the ultimate 709 FAQ
http://www.709online.com/
Last update: Thursday 13th December 2001
Latest known firmware: 3.32a
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ok - this is what you've been waiting for... sit yourself down, have a stiff drink and follow these instructions to turn your 709 into a multi-region player using only the supplied Samsung 709 remote control!
a number will now be superimposed over the Samsung logo on your TV screen - this number represents the current region setting of the player (e.g. for region 2 you will see 02)
It looks like this hack works with all firmware versions and the word on the grapevine is that it works for the newest Samsung players (511-811)
HOWEVER, it does look like you may be limited to the number of times your player will let you change the region setting - if this occurs to you, then you may be able to get around it by resetting the player
Well done JasonW for finding the elusive hack and many thanks to the guys over at dvd.reviewer.co.uk for providing the inspiration!
p.s. if you've already hacked your 709 using the Aiwa/One-For-All hack, then you'll need to reset your 709 before you try this hack
CONTENTS
If you are a new 709 owner you should check section 2.0 of this FAQ before posting any questions onto newsgroups, forums or message boards - chances are that your question has already been answered a hundred times already :-) If you can't be bothered to check if your question has already been answered, then you may find that people won't be bothered to answer your questions!
conventions used - at the bottom of this FAQ you will find a glossary (section 9.0) of frequently used DVD-related technical terms. Whenever a technical word or phrase is used that may cause confusion to DVD newbies, there'll be a hypertext link to the glossary for extra information. Links to external web sites are listed by name and URL. When references are made to remote controls, the buttons to press will be shown in red. Text in green means that the section is incomplete or under construction. If you feel you can fill in the missing green text, then please email 709admin@hushmail.com.
legal jargon - the information provided in this FAQ is given 'as is' and no guarantee is given to it accuracy, although every attempt is made to ensure that this FAQ is error free. If you do find an error, then it should be reported to 709admin@hushmail.com. The copying of copyright protected titles is illegal and the contributors to this FAQ do not condone such activities - pirating DVD's (as opposed to making back-up's for personal use) is harmful to the film industry, film distribution companies and to the consumer. Although it is not illegal to convert a DVD player into a multi-region player or to own imported DVD titles, it is against the law to openly sell discs from other regions. The authors of this FAQ cannot be held responsible to any financial losses you may suffer, or any physical damage that may be caused due to misuse of the information contained in this document. "Samsung", "709" and probably lots of other words used in this document are trademarks of Samsung.
So, in no particular order, here are the most frequent newbie questions:
The newest versions of the firmware fix the above, as well as numerous other bugs, including random freezes and lip-sync problems.
If your player has not been upgraded (i.e. you cannot play "The Matrix") then, as long as your player is still under warranty, you are entitled to a free upgrade. You should contact the shop you bought your player from and enquire about the uprgade. If they can't (or won't) help you, then contact the Samsung UK Customer Care line on 01952 292262 and ask about upgrading your player. If you still can't get your player upgraded, then it's possible to buy an upgraded firmware chip for you to fit yourself.
An alternative method (many thanks to Robbie Baldock for this) is to buy an in-line RF modulator from Maplin - product code MZ65V (or search for "modulator") at http://www.maplin.co.uk/ - which takes a three phono input and outputs though a conventional RF socket. However, it's quite pricey at �35. There's also a cheaper one (for �25.50) available at www.henrys.co.uk/cctv/modula.htm
Although this means you can make perfect copies onto VHS tapes, you should always remember that the vast majority of DVD's contain copyrighted material. If you get arrested, then claiming that 709 Online told you to do it will not stand up in court! Film piracy costs the industry millions every year and that cost will always be passed back onto you, either by increases in the cost of DVD's or by studios having to limit the range and number of DVD's that they release. When it comes to piracy, do like the kids from Grange Hill did and sing "Just say no"!
