Diamond Vision DVD Player Hack and Review Region Free

This region-free hotfix and hack applies to the following DVD/MP3/CD player: Diamond Vision DVDV807-03. The DVD player’s manual also includes instructions for the DVDV807-04 model, so most of this information should also apply to it.

Whether you intend to watch videos in a foreign language to learn a new language, or because some titles are not available where you live, DVDs from another region may not play on your current DVD player. However, a DVD machine can often be converted (hacked) to a different region through a remote control sequence or firmware update. Sometimes you can even buy custom chips to modify the hardware.

The easiest and least expensive way to hack a DVD player is to find a cheap drive that can be adjusted via a remote control sequence. That’s what this article is about.

The Diamond Vision DVDV 807-3 player is front loading. It proved to be reliable during my tests. However, there are a couple of annoyances:

1.) The DVD turning mechanism tends to be a bit noisy (minor drawback).

2.) If you try to operate the STOP, OPEN and PLAY buttons too quickly, the player sometimes crashes. Shutdown and restart always restart the player successfully.

The regionless trick works as follows:

1.) Turn on the power and wait until the ‘NO DISC’ message appears, then press OPEN/CLOSE on the unit to open the DVD player door.

2.) On the remote, press SETUP. A menu will appear on the screen.

3.) Enter the following number sequence through the remote: 1 3 8 9

4.) A different menu will appear. Your cursor should now be sitting in a box with the current region displayed. Use the remote’s UP and DOWN arrow keys to display the numeric code for a specific region, or select ‘0’ (no region).

5.) Press ENTER and then SETUP to exit.

6.) Your DVD player will now play DVDs from other regions. The code only needs to be entered once. Shutting down will not cause Diamond Vision to lose its region-free settings. An added bonus: it automatically detects PAL/NTSC signals.

According to videohelp.com, this regional hack will also work with many other Diamond Vision DVD players.

This unit is a fairly standard budget DVD player. You can usually find it for under $50 at most Wal-Marts. It’s about 9 inches wide by 10 inches deep, and the remote is a bit nicer and bigger than the one that comes with many discount DVD drives.

This machine provides various types of video and audio output:

1.)Y/Pb, Cb/Pr, Cr

2.)RCA

3.) S-Video

For a budget player, it’s certainly a bargain, considering the capabilities.

*Note: You can determine the region code of any DVD by looking at the packaging. You may see something that looks like a button with a globe in the background and a large number. The DVD may specifically state something like ‘Region 1’. If no code is displayed, you may be region-less to begin with. Some old titles, cheap productions, or remakes of old movies often don’t have any added regional protection.

Current region codes in commercial titles range from 1 to 6.

It is a good move if you decide to buy this unit. You should definitely get your money’s worth.