Hack a Region Code for the Doctor

As a Doctor Who fan from way back, I finally got impatient waiting for someone here in the US to pick up the new Doctor Who series or start selling region 1 DVDs, so I’ve taken matters into my own hands. I had one of those ultra-cheap Cyberhome DVD players sitting in the closet unused and it turns out there’s a really simple hack for region coding. No soldering iron or programming skills needed. All you have to do is:

  • Power up the player with no disc in the tray.
  • On the remote control, press Menu, 1, 9 (Ignore “No” icons)
  • A region selection menu will appear, select Region 0

That’s it, you’ve now got a DVD player that will play what you want instead of what the movie industry wants.

The next step was to pick up some of the new Doctor Who series DVDs on eBay for cheap. So far, we’ve watched the first six episodes. It’s hard to top some of the classic episodes but some of the new ones aren’t bad. The first episode brought back the Autons and a later one featured a Dalek. It was definitely worth the trouble.

Coyotes in Irving, TX

Wow, has it been two months since I posted anything? Time flies when you’re busy.

Yesterday Susan and I were driving out to Home Depot to buy a new lawn mower when we spotted a Coyote wandering along near Highway 161 (in Irving, TX). I had a camera with me but it didn’t have a long enough lens to get a good shot. We pulled over but the Coyote saw us and started trotted off toward the treeline. I managed to get a fuzzy photo before it vanished. That’s the first time I’ve seen one in town. Pretty cool

Coyote in Irving, TX

Last night we attended the DSO‘s performance of Ives’ 4th Symphony. That’s one weird piece of music and the first time we’d ever heard it performed live. It requires a second conductor at times as some groups of instruments are playing in a completely different time signature than the rest of the orchestra. It took huge assortment of instruments and a full choir to pull it off. A synthesizer substituted for a particularly hard-to-find type of piano. The optional Theramin was not used (or perhaps the synth or the organ filled in for it too?) We gave it a standing ovation. Nobody else did. Well, I did see other person stand, so I guess three of us gave it standing ovation. Everyone else just applauded minimally while looking a bit confused.