A common question is 'why can't I turn Quasi-Pal on/off?'. The answer is because the Quasi-Pal option only works if you've got a NTSC disc (e.g. a R1 or Japanese disc) in your player. If you're playing a R2 disc (excepting Japanese discs), then Quasi-Pal is irrelevant and your 709 won't let you change the setting. When you're playing a R2 title it doesn't matter what Quasi-Pal is set to - it might as well be an option to make a penguin named Ralph do a back-flip in Antarctica - it really doesn't affect you! It would have made more sense for the Samsung engineers to have only made the Quasi-Pal option appear when a NTSC disc was in the player...
Price comparison sites (such as http://www.dvdupdate.com/) allow you to locate the cheapest sites for an individual title. Here's an incomplete list of some of the sites to try that either sell or rent region 1, region 2 or both (please note that this is not a recommendation of any of them and that some of them might not even ship to the UK - ask around the newsgroups & forums to see if anyone else has used them and what their experience was before you start splashing your credit card around!):
For region 1 titles, try one of the major online region 1 supplier sites (e.g. http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.dvdboxoffice.com/ or http://www.reel.com/) and search for the film title.
3.1 - The History Of The 709
When the Kingfisher group of shops (Woolworths, Comet & MVC) started
selling the Samsung 807 for around �250, they essentially kick-started
the UK DVD market. The 807 was a high-quality budget player with
playback and features that were normally only found on players at twice
the price. After a short while, an easy multi-region hack was
discovered and the few remaining 807's still on sale were quickly snapped
up. Sadly, time has revealed that the 807 has a number of technical
problems - however, some unhappy 807 owners were offered full refunds.
The 709 was released to critical acclaim in the summer of 1999 with most DVD magazines giving it scores of 90% or more. By September, a multi-region hack (the Aiwa hack) had been discovered by pure accident. Sales of One-For-All programmable remote controls rocketed as 709 owners without access to an Aiwa remote rushed out to hack their players. It was around this time that the 709 Online site (http://www.709online.com/) first reared it's ugly head as a gathering place for 709 news and info.
During October the 709 cookie crumbled as eager fans of "The Matrix" imported copies from the US only to discover that they would not play. 709 owners in the US were quickly promised a firmware upgrade for their players and UK owners demanded the same from Samsung UK. Samsung UK responded by saying that they only sold players in the UK to play region 2 titles, not to play region 1 "The Matrix". However, 709 owners guessed correctly that it was only a matter of time before a region 2 was released that suffered from the same problems.
In the meantime, UK 709 owners spent many a frustrating hour ringing up the Samsung UK Customer Careline asking when a UK firmware upgrade would be released. In mid-October 1999, "There's Something About Mary" was released in the UK and it quickly proved to suffer from the exact same technical problems that plagued region 1 "The Matrix". A petition signed by nearly 100 concerned 709 owners was quickly sent to the managing director at Samsung UK asking for swift action on a firmware upgrade (Samsung UK have still to reply to the petition). Two weeks later, BBC's Watchdog programme covered the 709 and the lack of action by Samsung UK - it was this high-profile public expos� that hastened Samsung UK into announcing the long awaited firmware upgrade for UK 709 owners.
There then following a month of confusion as 709 owners contacted their point-of-purchase to enquire when they could get their player upgraded. Some shops received the upgrade chips quickly. Other shops, who hadn't been informed by Samsung UK yet, just pleaded ignorance. Some even shops removed all their 709's from sale. On one memorable occasion, a 709 owner who had bought his player from Woolworths was informed that they had never ever sold 709's, even though he had a Woolworths receipt!
By the beginning of December the vast majority of shops were clued up about the firmware upgrade and many owners were upgraded on the spot, or had to only wait 24 hours. The binary form of the upgrade soon became available on the Internet and individuals, such as Spit (and his handy eprom programmer), became a lifeline for those owners who were having problems upgrading or were just too impatient to wait.
