Best "hackable" DVD player, or website for hacks?

[LiQiCE]

I'm looking to buy a DVD player for my Dad for his birthday/Christmas, but he needs one with the ability to remove Macrovision, since hooking it up to the A/V connections on his VCR will set off the Macrovision (No inputs on the older TV he has). Region unlocking isn't necessary but would be a nice feature. I know there is a website out there which has a bunch of these hacks recorded, but I was wondering if anyone knew of a good one for a decent price (that I can buy fairly easily from Circuit City, Best Buy or the like), or what that website was? Thanks for any help that can be provided!!!

 

[LiQiCE]

Can anybody help out? I haven't been able to find one that is readily available in stores so far except for the Apex 1500 and it sounds like there are quite a few different versions of that player out there.

 

[b0mbrman]

vcdhelp.com

 

[HappyPuppy]

Try this, it showed up in HD yesterday......

Text

 

[b0mbrman]

Specifically here

 

[LiQiCE]

Yeah i've been looking through vcdhelp.com but there's alot of DVD players there that are discontinued or have inaccurate information (There's quite a few where one person says it works, and one person says it doesn't) ... I'll definitely look at the Apex player for $60 though, thanks for the link!!!

 

[RossMAN]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=898732

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=901267

 

[Justin218]

Look into Apex players... I have a 1500 I think, and it works well without macrovision or region coding. Not all Apex players can do it though. They are cheap as well.

 

[waggy]

yeah go apex dvd players. try this place for how to hack them. they are easy to hack up upgrade.

 

[MainFramed]

sweet links

 

[tcsenter]

Here is one option: Code Free DVD Players

Granted, they are pricey, but they have some killer DVD players available with Macrovision plus all that other stuff disabled - AND - you get support and 'code free' firmware updates when they come available.

Some other links I had hanging around, don't know of what value they are:

Zone Free DVD

Code Free DVD Buying Guide

 

[Thegonagle]

You are very likely to find an Apex AD-1500 in stock at Comp USA that will take the firmware update from CD-ROM. Just look at the first character on the serial number (it's on a small sticker on the outside of the box). It should be A, B, C, or D. If it is, it will take the hack.

For the record, I have an older TV, and I'm using my VCR as an RF modulator, so I needed to disable macrovision too. My serial number starts with C. The hack took place automatically when I placed the CD-R I burned with the file (plus an extra random 50 MB file to read during spin-up). It worked to first time, and it took under a minute.

 

[broon]

Any way to make a DVD player read a burnt disc? I have an older one that won't.

 

[LiQiCE]

Garfang,

Cool thanks for the info! I might try that if I can't find the Apex 3201 at Sears (since they don't have it online anymore).