Hacking the Pioneer DVL-909 for Multi-Region

This is one of those posts that documents something I’ll forget as soon as it’s done. I’ve already written about fixing the power supply and skipping discs on my Pioneer DVL-909 combination Laserdisc/DVD player, both fixes allow me to enjoy this player’s super power: playing DVDs from multiple regions. I have a decent collection of US (region 1) and European (region 2) DVDs at this point, and these instructions I found for hacking the DVL-909 for multiregion works a treat.* Here they are…

• Take the player apart.
• Find the solder pads on the board next to IC602 (taking the player apart is a bit time-consuming, but keep careful track of how you did it…).
• Solder a wire between the two connections shown in the picture. Easy, huh?

• Put the player back together.
• Next, pick a disc that’s of a different region than your player. Open the tray, but don’t close it yet.
• Bring up the DVD Menu with the remote.
• Select ‘Initial’.
• Press the ‘Display’ button on the remote. The OSD should show what region the player is currently set to.
• Press the ‘Condition’ button on the remote, and then the number of the desired region (1-6). The OSD display should change.
• Press the ‘Menu’ button and you’re golden. Pop in the disc and enjoy.

I didn’t need to take the player apart or solder any pads on the integrated chip IC602, which hopefully is the case for anyone reading this. All I needed to do was use the remote control to select Menu–>Initial–>Display–>Condition–>[enter region # from number pad]–>Menu again.

Doing those selections on the remote while the DVD disc tray remains ajar opened up the world of DVD-media multiregion to me. You can see a quick video walk-through of this process above, and I recommend testing this before opening the unit and soldering anything

Also, it’s worth noting the laserdisc player needs no special hack to play either region in my experience. I may need to test this more with different discs, but region 1 and 2 discs play regardless of what the player region is set to.

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*This is an HTML page created back in 2001, which is not that long after the player came out—pretty cool the resource is still online!