As Christmas loomed, everything seemed rosy for 709 owners: they had a high quality budget DVD player that could be easily hacked into a multi-region player and could play "The Matrix" without a glitch (well almost, anyway!). On the 20th of December 1999, the first reports that the latest release version of the firmware upgrade (v3.27) was unhackable appeared on the 709 Online debate forums. By Christmas Eve, most of the UK DVD web sites were leading with warnings about upgrading to v3.27. Things were suddenly not looking so rosy...
In the spirit of the original Aiwa hack, the hack for v3.27 was discovered by accident on the 4th of January 2000. Sitting in front of his upgraded v3.27 player in Sweden, Lars Pettersson spent several fruitless hours trying to hack his player. In a fit of frustration he started randomly pressing the buttons on his Awia remote and his player suddenly ejected the tray and displayed the magic ADJUST message. It took him a few more minutes to work out what he'd actually pressed and the double cold start hack was born.
Since the beginning of 2000, it's been a fairly quiet. Samsung have sneaked out v3.28 and v3.29 to fix a few minor bugs. "Seamless branching" seems to be working on some discs - "The Abyss" has problems, but "Independance Day" and "Terminator 2: Ultimate Edition" appear to work fine on most 709's. Samsung in early 2001 released several updated players that superceded earlier players for various price/feature brackets. The 501 replaced the 709, as such 2001 for the 709 has been very quiet with the latest firmware version being discovered around mid-year, version 3.32a. This is expected to be the last version. There aren't currently any single DVDs/ DVD-with-certain-features that will plainly refuse to play, the 709 so far appears to be keeping up with current developments.
3.2 - Technical Specifications Of
The 709
Now that the DVD boom has finally taken off in the UK, the 709 stands
out as one of the best budget (i.e. less that £250) players on
the market. The 709 has the following features:
The 709 has the following rear connections:
The 709 come with the following items:
You may need to consider investing in a good quality SCART cable.
3.3 - Connecting The 709 To Your
TV
The following methods, amongst others, of connection are possible (in
order of descending signal & picture quality):
It is also possible to route the signal through a video recorder - usually via a SCART lead. This allows the 709 to be connected to a TV that only has a bog-standard RF aerial socket, although the picture/signal quality will be lowered. Also, the picture will be unwatchable if the 709 is adding Macrovision copy protection to the signal. Luckily, hacking the 709 stops it adding Macrovision to any normally protected discs (see section 4.0).
Having a problem with the image on your TV? Maybe the TV and Monitor CRT FAQ can help (fribble.cie.rpi.edu/~repairfaq/REPAIR/F_crtfaq.html)
3.4 - Connecting The 709 To Your
Amplifier / AV Equipment
The following methods, amongst others, of connection are possible:
to be done sometime
Connect the Digital Audio Out on the 709 to the amp\decoder Digital Audio Input. You can use a standard audio phono to phono lead but the best solution is a digital phono to phono lead (marked at 75Ohms).
The default settings for the 709 send the lowest common denominator digital signal to get the higher specification (DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, etc) you need to change these settings:
To turn your 709 into a multi-region player you can either use a suitable remote control device to enter a specific sequence of codes to unlock the player (this is called 'hacking') or you can get a third-party company to insert a small chip into the player (this is called 'chipping' - see section 4.4).
Although there is probably a way of hacking the 709 using a combination of the buttons on the front panel of the player and the supplied remote control, nobody has managed to find it yet (n.b. a hack has now been found!). Remote controls that are suitable for the hack include:
All of the hacking methods that you may come across on the Internet or in DVD magazines will be one of two hacks:
Which hack(s) you should use, and also which hack(s) will work depends TOTALLY on which version of the firmware is inside your 709. If you don't know which version you have, then you can either take a guess, or open up your 709 and have a look inside (see the newbie question "How do I find out which version of the firmware is inside my 709?" in section 2.0). If you're not brave enough to go poking around the inside of your 709, then use the following as a rough guide to working out which hack or hacks will work:
Many 709 owners are reporting that the 'double cold start' hack works on all 709's - what is certain is that the 'Aiwa' hack does not work on 709's with the most recent firmware versions (i.e. v3.27 and above). If you are still not sure which hack you should use, then you should try them both - one of them will work!
