I recently bought a Malata 393 from a store in Vancouver (The Brick). It worked fine the first day but it seemed to set itself to PAL output. I couldn’t change it so I had to take it back to the store to replace it. The store no longer had any Malata DVP 393 so they gave me what they called ‘the upgrade’ to the 393, the Malata DVD 2818a.

It seems to have all the same features as the 393 and more, but it lacks the most important feature for me, the ability to change the region code. I just moved to Canada from the UK so having the PAL to NTSC conversion is nice but it’s no good to me if I can’t play Region 2 DVDs.
I can’t seem to find any info on the DVD 2818a on the web, not even on any of the Malata websites. Is it made for Malata by another company?

Any help to discover a way to change the region code would be greatly appreciated; it will save me having to return it yet again. I have included a picture if that helps.

Thanks
Rich