Any opinions on the Sharp DV-HR300?

I have just purchased the Australian equivalant dv-hr300x but it is set to region 4. Is there a code that will allow me to change the region code.

 

pwl,
We all owe a debt to an Australian buddy EA5E back on page 11 of this forum when he posted the link for the download of the multi region patch. If you trawl back to the pages 11, 12 & 13 you will find comments on how to do this. the link was http://thor.prohosting.com/e5e/Sharp_DV-HR350.exe (I hope it's still alive).
This will allow you to burn two CD's which once loaded into your Sharp will make it multi-region Cheers Silver 64

 

After I upgraded my 350S to the latest versions of the burner software (1.45) and the firmware (1.23) (downloaded from the German site that Dillenger referred to), I noticed that my timer-entries were gone. Luckily, I only had two weekly recordings programmed, so it was not much of a problem to recreate these timer entries.

Did anyone else experience this after upgrading?

Anyway, this reinforces my thinking that one the features affected by this 1.23 upgrade is the timer function...

 

No Dorian. Each time you upgrade you will lose timer entries. The only thing you will not lose will be the TV channel setup. It is like upgrading your PC OS.

 

Great machine, the old HR300, but make SURE you get an extended warranty. If you think these are ALWAYS a rip-off - think again...

The DVD recorder on mine packed up after 14 months, and I've dubbed less than 100 DVDs in that time! When I took it in for an estimate, it turned out that a new recorder was needed costing £210 +VAT and labour taking it up to £280. Of course, I was MUCH too macho to bother with extended warranties, so I'm b*ggared. That's about £20 less than the machine cost me! So, I now have a brilliant video recorder, but have had to buy a new machine (a LiteOn 5006) to allow me to dub.

Another problem is that there are a few discs that I'm unable to finalise, and the new machine won't recognise unfinalised discs from other machines.

The service engineer, who was very apologetic and embarrassed about the Parts cost, also advised that PCBs for LCD tvs come in at about £300 and Plasma's at £600 - so DEFINATELY make sure you take this into account when buying this new technology. Those good old CRTs used to last for a decade at least....

Just a word of warning - a pity that it's with hindsight.

 

I recall an earlier thread regarding 2X - 4X - 8X blank disks. I've just run into two situation where Imation 8X disks burned OK and played back on all five - yes 5 - of my DVD players (everyhting from Sanyo to Apex and one I think that was made in Munchkin Land), but when my customer tried to play them back, the video stuttered and stopped and the audio was broken. I then re-did the video on Maxell 4X and they worked great. The customer even had player with Progressive Scan. Any ideas?

 

To continue on the previous thread, I purchased 2x disks & once I tried to High Speed Dub immediately realized I was in TROUBLE. The machine went straight into intializing mode (which it has never done when dubbing HDD>DVD) and then it took FOREVER to dub a 12 min video and it never did finish finalizing. I threw those out ($17.00 !!) and found some Sony 1x - 8x at the local WalMart Now it seems that about every other one doesn't actually dub becuase when I go to finalize the disk it says "No Program to Finalize". I just put in the last DVD to copy and a gray bar showed up at the bottom of the screen while I was High Speed dubbing; it has the Enter symbol & the word "Enter" right beside it. Any ideas on this? This one is also taking an extraordinary amount of time to dub the 12 minute program. Do I need to hit the "RESET" button? Have many more DVD's to copy next week, so any help ASAP would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

Has anyone got the Sharp DV-HR480H? Is there a way to unlock it to allow multiregion playback?

 

rach2K, If you read the post I made to this forum a few lines above you will find details of the link that will enable you to make the H model (UK version) multi-region. You will have to burn two CDR's and then pop them into the DVD tray and follow the instructions. You'll have the multi-region playback ability afterwards. Cheers Silver64

 

rach2k Sorry, The multi region hack was for the 300/350H but I guess it'll be Ok for the newer Sharp models. Hope so anyway. Best of luck
Cheers Silver64

 

Thanks, Silver64. I did see that, but I wasn't sure if it applied to all models. I'm talking about a 400-series one, not a 300-series. Also, does using this firmware upgrade affect the warranty?

 

snap

 

rach2K. The original MR hack came from Australia and applied to a Sharp 300 Aussie model. I was reluctant (at first) to try it on my, then, new UK model but finally plucked up the courage and it worked. I would assume Sharp have used the same regional code settings for the 400 series but I would imagine your warranty might suffer if there was a prob.Maybe other forum members can comment. BTW I assume you bought the 480H from Empire Direct @ £299. What a bargain! That's what I paid for my 80Gbyte 300H 15 months ago from Comet and you have a massive 250HDD. Best of luck I've loved my 300H since the beginning and (touch wood) it's still running as sweet as a nut. Cheers Silver64

 

Yup bought from EmpireDirect. I tried downloading that file (Sharp_DV-HR350.exe), but double clicking on it doesn't seem to do much. I do have a multiregion dvd player, but I was hoping to have only one box. Thanks for help and support, I'll let y'all know how I get on with this.

 

Hi Again rach2k, Initially had the same problem with the download because of my Firewall. You will have to disable your firewall and then the download should work. Best of luck Silver 64

 

Hi
Tried that link

http://thor.prohosting.com/e5e/Sharp_DV-HR350.exe

which should be the hack to make it region free.

I keep getting a Prohosting headed page that says "File type Unavailable" ('cos it's an exe maybe?)
Earlier postings indicate that you need to turn your firewall off. I've done that(Zonealarm) & still get the same message.
Is Prohosting telling me that IT doesn't allow access to that file type?

Thanks for any help

Nigel

 

Has anyone else who's upgraded their DV-HR300 from 80G to 160G noticed odd behaviour when it starts getting full? At about 50% capacity, it refused to let me delete recordings, and when playing it would not allow track jumps. The last time this happened, I had to dump the important stuff to DVD and reinitialise the HDD.

 

Get that on the 350 too. Maybe it's showing 50% capacity but it's so fragmented that it doesn't want to play? Certainly dumping the recordingd to DVD and initialising got it going again.

Still trying to access the region hack but can't get near it

:-(

Nigel
Sharp DV HR350

 

Hi nylonnet
Did you "register" the HD to the system ?
On page 22 of this treath i expained how to do this.
Also make sure you have the last firmware.
(i know there is a bug like this in some old firmware versions).

And a question for the ppl who use the region free software
What's the firmware version after that update (system/tuner/drive) ?
And does it stay region free after you update to the last software
version ? (system/tuner update and/or drive update)

--

 

Hi,

Has anyone tried the German firmware/burner update on a UK "H" model?

I used the multi-region patch (which was designed for a different model) and it worked OK, I wondered if the "S"-version update would work, too. But I'm not sure I want to risk knackering my machine, or turning all the menus into german or something!

Any thoughts?