IMPORTANT!!!
It is vitally important that you reset your player before every attempt
at hacking it. If you don't, then there's a strong chance that
the hack will either not work, or not remain when you switch the player
off.
To reset your 709, do the following:
If you try one of the hacks but it won't work, then always reset your player before trying again.
4.2 - The 'Aiwa' Hack
This hack is the original one, discovered in September 1999. This
hack does not work on the newest 709's (firmware versions v3.27 and
above) - if you have one of these players, then trying the 'Aiwa' hack
will be a total waste of your time - you should attempt the 'double
cold start' hack instead.
To perform this hack, you need a suitable Aiwa remote control, or a One-For-All remote control that can be programmed to mimic a TUNER of type 121. The hack has also been sucessfully performed using a Palm Pilot and even a watch that had a built in remote control!
using an Aiwa remote
Other Aiwa remote controls that reportedly work are NSX-S9�9, RC-ZA2�1, RC-6AS14, RC-7AS�1 or RC-7AS�9, although you will need to experiment to discover the correct key combination.
Some of the Aiwa remote controls that reported do not work include RC-T75, RC-TN7�7, RC-6AS�5 and RC-8AS�1.
If you have a Aiwa remote not shown above, then you will have to experiment with the various key combinations shown above. If you manage to find a successful key combination, then please contact 709admin@hushmail.com with full details and the details will be added, along with your name in lights at the bottom of the FAQ :-)
using a One-For-All remote
The following One-For-All's have also been said to be able to perform at least one of the hacks:
(If you know of another One-For-All remote that can perform the hack, then please contact 709admin@hushmail.com with full details)
You should follow the One-For-All instruction manual and set up a device of type TUNER with a code of 121 (or, if your remote requires 4 digits, �121). If you have problems doing this, then consult www.709online.com/faq/hack/argos.htm.
At this stage, you should check that you have set the One-For-All up correctly by pressing the following keys on the One-For-All remote:
The 709 player should either turn itself ON or OFF (depending upon whether or not it was already switched on). If it fails to do this, then you should return to the instruction manual and set the device of type TUNER again.
Once you have successully powered up (or down) your 709, you should do the following to program your One-For-All, making it ready to perform the hack:
This assigns the 'Aiwa' hack to key A on the remote.
using a Palm OmniRemote
performing the hack
Make sure that the TV select switch on the back of your 709 is set to the correct position - usually PAL for UK owners.
Make sure that there is no disc in your 709 and turn the player on. Now press the key (or keys) that activate the 'Aiwa' hack. If all goes well, the word ADJUST will appear on the front panel of the 709 and the tray will eject.
If the word ADJUST did not appear, then you haven't pressed the right key combination. If you are using an Aiwa remote, double check you are pressing the right key or keys. If you are using a One-For-All, then try pressing the MAGIC key once, followed by �79. If ADJUST still doesn't appear and you are not sure which firmware version you have, then try the 'double cold start' hack instead.
If the word ADJUST does appear, but the tray does not eject, then try resetting your player and double-check that you haven't left a disc in it. Try the hack again. If the tray does still not eject and you are not sure which firmware version you have, then try the 'double cold start' hack instead as you probably have a firmware of v3.27 or above.
If the tray does eject, then you should insert a region 1 disc. If you don't have a region 1 disc, you can still insert a region 2 disc and you should find that all Macrovision added to your region 2 discs will be disabled. If the player rejects the disc, then you should start again and try a different region 1 disc. If you have tried a number of region 1 discs & none of them will play and you are not sure which firmware version you have, then try the 'double cold start' hack instead.
quasi-pal playback
The TV image should jump back to normality. Press the RETURN key a few times to drop back out of the 709 set up menu.
making the hack permanent
If all goes well, your 709 should play the disc quite happily - give yourself a pat on the back :-)
4.3 - The 'Double Cold Start' Hack
This hack was discovered by Lars Pettersson at the beginning of January
2000 and allows new and upgraded 709's with firmware v3.27 and above
to be hacked. There is evidence that this hacks works with all
709's, not just new ones. This hack is a little trickier to perform
and some people find that there have been many messages posted to the
709 Online forums from owners who think that they must own the only
unhackable 709 in the world. The only practical advice is to try,
try and try again - you will get there in the end!
