any way significant, but it might be the case that Bit 1 enables PAL and maybe Bit 4 is the BD region code. The SD region code could be somewhere in Bits 5-8 but the pattern isn't obvious. Anyway it might not be binary at all, there could be an internal table that translates between the EEPROM numbers and a matrix of values.

I seem to remember that the BD region coding is designed such that there can be no such thing as a multi-region BD player, it has to decide each time whether it's going to be A, B or C. All of the (hardware!) BD multi-region solutions have involved switching between A or B. So we may be out of luck finding a single EEPROM value that will allow A/B/C playback, but the little LG has already surprised us.

As far as I know this is by far the simplest way to play an off-region BD in any BD player. The others involve hardware or flashing the whole firmware. Ours doesn't even need a reboot, though you need to be handy with the remote.

I'd love to sit here and test all the possible Byte 4 values, but given the risk of bricking I might leave that to someone who lives closer to where they bought the unit.

It's just the hex code expressed in binary -- that's what Krobar was talking about with the last 5 bits.

My Canadian BH200 originally had EEPROM value 43 41 00 01 00 05 00 40.

The initial 43 41 is ASCII hex for "CA", the country code for Canada.

Interestingly, the fourth byte was originally 01, not 00 as in the U.S. models. It had the same characteristics as the U.S. models, i.e., DVD Region 1, BD Region A, NTSC-only, Network Update available.

I have since changed that byte to 8D to enable PAL, thanks to the splendid info unearthed in this forum.

Since I applied the RMTM CD, nothing changes the SD DVD setting in Region Info window. It's always whatever I set using the RMTM CD. Before I applied the RMTM CD, I didn't look at the display but using 8D the BH200 only played R4 SD DVDs.

The 8D came from an Australian BH100... it may be that 8D isn't "meant" for any BH200 -- certainly not the Australian once since that would be Region B, maybe a South American one but I don't know if LG is planning to release a South American version. It sure would be handy if they did!

It may just be coincidence that the BH100's 8D code has the observed effects on a BH200. It all does seem to point to the idea that the binary digits are significant.

bradavon,

Note that I had previously used the RMTM CD to set the DVD region to 0. Therefore, my System Information screen was showing:

DVD Region: 0
BD Region: A

When I changed EEPROM byte 4 from 8D to 96, it then showed:

DVD Region: 0
BD Region: B

PAL was still enabled, and the Network Update menu item disappeared.

As you have noted, changing EEPROM byte 4 doesn't override the DVD Region setting made by the RMTM CD. However, I found that if you perform a Factory Reset by pressing PAUSE on the System Information screen, the DVD Region code does get changed to what you would expect, i.e., 8D -> R1, 96 -> R2. Note that this change does NOT occur when you perform a Factory Reset from the normal user menu (SETUP->OTHERS->Initialize->Factory Reset).

Over in the BH100 thread, Krobar mentioned a few other "remote codes for LG users to try". Unfortunately, the one for turning HDCP off/on didn't do anything for me. But his third sequence did produce an interesting result. Entering:

PAUSE, 2, 4, 8, 6, 5

brought up a screen with three choices:

1. System Log, 2. ATAPI Log, 3. HDMI EDID

Entering 3 displayed the EDID info received from the display via HDMI, which might be useful, e.g., for determining if your display claims to support 50 Hz or 24 Hz resolutions.

But the especially interesting one, with respect to the topic of this thread, was choice number 1, System Log. That displays a typical log of software activity. You can page through it using the up and down direction keys on the remote. Press RETURN to get back to the choice among System, ATAPI, and EDID. Press RETURN again to get back to normal operation.

On about page 15 of the System Log it lists "Player Option Information". For my Canadian BH200 with its factory default setting, it gives the following info:

MODEL: SMB_PLAYER_CANADA
Country: CA
Option Code: 43 41 00 01 00 05 00 40
Initial Language: English
TVSystem: NTSC
BDRE: Enabled
BD: Enabled
BD9: Enabled
HDDVD: Enabled
3xDVD: Enabled
Screen Saver: 5
Show Mode: OFF
Admin Mode: OFF
Auto Power Off: ON

When I change EEPROM byte 4 to 8D, three of the above lines change value:

MODEL: Non name model
Option Code: 43 41 00 FFFFFF8D 00 05 00 40
TVSystem: PAL

(That's probably just a print formatting or conversion bug in the 4th byte of the Option Code, treating it as a signed byte, converted to a 32-bit hex value.)

I would guess that the above list of parameters are all encoded in the EEPROM string. That one labeled "BDRE" looks interesting; might it stand for something like "Blu-ray Disc Region Enforcement"?

Looking at this a couple of things are known:
Bit 7 - If on enables PAL
Bit 6 - ?
Bit 5 - Part of BR Zone Control??
Bit 4 - Part Of BR zone Control
Bits 2 & 3 - Control SD Region
Bit 1 - If on disables Network
Bit 0 - ?

94 - Should enable network update on Euro Player

We need to find out if Bit 5 really is involved in Zone Control. Anyone willing to risk trying "A0"?

I will try changing 96 on my Euro Player (Switzerland) to 94 to find out if it really enables me the network update - Will try this evening when back from work.

By the way: Thanks to All for the endless support and all the testing.
I think some day, we find out some interesting things that let us enable some cool features

Cheers
AlfaGT

These are supportable assumptions but I don't think we can call all of them "known" yet. For example, there are six DVD regions (plus Region 0) so you'd probably need three bits to cover all the possibilities. The Network setting might follow from the DVD region (eg if you're in Europe you don't get an update) but I guess we'll see when AlfaGT gets home

I would guess that BDRE stands for recordable Blu-ray discs, ie BD-REs. But maybe that's too prosaic.

As I mentioned earlier you need 3 bits to cover all dvd regions and 2 bits to cover all BD zones. Maybe LG thought only Regions 1-4 needed to be available.

I dont understand why they would tie in network connectivity with the DVD region but you are right that we are not 100% sure on what Bit 1 does so AlfaGT you may not want to try 94 just yet.

Guys, you are really funny
Decisions, decisions, decisions.......shall I try or shall I not try

I've another 5 hrs to make my decision. I let you know

Cheers
AlfaGT

I just meant it as an example: not all the features are necessarily represented by discrete bits in the EEPROM. Since Network Update wasn't included until the most recent firmware, and maybe wasn't contemplated on first release, it might not have its own bit in the EEPROM. Then again, it might. We'll see what AlfaGT decides

I changed my EEPROM code from 82 to 80. As indicated elsewhere, it restored the "network update" entry in the home menu, without affecting the PAL playback or BD region code. The SD DVD codes are controlled by the hack, so this change did not affect Region 0 display in the summary screen.... 80 seems to be as valid as 82 or 8D entries