pioneer dv-353 palm pilot hack... i think it worked, but

[buzzinhornets]

i have a pioneer 353, and followed the instructions for the pda hack for the 454 model (which is supposed to work).
...anyway, omniremote reported that all 19 codes were imported. i then pointed my sony clie pda (palm 4.1) at the dvd player while on... after about 10 times of pressing the zero key, the player shut off (which i think is a good sign). I wasn't watching that closely, so i didn't see if the display said "region * " or whatever its supposed to.

anyway, i thru a Europe PAL disc in (i'm in NTSC, Canada) and it loaded, but the screen is black and white with diagnal lines and the frames seem to move up and down... so i'm not sure... am i now region free? if i were not region free i assume i wouldnt hear the audio or be able to make anything out on the screen... since i can see a picture thru all the lines and hear audio, i assume i am region free... but why is the picture black and white and moving up and down with lines in it?

i saw a brief message saying that you have to change the player's output to PAL... any more details on this?

thanx

[Krispy Kritter]

Since it is now reading the disc, you are region free.

The problem now is the PAL to NTSC conversion. Does the DVD player support PAL to NTSC conversion? If you input PAL to a NTSC or vice versa, you usually get the black & white picture you are describing. If you TV supports PAL input, you can adjust your TV. If the DVD player supports PAL to NTSC conversion, then you may need to adjust the DVD output settings. It should be set to NTSC for your TV.

[FulciLives]

Pioneer has made some players recently (last couple of generations at least now) that will do PAL to NTSC but "back in the day" they could play PAL but not convert to NTSC. Even to this day the ELITE models are like this. Of course I am talking about North American models here.

I don't recognize the model number of the unit you have but it sounds like an "older" model number to me so I am guessing that this was before they used a chipset that could do PAL to NTSC.

If I am right (and based on what you said I am) then your DVD player can play PAL but only output it as PAL which really does you no good if you live in the USA since no "normal" USA TV can handle a PAL video signal except for some front projection units.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[buzzinhornets]

hmmm... i found this page... perhaps this player doesn't convert pal to ntsc...
http://www.jvb.nl/jvb.asp?cur=1&level=modifications&page=title&title=466

"This is a modification for the Pioneer DV-353 DVD player. After installation it will enable the player to show movies with a different region. This means for example that a region 1 movie will play on a region 2 player, without giving the region code or protection error. The player will output PAL as PAL and NTSC as NTSC, this means a MultiSystem TV/Monitor is necessary."

i wonder if my Sony KF-42WE620 can somehow convert the incoming pal video to ntsc?

[FulciLives]

hmmm... i found this page... perhaps this player doesn't convert pal to ntsc...
http://www.jvb.nl/jvb.asp?cur=1&level=modifications&page=title&title=466

"This is a modification for the Pioneer DV-353 DVD player. After installation it will enable the player to show movies with a different region. This means for example that a region 1 movie will play on a region 2 player, without giving the region code or protection error. The player will output PAL as PAL and NTSC as NTSC, this means a MultiSystem TV/Monitor is necessary."

i wonder if my Sony KF-42WE620 can somehow convert the incoming pal video to ntsc?

I think that pretty much confirms that your model Pioneer will not do PAL to NTSC conversion even if it is region free.

I know nothing about that particular Sony TV (I assume that is a TV model). I tried searching for that model on the Sony website only to get NO RESULTS for the search.

However I am not aware of any North American Sony TV being able to display both NTSC and PAL unless it is a special MULTI-STANDARD model (unlikely unless you were specifically looking for this at the time you purchased the TV) or if it is a front projector unit as it seems most of those can do NTSC and PAL (knock on wood).

If your TV has component video inputs then the cheapest option would be a Philips DVP-5140 which can very easily be made region free and does PAL to NTSC. If you are a quality nut and your TV has DVI/HDMI input then the best option (quality wise) would be the Oppo Digital OPDV971H as this model does superior PAL to NTSC but only when using the DVI output (which can connect to a TV via DVI or HDMI).

The Philips DVP-5140 can be bought at WALMART for $50 US Dollars (if you live in the USA) and the Oppo Digital OPDV971H can be bought direct from the Oppo Digital website for $199.00 US Dollars + shipping.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Do not confuse the Oppo Digital OPDV971H with the Oppo Digital DV-970HD. The DV-970HD model does PAL to NTSC but it is inferior to the OPDV971H and believe it or not the quality of PAL to NTSC is about the same with the Philips DVP-5140 as it is with the much more expensive Oppo Digital DV-970HD. So again if you buy Oppo Digital only go for the OPDV971H model and even then it's advanced chipset (which provides such beautiful quality) only works when using a DVI/HDMI connection and if you don't have such a connection on your TV and don't plan on upgrading your TV anytime soon well you might as well not even buy the OPDV971H model.

One last word of warning ... the Oppo Digital OPDV971H will soon be replaced by a newer model that will have the same "guts" but is expected to be "updated" to include more functionality (i.e., SACD and DVD-Audio for instance) so you might want to wait for the replacement if you decide that you want the Oppo Digital OPDV971H. The word is that the replacement/updated model is due out "any day now".