need help hacking into my sony DVP SR200P

[candace1978]

I have tried everything to make this a region free DVD player. My DVD player menu has an audio setup, language setup, screen setup, and custom setup. Which one do I go to to make it region free and what do I presss to make it region free? Anyone have any suggestions? Please help I live in the US, have no idea were to find a region free DVD player and have just bought a bunch of region 2 DVD's for my son because he likes a cartoon that only sells region 2 DVD's. I would like to make my DVD player region free, not just work for region 1 and 2 DVD's.

[hech54]

99% chance you'll NEVER find a hack for that player....especially a Sony. Does this Sony convert PAL format video to American NTSC video?

[usually_quiet]

Sony DVD players have the reputation of being unhackable. If these R2 DVDs were not produced in Japan, you would also need a player that can convert PAL video to something an NTSC TV can display. I haven't heard Sony DVD players can do that. However there are Philips models which can convert from PAL to NTSC. Some online specialty vendors even sell pre-hacked Philips Players. https://www.samstores.com/details.asp?ProdID=12759

[Edit]I forgot that most Central and S. American nations use the NTSC system as well. However, I'm guessing the OP's son is into anime, and if the discs came from Japan, and were not imported from a PAL country, an NTSC DVD player will work, if the region code issue can be overcome.

[intracube]

There seem to be several different suggestions here:
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/608296.html
http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-dvd-player-multiregion-hacks/944746-sony-dvp-sr...ion-codes.html
https://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/sony-dvp-sr200p-b/9794

Even if the multi-region hack works, you might have difficulty playing Region 2 'PAL' DVDs - depending on your equipment. You might need to invest in a DVD player that can convert from PAL>NTSC, or convert the DVDs on your computer.

99% chance you'll NEVER find a hack for that player....especially a Sony.

Historically many Sony players either couldn't be made mutli-region, or needed to be re-chipped. Things have changed in recent years, and it's now easy to buy multi-region Sony players.

[usually_quiet]

Historically many Sony players either couldn't be made mutli-region, or needed to be re-chipped. Things have changed in recent years, and it's now easy to buy multi-region Sony players.

Only easy if you live outside N. America. N. Americans would have to buy from a specialty retailer like the one I linked to, and the Sony player probably still won't convert from PAL to NTSC.

[intracube]

Historically many Sony players either couldn't be made mutli-region, or needed to be re-chipped. Things have changed in recent years, and it's now easy to buy multi-region Sony players.

Only easy if you live outside N. America. N. Americans would have to buy from a specialty retailer like the one I linked to

Do you know what the reason for that is? I didn't think it was illegal for shops to sell multi-region players in the US.

Looking at amazon.com I can't find any Sony multi-region DVD players, although there are some Bluray players that have been made DVD region free. For example; Sony BDP-S470 (although it's not sold directly by Amazon).

By comparison, amazon.co.uk - DVPNS718HB DVPNS318B etc.
these models aren't sold directly by Amazon either, although the player that I bought in 2005 was.

[usually_quiet]

Historically many Sony players either couldn't be made mutli-region, or needed to be re-chipped. Things have changed in recent years, and it's now easy to buy multi-region Sony players.

Only easy if you live outside N. America. N. Americans would have to buy from a specialty retailer like the one I linked to

Do you know what the reason for that is? I didn't think it was illegal for shops to sell multi-region players in the US.

Looking at amazon.com I can't find any Sony multi-region DVD players, although there are some Bluray players that have been made DVD region free. For example; Sony BDP-S470 (although it's not sold directly by Amazon).

By comparison, amazon.co.uk - DVPNS718HB DVPNS318B etc.
these models aren't sold directly by Amazon either, although the player that I bought in 2005 was.

It isn't illegal to sell region-free players here. I would guess the reason is a combination of things: lack of demand, cost, plus inter-industry agreements and/or technology licensing agreements. The percentage of people in the US who buy imported DVDs is rather small. Most people here don't have any reason to be aware that the distinction between PAL and NTSC is important. I suspect it is also cheaper to build (and support) players and TVs that are not multi-system. Content providers (including Sony) invented region codes and want them to be obeyed.

[Edit]It is illegal to sell DVD players that are region locked in some countries, and I think that the EU may be moving in that direction.

[[_chef_]]

[Edit]It is illegal to sell DVD players that are region locked in some countries, and I think that the EU may be moving in that direction.

Says who?
Players are sold with 5 remaining changes! The consumer itself sets the first region................

[johns0]

Thread moved to dvd & blu-ray player forum.

[hech54]

Says who?
Players are sold with 5 remaining changes! The consumer itself sets the first region.....

Burners/Roms are sold with 5 remaining changes....not players.

[intracube]

[Edit]It is illegal to sell DVD players that are region locked in some countries, and I think that the EU may be moving in that direction.

Says who?
Players are sold with 5 remaining changes! The consumer itself sets the first region................

I think unusually_quiet is referring to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code#Criticism_and_legal_concerns

Going a bit off topic here - I'm not sure how DVD burners/computer drives with '5 allowable region changes' are supposed to work. On my old laptop with Windows ME, I remember seeing 'number of region changes left: 5' or something to that effect on a menu. However, running Linux I was able play DVDs from different regions transparently - and I don't remember seeing the number of region changes drop when going back to Windows ME.

It's much the same with my current desktop machine. At the hardware level, the DVD drive isn't stopping discs being read if they don't match the selected region.

[filmboss80]

As unusually_quiet mentioned several posts back, if it is a Region 2 DVD from Japan, then it will be NTSC. In that case, the OP would only need to rip the disc and make a region-free DVD-R copy to make it playable. (I have done this with many Asian concert and rare movie DVDs.) In this situation, the whole region hacking issue becomes unnecessary.