The 'double' part of the hack refers to the fact that you have to press a key combination at least twice to activate the hack. One of the most common problems is that there is a knack to how quickly you need to press the keys before the hack is activated. It's not uncommon to hear of owners sat tapping away at the keys like a person possessed before the hack works :-) Other people just get it to work first time!
using an Aiwa remote
Other Aiwa remote controls may work - you should experiment with combinations of SHIFT, CLOCK and SLEEP. When you have a found a correct key combination, a service menu will appear on your TV screen called "cold start". If your remote does not have any of these keys, then it's unlikely that you will be able to use it for this hack :-(
If you manage to find a successful key combination, then please contact 709admin@hushmail.com with full details and the details will be added, along with your name in lights at the bottom of the FAQ :-)
using a One-For-All remote
If you own a One-For-All 5 Topline (URC-5550), then do the following:
You need to assign the combination MAGIC �78 to a single key because it is impossible to press that combination quickly enough to activate the hack.
If you own a One-For-All 5 (URC-7550), then try the following (thanks to Nicholas Helps & Paul Wirdnam for this)...
...or maybe you'll find this version works with your 7550 remote (thanks to Richard Gaywood for this):
If you own a One-For-All 5 (URC-7560), then do the following (thanks to Shane Gough for this one):
using a Palm OmniRemote
performing the hack
Make sure that the TV select switch on the back of your 709 is set to the correct position - usually PAL for UK owners.
Make sure that there is no disc in your 709 and turn the player on. Now press the key (or keys) that activate the 'double cold start' hack quickly several times in a row. If all goes well, the word ADJUST will appear on the front panel of the 709 and the tray will eject.
If the word ADJUST does not appear, then you should experiment with the length of time between each key press. If you still cannot get it to eject, then start again from scratch.
If the tray does eject then you should simply push it back in and continue to the next section to make the hack permanent. Yes - that's right, you don't even need a region 1 disc for this hack! However, if you also want to remove Macrovision copy protection, then you should use a region 1 disc for the hack - when the tray ejects with the ADJUST message, pop a region 1 disc in. If you just push the tray back in, then you may find (depending on which firmware you have) that Macrovision is still enabled on region 2 and/or region 1 titles. If your 709 spits it out with the "cannot play discs from this region" message, then repeat the hack and try a different region 1 disc.
making the hack permanent
If all goes well, your 709 should play the disc quite happily - give yourself a pat on the back :-)
quasi-pal playback
The TV image should jump back to normality. Press the RETURN key a few times to drop back out of the 709 set up menu.
removing Macrovision
4.4 - Chipping The 709
OK - you've tried the hacks and you've borrowed half-a-dozen different
Aiwa remotes from your nearest & dearest and you're still no where
nearing getting your 709 hacked. Now is the time to consider having
your 709 'chipped'.
Chipping involves opening the player up and soldering a chip (sometimes called a 'mod' or 'mod chip') into the player. It's this chip that fools the 709 in playing discs from any region.
Chipping your 709 will certainly invalidate your Samsung warranty, although several companies that offer a 'chipping' service also offer their own separate warranties - so it's not all doom and gloom.
Be aware that not all chips are the same - some can disable Macrovision, others will fail to play certain DVD discs that have been encoded to spot if the player has been chipped. Expect to pay up to �50 for a chip that probably cost about 20p to make.
Here's an incomplete list of companies in no particular order that offer, or have been seen to offer, a chipping service, or can sell you a chip for you to fit yourself (careful with that soldering iron!):
The above list should not be taken as a recommendation or guarantee of a high quality service, heck - they might not even upgrade 709's! You pays yer money and you takes yer choice!
