At your own risk.. Region 0 or region 9 should be all regions

Info from the document here section 5.1

http://www.beoinfo.nl/manuals/DVD_1_Service_Multi.pdf

Region setup- Use the buttons on DVD 1. Remove CD if such is loaded. Then disconnect DVD 1 from the mains. Press and hold << and >>and then reconnect DVD 1 to the mains. The current setting will appear in the display.Use ln to change Region number. Press PLAY to store the desired number. Wait approx. 15 sec. until the screen goes blue.Please note: The number of times Region setting can be changed is limited. If this limit is exceeded DVD 1 will cease to function.Country and Region setting:Australia - 4; Canada - 1; Estonia - 5; Ghana - 5; Hong Kong - 3; Indonesia - 3; Latvia - 5; Lithuania - 5; Malaysia - 3; Morocco - 5; Nigeria - 5; Singapore - 3; Taiwan - 8; Thailand - 3; USA - 1

For a permanent change you need to fit a 'Keymaster' circuit board - that's probably what your dealer used to do.  It's a very small circuit board with a few small solder connections.

I bought one on eBay a while back - I'll try to find more details or a part number.

I found a copy of the picture of the DVD1 KeyMaster from the eBay listing when I bought mine:

Login to view image

And I have a pdf copy of the fitting instructions.  If anyone needs them for reference, PM me.

Hello Guy,

Thanks for your ( and others) reply and effort, it is much appreciated.

However I can assure you that neither of the  two DVD1 units that I had converted to multiregion by the B&O dealer back in the early 2000's had any extra electronics fitted into them ( I still have both units and have checked all ). To further confirm this I have, as originally stated used the main 'monoboard' under the laser/transport mechanism from these DVD 1's transplanted into my Avant 32 DVD RF television to repair a failed internal DVD. The multiregion facility has always been transferred to the Avant along with the board from the DVD1 (previously 'converted' by the dealer in about 2 minutes whilst I waited).

This proves that it is just a matter of some sort of programming/hack that changes the stored region coding within the electronics on that board whilst remaining in the DVD1.

I know that this so called ASD-11 laser/transport/board combination was used in a few contemporary Philips machines such as DVD 612 etc. It is possible to make these Philips machines multiregion by using the OneForAll 6 universal remote control and a lengthy code input. Obviously this is one way to achieve a multiregion board by fitting it to an old Philips player, performing the multiregion hack, then re-fitting it to the DVD1 or Avant DVD of choice.

This may be the circuitous route I will have to travel to keep these machines going into the future but it it seems a shame that the clearly possible conversion within the DVD1 can not be made available to us all to keep them working.

I also have the later DVD1 mk2 (4261 Pioneer internals) which are not compatible with the Avant with Philips internal DVD. I have not yet come across one of these units that has been made multi-region. Has anyone else?

It is clear from the above that the fault that ultimately stops these players working is contained within the electronics on the 'monoboard' under the mech. I have never been able to find any visual clues of failure on any of my known failed boards. There are many surface mount components and chips on the board making a component level repair tricky to diagnose, let alone repair.

Out of approximately six machines that have failed then I have fixed, all have been due to the failure of the 'monoboard'. I have cleaned, lubed, swapped etc. mechanisms and laser units and they have never been the failure point. I have always subsequently checked all these items by marrying them to a known working board etc. All still good. Obviously six failures with board failures does not discount anybody elses alternative problems with transports etc.

As always, any further info. would be appreciated and I will be sure to post anything may help in the future.

Cheers, Duncan.

I am not particularly experienced with the video stuff, but I do seem to remember something about holding the << and >> buttons while connecting mains.
Then it shows the region code and you can change it using the same buttons and play.
I suppose trying won't hurt anything?

You should be aware, that after region switching PAL discs will be played in PAL format and NTSC in NTSC.
Your TV should support both or it makes no sense.

Martin

EDIT: Found this:
/forum/general-discussion-and-questions/how-to-reset-or-make-dvd1-regionfree

Hi Martin,

The good news is that your memory is correct. The bad news is that the method you describe only allows the region to be changed from one country code or the other and not multiregion for any disc forever. This is made even more restrictive by the fact that this can only be performed up to 3 times on any DVD1 before it 'locks' up and will not play any discs.

For anybody who would be satisfied by changing the region only once or twice this method is fine. It can be found fully detailed in the factory service manual that is freely available to download from many websites.

Be careful however to bear in mind that given the age of these units the region may have been changed in the past and the 'next' time you do it maybe the last chance.

There is no explanation in the manual of how to 'unlock' a locked player as this used to be something the dealers would have to do for you for a fee.

DVD1 Russian roulette anyone?

Surely somebody knows what the dealer technicians used to do, please don't take this to the grave. I would not think this is a source of revenue for B&O anymore so a question would be, does anybody have friendly connections with B&O and therefore maybe able to get the answer to the multiregion puzzle?

Cheers,

Duncan.

Hi everyone
B&O made a workaround concerning codefree DVD 1 MK1, MK II,.
They made a special BEO 4 remote, that did the job by using a special key sequence.
Actually it worked on all B&O DVD systems, but not Blu-Ray.
This is/was the only way to do it.
DVD 2, one could enter a special number sequence to make it code free
Brgds/Fritz

Hi Fritz,

Sounds interesting and likely given that it seems that no 'hacks' have ever been posted on the web. Obviously this means finding a dealer who has this remote and knows how to use it.

Thanks for the info. and your effort.

Cheers,

Duncan.