Samsung DVD-HD941 Up-Converting DVD Player
Great player and now region-free!
I researched many upscaling players--including others from Samsung, including the 841 and 950--and decided on the HD941. I've only had the player for a few weeks now, but am very impressed and happy with it. PQ is excellent, even on an HDTV that supposedly does its own upscaling (the Samsung HL-P5063W). <br /> <br />A bonus was being able to make the player region-free using (sometimes conflicting) experiences found elsewhere on the Internet and some of my own ingenuity. I'm posting my detailed experiences here so that others can make their player region-free. The steps may appear long and complicated, but they took less than five minutes to peform. <br /> <br />The most-recent experiences indicate that an Aiwa remote is required to make the 941 region-free. That worked for me! I would love to know why an Aiwa remote is able to do this and how anyone could have stumbled upon this discovery! <br /> <br />Actually, I programmed my Harmony 676 remote to *emulate* the Aiwa remote and then used the Harmony to make my 941 region-free. Talk about multiple levels of indirection! <br /> <br />The Harmony requires the model number of a *device*, not a remote. Not knowing which Aiwa device(s) use the RC-6AS14 remote, I Google'd for \\"Aiwa RC-6AS14 remote control\\". One of the hits took me to [...] not only provided a screen shot of the remote, but also listed the Aiwa devices that the remote actually controls! <br /> <br />I programmatically added the first Aiwa device (the CX-NA10--a \\"Mini System (DVD)\\") to my Harmony, and then I performed the following steps: <br /> <br />Note: Make sure the 941 is off. Make sure there is no DVD in the drive. <br /> <br />Using the 941 remote: <br />1. Turn the player on. <br />2. Press the OPEN/CLOSE button. The drive door will open. <br /> <br />Using the Harmony remote: <br /> 3. Press the DEVICE button. <br /> 4. Press the NEXT button until the \\"Mini System (DVD)\\" device appears next to one of the soft buttons. <br /> 5. Press the \\"Mini System (DVD)\\" soft button. <br /> 6. Press the NEXT button until \\"Repeat\\" appears next to one of the soft buttons. (I had to press the NEXT button seven times to cycle through the choices.) <br /> 7. Press the \\"Repeat\\" soft button. <br /> 8. Press the NEXT button until \\"Program\\" appears next to one of the soft buttons. (I had to press the NEXT button eight times to cycle through the choices.) <br /> 9. Press the \\"Program\\" soft button. <br />10. Press the NEXT button until \\"Clock\\" appears next to one of the soft buttons. (I had to press the NEXT button three times to cycle through the choices.) <br />11. Press the \\"Clock\\" soft button. <br /> <br />The player's LCD will display \\"ADJUST\\". There was also a brief mention of something about a 'servo adjustment complete' on the TV. <br /> <br />I used the 941's remote to press \\"9\\" (as others have instructed), but this didn't have a visible effect. The drive door did not close. Doesn't hurt to do it, I suppose. <br /> <br />12. Using the buttons on the player, close the drive door and power it down. <br /> <br />Upon powering up the 941, I could play other regions' DVDs. I also double-checked that my own region's DVDs still played ok. <br /> <br />I added the 941 to my Harmony remote and both it and the player itself have been working great! <br /> <br />Notes: <br />-I just purchased my 941 from Amazon.com; not sure which firmware version I have, but I assume it's a relatively current one. <br /> <br />-Other people's experiences said I would need to press a SHIFT button on the Aiwa remote prior to pressing the Repeat, Program, and Clock button--in order to generate the appropriate signals. Since the Harmony emulated the *functions* of the Aiwa remote and not the actual *buttons*, I did not need to emulate or press a SHIFT key.