Shinco DVD players with version 3.x firmware have a hidden loophole menu that enables one to disable Macrovision copy protection, override regional settings, as well as turning off CSS (a digital copy protection), and changing audio dithering & muting settings.

When first displayed, you are greeted with a message "you should not be here"!

To access the menu press the following key-sequence on the remote control:

[stop], [setup], [pause], [1], [2], [3]

NB. If there is a disc in the drive, you must stop it first (i.e. press [stop], then enter the sequence above).

Firmware 4.1x

If your player has firmware/decoder board DS4.1x, it is no longer possible to access the loopholes menu in the way described above, and I doubt if a new sequence exists.

Looking through the firmware reveals that Shinco has left all the text from the loophole menus intact, and fortunately the code for the loophole menu also remains. As a result, patched versions of this firmware have become available.

With patched versions of this firmware the loopholes menu is displayed as a sub-menu item in the main setup menu, so there is no need for remote control codes!

Firmware 5.16

Shinco have gone a step further and instead of removing/changing the remote control hack code, they have removed the loophole menu data structures so while the loophole text and code still remains, the menu cannot be displayed.

Because the menu data structures have been removed, patching the firmware is much harder, so as a result only Macrovision and Region settings have been included in the patched version (the less important CCS, Automute and Dither settings have been left out).

Rumors

The below sequence was published by Lik-Sang, but I've yet to hear it work on any Shinco player. I rather suspect that it was published in an attempt to sell more players (although it is possible that they received a pre-production unit from Shinco on which the code worked):

While a DVD is playing, press [setup] and turn off the password, then exit the setup menu and press [stop] twice, followed by [setup], and you can enter the loopholes menu.

The Future

At the moment patched firmware can only be used if you have a suitable EPROM programmer, and if the EPROM on your decoder board is mounted in a socket. It is hoped that patched versions of the firmware will be incorporated into update CDs for a hassle free upgrade, but this will take time.