Sony DVP-S7000 Question

[quikric]

I knowthat the DVP-S7000 is a rather old player,but only recently was made aware of the fact tht certain units had a "switch" on the main board to allow it to play more than region-1 dvds.I have several region-2 dvd's that will probably never be released on R-1 so really would like to obtain one of these players.I have seen several on Ebay.I have always loved the Sony players.
My question,does anyone know the production year or years that had the "switches"as it seems not all 7000's had them?
Another question that is off topic but I was wondering about,many Sony dvd players can be put in a "service" mode when off by pressing the following on the remote...TITLE..CLEAR...POWER.Its kind of neat to do this to check the play hours for both DVD and CD,but This doesn't seem to work on a DVP-S3000.Is there a code for the early sony's to check their play hours?
Many thanks for any help you can provide.
~Quikric~

[Mr_Mod]

heres a good lace to start, i know my 7000 never had the switches but i never got around to modyfing the firmware. However my S715 i played with and that still going strong

http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/criacoes_gledson/dvd_d.htm 
http://www.digitalworld.ch/digsol/english/dvdp/s7k_regionsw.html 

If yours did not have the swiches then in all likely case you will need to modify the firmware whish is no easy task

[cgrossi]

Only the early models of DVP-S7000's had switches in them, probably only the first few months of production.  However, the circuit board is exactly the same and I'm pretty sure the firmware is still 'switch aware' so all you need to do is close the contacts where the switch should be by either placing solder between the two or using some wire. There's one switch for Region Free and another for Macrovision Off (so you can record the picture to a VCR)

When you say you want to play Region 2, do you mean UK Region 2 (PAL) or Japan Region 2 (NTSC) or another country.

The DVP-S7000 is an NTSC only player and will need a mod kit to play PAL movies. I had one of these installed in my player a few years ago and it worked fine. Got it from here;

http://www.dvdupgrades.ch/10000/Modification/DVDupgrades/Sony/Kit_Sony_DVP_S7000.html

There may be others out there providing a similar mod if you are lucky.

Good Luck

Claudio

[quikric]

Well crap,I think the 7000 I just won off ebay has a maufacture date of Sept 98,so It probably doesn't have the switches then.I guess I jumped at the wrong unit.When it comes to playing with my players inerds I'm as dumb as a post so I'm not sure what to do.The region-2 DVD's I have are all Pal U.K.movies.Was thinking of getting a multi-region tv to go with the 7000,been using a Sampo 612-n that has been a great little player but is starting to have ome prolems,and is missing some features including resume play (after power off) that the Sony has.I appreciate the info and links and will look into them.Thanks guy's,I appreciate all the info!!
~Quikric~

[cgrossi]

The switches wouldn't have helped you anyway as you will need to have the player modified to play PAL discs. The Region Switch (SW1 I think) will only allow you to play other NTSC discs from Regions other than 1, not the PAL discs from the UK.

Claudio

[quikric]

Anyone know of a reliable place here in the U.S that could ''Mod'' this player(being this old) to play all regions or set for region '0'.
I would like to get it to output a pal signal when playing pal R-2 dvd's,and its original ntsc for R-1 dvd's.
Can this be done or am I just wishfull thinking?
~Quikric~

[cgrossi]

Quikric,

Even though they don't list it as one of the players on their website (but they have the next model DVP-S7700), you could try www.jvbdigital.com 

I had my DVP-CX777ES modded by them (sent from Australia) and so have a number of other people and they are very reliable.

Claudio

[quikric]

Claudio,
Many thanks for the link.I will check into this.
~Quikric~

[EarlyAdopter]

When I heard about the DVP-S7000 having the region and Macrovision switches, I couldn't resist peeking under the hood of my DVD player.

Apparently mine came off the assembly line a little later and does not have the switches.

Does anyone know how to determine the manufacture date based on the serial number? My DVP-S7000 ser. num. is in the 800000s.

[jehill]

Welcome to Agoraquest!  Are you sure that there isn't a date or date code on the nameplate?  Why don't you list all off the numbers on the nameplate for us?  Maybe that will help.