It is also possible to purchase DVD discs marked as 'region 0' - these can be purchased and played anywhere in the world.
Discs are also encoded to the local TV standard. For example, American discs are encoded to the NTSC standard and UK discs are encoded for the PAL standard. Fortunately for UK DVD player owners, nearly all players sold in the UK can use at least one conversion method to convert NTSC discs for viewing on UK PAL TV sets.
There are dozens of other web sites that sell discs from various regions - an incomplete list can be found here.
6.1 - The 709 Firmware Revisions
anyone brave enough to list each firmware revision
and what it fixes please get in touch!!!
Various 709 and 909 firmware binaries can be downloaded from http://samsung709.tripod.com/
6.2 - Playing VCDs, CDRs, DVD-R/DVDRW/DVD+R
A lot of DVD players can also play VCDs and the Samsung 709 is one of them. VCDs do not have interactive menus but some do have chapter marks that you can jump to. VCDs tend to be encoded full screen rather than widescreen and the picture quality is clearly worse than DVDs and sometimes looks worse than a good VHS depending on the encoding. The Samsung played everything I threw at it including a few VCDs that would not play correctly on my computer.
So why would you buy a technically-inferior disk rather than a DVD? First VCDs are cheap (typically about $7 to $10 a throw), second there are some films on VCD that are not available on DVD like "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" and third VCDs also play on some laptop computers that only have CD drives so you can watch movies on the move.
I can recommend buying VCDs from http://www.coolvcd.com/ who are extremely reliable. They only charge $7 postage for up to ten VCDs and they kindly put on the invoice that each VCD costs $3 so you do not get hammered by customs! Disks arrive within about a week and you can track your Fedex order on line.
6.3 - The One-For-All Magic Key
Codes
If you want to set your One-For-All remote control up so that it can
control your 709 and replace the remote you get with the player, then
you'll need this list of MAGIC key combinations:
| Samsung 709 remote control buttons: | �7� | - DVD POWER | |
| 139 | - OPEN/CLOSE | eject tray | |
| ��6 | - 1 | ||
| ��8 | - 2 | ||
| ��4 | - 3 | ||
| �11 | - 4 | ||
| ��7 | - 5 | ||
| ��9 | - 6 | ||
| ��5 | - 7 | ||
| 138 | - 8 | ||
| 134 | - 9 | ||
| �1� | - � | ||
| 132 | - SET UP | ||
| 1�7 | - VOLUME CON. | ||
| 1�4 | - ZOOM | ||
| 1�� | - 3D SOUND | ||
| 1�2 | - BOOKMARK | ||
| 2�3 | - << | fast rewind | |
| 2�1 | - >> | fast forward | |
| 232 | - [] | stop | |
| 21� | - >|| | play | |
| 197 | - |<< | previous chapter | |
| 23� | - >>| | next chapter | |
| �71 | - RETURN | ||
| 233 | - STEP | ||
| 235 | - CLEAR | ||
| 229 | - MODE | ||
| - TOP MENU | |||
| 135 | - DISPLAY | ||
| �75 | - MENU | ||
| �69 | - | joypad up | |
| 2�2 | - | joypad down | |
| 2�� | - | joypad left | |
| 198 | - | joypad right | |
| 196 | - ENTER | joypad pushed in | |
| 137 | - AUDIO | ||
| �73 | - SUB TITLE | ||
| - ANGLE | |||
| 199 | - REPEAT | ||
| 1�6 | - REPEAT A-B | ||
| other functions: | 078 | - cold start | used for 'double cold start' hack |
| 079 | - | used for 'Aiwa' hack | |
| 145 | - cold start 'C5 02 2' | ||
| 141 | - | turns MPEG & DTS led's on | |
| 081 | - | turns all led's on |
anyone care to add a plain English definition for a techie term? - please get in touch!
without whom...
many many thanks to everyone who's contributed to this FAQ - if you think your name should be listed, or you're listed and you'd like your email address adding, then please get in touch!
