Panasonic DVD players made region/macrovision free without physical mods (some) - Page 5

Sango,

Can I send my RV-31 to you for a software upgrade "service disk #2". How much would you charge for the service? I would pay shipping both ways (from united states). Or is there any better alternative to make my player region free? Thanks, snowd0g.

Is there anybody in the Seattle area that still has the service disc #2 available? I have an RP56 that I'd like to try it on

Thought I'd give this a try again. Anyone around the Edmonton, AB area have the Service Disc #2. Would like to make my RP91 macrovision free for use with my projector.

Thanks again.

would like to borrow or rent

Can anyone loan or rent a copy of Service disk 2 in New Mexico or post a link to obtain a copy?

I have 2 Panasonic Service Disk 2 which I used to make my Panasonic RV-31 region free and macrovision free about two years ago. I live in London and do not need the disk anymore. I bought this disk for £10 and I am hoping to resell it on ebay unless someone in this forum wants it.

Cayod5

Cayod5 you have a private message.

I need a service disk as well. I am in Seattle Area if anyone can assist? Thanks.

hi,

i´m writing from Germany, so sorry for my english.
I tried the code on my S-75 DVD-Player. But I don´t get the password menu.
So, I have no chance to set my player region free?, even with the service disc?!

I wonder because, an english seller also offers his "specialremotecontrol" to set free the S75-DVD-Player.

take a look here: please google for "multi-region-co-uk"

- sorry I´m not allowed to post the url, because I´m new to the forum.

so there must exist some code...??!

Anyone who knows more about it?

best regards! an happy christmas.. :-)

Hi,

thanks for your fast answer.

But the code on the Special remote control: Isn´t it possible to transfer/enter this code with the normal remote Control oder even with a burned CD..?? I wonder why everybody has to pay for an such expensive remote control which you can use only once...

Anyone willing to ship the SD2 disc to Toronto. I'll pay for the disc + shipping both ways.

Anyone willing to ship the SD2 disc to Ottawa. I'll pay for the disc + shipping.

I contacted Panasonic regarding this a long time back and they told me it did not exist (even though I knew it did). I own an RP56 and would be interested in this.

I am also in the Toronto area and would be interested in this service disc #2. I have 3 panny dvd players at the moment. I will check if I can bring up the menu.

EDIT - I could not bring up the menu on either of the F85 or F87 5 disc dvd changers. Has anybody been able to bring up the menu on their F85 or F87? I will try my CV 51 another day.

I posted two replies ago. I am in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

I haven't looked at this thread lately, so I was interested in Atca's post.

There are two possibilities:

1) This is a standard remote, and it has been programmed with a macro that sends an IR signal to make your player region free. I f this is the case, you should be able to "teach" it to another learning remote. Some of the higher end remotes will let you see the IR code in several different formats (a popular format is the Philips Pronto "hex code").

2) This is a modified remote that sends an RF or "different" IR frequency. In that case, without hardward mods to a standard remote, a standard remote would not work.

Sango, do you have any idea what type of remote this is, or what the codes it is sending are?

Joe

It looks like these codes DO exist. Here are a couple of threads from one of my two favorite remote control forums, regarding a Sony model

http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin...i?keywords=560
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin...keywords=25693

This is a thread on a Pioneer:

http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin...?keywords=1838

I'm going to check out the second remote site I use (www.hifi-remote.com, which is big on the JP1 stuff referred to in the first thread) and see if there is any more info. Additionally, I have corresponded with several of the "experts" in the above threads -- I'll ask them if they know anything.

Joe

OK, this is what I've found so far:

http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3026

Discusses the "chipped remote" vis-a-vis a Panasonic DMR-E55 DVD recorder.

It seems that there is either a "Service" remote or at one time was a "Development" remote, that was used to set up these models of Panasonic DVD. Some of the links at Videohelp.com suggest that these remotes are still used at Panasonic service centers. The "hacks" comments for other Panasonic players also seem to agree that this only works for European (region 2) players.

I traded some PM's with the Robman -- one of the "grandest daddies" of them all with respect to remote control hacking. He's the owner of Hifi-Remote.com, and has been active there, on the other remote forums, and even over here. He's a member of the team which "decoded" the JP1 interface on UEI "One-for-All"/Radioshack remotes.

What he said is that holding the "shift" button down causes "setup" to send a different signal. There are a limited number of "free" IR commands. (I believe that it is 256 codes / 8 bits). These are listed for the codeset which controls the DMR-E55 on the thread I linked to above. It is likely that this is the same device which controls the other panny DVD player (if it isn't determine which it is, and I will see if I can get the unused codes list from Rob).

With a UEI "One-for-All"/Radioshack remote, you can manually send each of these "unused codes" and see if the macro worked.

