Please note that before attempting any upgrades you should open your DVD player to check which TV encoder chip is used inside. Do not use firmware that is not designed for your TV encoder chip - the results can be irreversible. The TV encoder chip is located on the back left hand corner on the main decoding board, and will either be a CS4955 or a BT865.

CD-Upgrade Generator

Shinco CD-Upgrade Generator v0.1 - download

This program generates a CD-Upgrade file "POIUYTRE.ASD" for upgrading the firmware of Shinco based DVD players built after March 2000. Just download the file above and the appropriate firmware file from the sections below. Please make sure to read all the readme files included within the zip files.

[I will add more info on what to do if you encounter the message "machine code mismatch"]

Factory Firmware

The firmware below has been extracted from the eeprom chips of various Shinco players (so does not contain the loopholes menu). It is intended for those who wish to make a CD update to restore their player to the original firmware. This is useful if you need to return your player for maintenance.

Patched firmware

The firmware files below have been patched and include menu entries to turn macrovision on/off and to select the region code.

Nb. If you use 703 firmware on single disc units the eject button on your remote control will no longer function.

Known Machine Codes

Each model of player made by Shinco has a machine code embedded in the original firmware. This code is checked during the CD update process, so if you are creating a CD update you need to know which machine code is encoded in your player's firmware. Below are a list of known region codes.

Unknown machine codes

As mentioned before, in order to create a working CD update you require the machine code for you player. If your player is not on the list above then there are two possible methods of determining the machine code:

1. Extract the firmware from the chip to a file and read the machine code directly using a hex-editor

2. By trial and error (ie. generating CD updates using different machine codes until you find the one that works)

Option 1 is obviously more desirable because option 2 could take quite some time (machine codes can range from 00 - FF which equates to 256 possible codes, so the process could be rather tedious). It also means that a backup of the original firmware is made available. However, only a few people posess a suitable eprom chip programmer with which to extract the firmware from chip to file. Furthermore, an increasing number of units are being manufactured with the chip containing the firmware soldered onto the decoderboard instead of being seated in a socket.

Determining the machine code by trail and error

1. Download apporpriate firmware and CD update generator program
2. Extract the firmware and program to the same folder
3. Run the CD update generator and enter a machine code (a number in hex between 00 - FF)
4. Burn the resultant .ASD file to CDRW, insert in your player and note the on-screen prompts

Repeat setps 3-4 until you get a message other than "machine code mismatch"

If you get an on-screen message other than "machine code mismatch" then there is a good chance that you've correctly guessed the machine code.

Tips

I recommend that before you go ahead guessing at random that you post a message on the YahooGroup to see if anyone has already tried some codes, and if anyone else is willing to help you. It's highly likely that there are a few other people with the same player, so you can reduce the time by sharing the workload (each person doing say 16 codes - 00-0F, 10-1F, 20-2F etc.).

It is probably wise to include machine codes that are already used by other players - you can see from the table above that some codes have been used on more than one player.