The New 709 (Samsung DVD 511)

Member Name: millec199

Product:	Samsung DVD 511
Date:	09/01/01 (1409 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Multi Region

Disadvantages: Not the best of players.

The Samsung DVD 511 is basically the new Samsung 709. The 709 was a vey popular player due to a multi-region hack that was avalible. Well the 511 also has a hack and it is a lot better than the 709s. It is easy and only needs to be applied once. It is as follows;

To make sure your player is in factory settings cold start the player

Power on your player
Press and hold both the Play and Stop buttons on the player (not the remote)
After a short while you should be presented with a set of language options. Release the Play and Stop buttons on the player.
Select the language

To convert this player to Multi-Region playback

Press the Repeat button on your remote control (not repeat A-B)
Using your remote control enter the code 3,8,7,6 and 7
The code 02 should be displayed on the screen indicating this is a Region 2 unit.
Press the 9 button on your remote control for Region free, or 1 for Region 1, 2 for Region 2 and so on.
Press the Open button on your player
Press the Standby button on your remote control.

(NOTE: This is done using the remote supplied NOT an Awia remote as with the 709.)

Once done there should be no problem playing regions 1 and 2 but that is all i have tested.

Now on to the player its self. It is a standard player with few frills but the picture and sound quality are quite good.

All the simple functions are there including variable speed fast foward and rewind and chapter selction and a stereo downmix of a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. It also has a zoom mode but the quality when zoomed in is very poor so it has little use.

The looks of the player are simple and do not stand out but the functionality of the player is good with the main functions on the front of the player. The remote is simple but functional although some buttons are a bit oddly placed.

This is my households second DVD player (it was free wit
h the TV) and i prefer my other player (Bush DVD 2002 see my review for more)
as it has a slightly better picture and sound.

This is a budget machine from Samsung and not the best around but the Multi-region hack should make it popular.

(Note: The hack above works for my machine and no problems have persented themselves for the UK machines but some people have had trouble with gray imports. If possible buy the player from a store with a returns policy just in case the hack will not work.)

Summary: