Question how Chinese reprogram remote chip in DVD player

[jimdagys]

I have a Malata DVP 352 DVD player and was considering getting a remote control to replace a misplaced one. I took the DVD player to a Chinese repair shop and he said the cost would be $5. The procedure is that he would open up the DVD player, remove a small chip ( he opened the player and showed me the socketed chip - number EN25F80 serial flash, see photo ), then plug the chip in a small box which evidently reprograms the chip, replace the chip back into the DVD player and sell me a new remote control which he said would work perfectly. He also made clear, that should I ever find the original lost remote, it would no longer work after he did the above operation.
My question is: can someone explain in more detail what the repair shop is doing? Is this kind of procedure commonly done?

[redwudz]

Quite a few devices have programmable chips in them, cell phones for example. You can use a external programmer to erase and 'burn' in new data to a eeprom (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Module) chip.

http://www.amazon.com/EEPROM-Programmer-Reader-24C1024-support/dp/B009S07JFW

http://lateblt.tripod.com/eeprom.htm

[jagabo]

Large Chinese DVD manufactures sell the same electronics to many different companies. Those companies build their own cases and badge the players as their own. Along with the factory hardware comes a basic firmware kit that the companies modify to include their own logos, background images for the menus, and different codes for the remote control. What the repair shop did is burn a different company's firmware (or maybe the manufacturer's default firmware) onto the unit's flash memory.