Any advice on this welcome - sony DVP CX 955v

[johnnnys]

Hi,
If anyone can throw any light or comments on the following question i would be gratefull.
I have purchased from the states a sony 400 disc dvd/cd player. - Sony DVP CX 995v. I have not paid much for it and the postage has cost more than the player. Many years ago i used to repair tv/ video's for a living so i was confident that getting this player converted would not be too much of a problem, that much i can do. I have been searching for a region free hack/code but cannot seem to find one. I did want to use this player as storage for my original dvd's, mostly region 2. Does anyone have any info on a hack/code for it? Can it be done?
Many thanks in advance for any replies,
John.

[hech54]

Doubtful.

[jman98]

Should have asked BEFORE you bought. And do keep in mind that this player is very old and if it works at all has already outlived its projected lifespan. Don't be surprised if it breaks down in the next year or even sooner.

The following are the "rules", so to speak, of making players region free.
1) Very few specialty players could be made region free even in the days when region free players were fairly common. Specialty players include multi-disc players, DVD/VHS combos, portables and TV/DVD combos.
2) Sony and Samsung players are currently the most difficult in the world to make region free. And even in the past when Sony made a few there were various issues. Sony players were rather infamous in the early part of the 2000s for their poor support of CD-R discs, for example.
3) Region free hacks may stop working after the manufacturer makes changes to hardware and/or firmware during production (it happens more than you think). And some hacks ONLY work on models sold in specific places (usually Australia) and won't work on the same model sold elsewhere. If you get a player into region free mode and update the firmware, you may permanently break region free mode.
4) If you want a region free player you're much better off buying in Europe than anything sold in the USA/Canada. They're getting harder to find in Europe too but the situation is less grim than in North America right now. Philips still makes some models even in North America that can be made region free, although officially they continue to deny this.
5) PAL support is iffy on North American players. I don't know how common it is but some players simply cannot play PAL video at all. If I lived in Europe I would NEVER buy any North American DVD player and expect it to work in Europe.

There are some European companies that specialize in making custom region free firmware. It won't be cheap and they may not be able to make one for your player, but you could do a search and find them and contact them and see if they are interested.

[johnnnys]

Should have asked BEFORE you bought. And do keep in mind that this player is very old and if it works at all has already outlived its projected lifespan. Don't be surprised if it breaks down in the next year or even sooner.

The following are the "rules", so to speak, of making players region free.
1) Very few specialty players could be made region free even in the days when region free players were fairly common. Specialty players include multi-disc players, DVD/VHS combos, portables and TV/DVD combos.
2) Sony and Samsung players are currently the most difficult in the world to make region free. And even in the past when Sony made a few there were various issues. Sony players were rather infamous in the early part of the 2000s for their poor support of CD-R discs, for example.
3) Region free hacks may stop working after the manufacturer makes changes to hardware and/or firmware during production (it happens more than you think). And some hacks ONLY work on models sold in specific places (usually Australia) and won't work on the same model sold elsewhere. If you get a player into region free mode and update the firmware, you may permanently break region free mode.
4) If you want a region free player you're much better off buying in Europe than anything sold in the USA/Canada. They're getting harder to find in Europe too but the situation is less grim than in North America right now. Philips still makes some models even in North America that can be made region free, although officially they continue to deny this.
5) PAL support is iffy on North American players. I don't know how common it is but some players simply cannot play PAL video at all. If I lived in Europe I would NEVER buy any North American DVD player and expect it to work in Europe.

There are some European companies that specialize in making custom region free firmware. It won't be cheap and they may not be able to make one for your player, but you could do a search and find them and contact them and see if they are interested.

Many thanks for your views, they are much appreciated. I am aware of the dvd-r issues. If all else fails at the end of the day i can just use it to store my cd collection on. I am still interested if someone on the forums has one of these machines though and if they have made them region free.