The idea is that you would:

1) Send the unused code. On the UEI remote this is done by pressing "setup" then the 3 digit code
2) Send "enter enter" (this can be a macro)

if the menu pops up, you are good to go.

He points out, that if you have a JP1 cable (the interface between the remotes and the PC, you could "upgrade" a device that has the whole code string, and then only have to press one button instead of 5 or six.

Unfortunately, while I have a JP1 remote/cable, I don't have one of these players. The UEI remotes can be purchased for under $20 from almost any electronics store. You can also purchase them in Europe (http://www.oneforall-int.com/index.html).

If anyone manages to determine the "missing remote code" -- let me know, we will want to "publish" the information in the various remote control forums.

Joe

Are we talking about a 'Service Remote'? If you can find the part number I'd search Ebay. I have a running search on a Pioneer service remote and see them pop up at least once a uarter.

It might be.... I don't have a part number -- but a search on "panasonic service remote" on google brought up a couple of hits at http://www.donberg.ie/warehs/grouprp.htm

SERVICE REMOTE CONTROL PANASONIC
SERVICE REMOTE PANASONIC EURO 1 CHASSIS


There are lots of hits.... I also found this quote from the AVS forum (another Sango thread) http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post6648181


These just happen to be two of the "unused codes" that Robman listed.

Could be the "missing codes"!

Copied from the HIFI-Remote.com thread:

Turn On player with no disc inserted
While pressing SHIFT on the remote press SETUP (this may be OFA 143)
Press ENTER twice
Move the cursor to Other
Enter the appropriate four-digit region setting, beginning with 000
Press ENTER
Press RETURN twice
Switch unit Off for at least 3 seconds


Joe

My DVD-RP91 reacts to the 143 code by bringing up "FT 02" on the front display. It doesn't let me do anything else except when I press "Cancel", it initiallizes to default. The 145 code seems to work in a similar fashion.

As far as the instructions go, it seems the enter/enter may bring up something like the "action" button on my RP91. There is an "others" tab but it just lets you go into and out of the "demo" mode.

I'm afraid this is really going to have to be verified on a European DVD player.

Joe

Well, I can scroll through FT 02 to FT 03 to FT 01 using the |<< and >>| "skip" buttons. When I play a disk with it set to FT 01, it says "FT NG SKIP" -- it ignores the menu and FBI screeen.

Unfortunately, I don't have any region 2 NTSC disks (just PAL) so I can't verify that it is region free. It seems to revert when I hit "cancel", but sticks if I turn the power off.

With FT 02 and FT 03, it plays the menus, FBI screen, etc. No FT NG SKIP" message

If there is no disk, and it is FT 01, code 212 or 214 brings uo the message "FT NG LOAD"

Joe

After it gets into the FT 01 mode, and it is sticking until I "cancel" it -- even if I power down. The player acts weird -- some of the buttons no longer function while others do (fast forward and rewind work, but play does not )

I've asked a coworker to bur a couple of region test disks for me, and I'm going to try to obtain some Region 2 NTSC DVD's to see what I've managed to do.


Joe

Okay, this is a toughie. I have a RP91 that is region free, courtesy of the service disc. All my U.S. region 1 and Japanese Region 2 DVDs play fine, so I am sure it is region free.

Now, I have obtained a bunch of Chinese (PRC not Taiwan) DVDs that WILL NOT PLAY on the Panasonic due to region restrictions. They play fine in my computer.

What has been suggested is that the Chinese DVDs are verifying if the player checks the region, and because the RP91 doesn't check the region anymore, the DVD won't play. At least that is the only explanation I can find, so far.

Barring any other explanation and fix for why these DVDs don't play in the "region-free" RP91, I would like to use the service disc to set my player to the Chinese region, region 6 (I think).

How can I accomplish this?

TIA

I don't believe there is a way to do that, TIA.

Are you sure the Chinese discs are NTSC? PAL discs won't play on the RP91 even after the macrovision/region free mods are made by the service disc.

You can see from my earlier posts that there is supposedly a remote control way to make region 1 discs play on region 2 Panny DVD players, but I was unable to duplicate this with my Region 1 player (and a Region 2 disc).

Joe

I see I should update this.

Sango was nice enough to send me a region 2 NTSC disc.

Using the remote hack I was unable to get my region 1 DVD player to play region 2 discs. It may be that this only really works for region 2 players and region 1 discs, or it could be I'm still missing something.


Joe

Mainland China dvds are PAL. Only Hong Kong is NTSC. If you want to play PAL dvds on the RP91 you'll need a hardware mod like JVB does. I have this and it works great. It will NOT convert PAL to NTSC, just output PAL.

And because there are many cheap Chinese players out there that are both region free and will convert PAL to NTSC, I have a second player to do just that. The hardware mods are expensive, and worthless if you don't have a PAL monitor.