444 boom in Moscow

[Khizhiy]

I have been hunting the Pioneer DV-444 for two weeks here in Moscow looking for a better price. And alas! Now that the Christmas is coming people swept clean all the shelves in all the stores where the model had been sold. When I call a store, the manager can't hear '444' no more: so many people ask for it. It must be a very good DVD player for the price. By the way, it is region free

[lirasl]

Could you please tell us how to make it region-free?

[Khizhiy]

I personally do not know how to make the 444 region free. A service center in Moscow does the job. It has to, because otherwise the player will be useless here in Russia: most DVDs are from other regions. A person from a store that sells the players told me that there is a jumper or something inside the unit that makes it dependable on the region. Maybe the service center actually replaces the firmware. Anyway, I do not see visible traces of intrusion into the unit, and the warranty is still one year, and all the functions are present + region free. One can bring his own DVD player to the service center, and it will cost $15 to make the unit region free.