APEX AD-1010W & AD-1110W

Apex AD-1010W



Apex AD-1110W

There is no known way to make the AD-1010W or AD-1110W truly "region-free"
or "VCR-friendly".

However, it may be possible to "force" your player to be region-free. More details below.

And, in the case of the AD-1010W, some units come with VCD support
disabled from the factory. VCD-enabled firmware from the AD-1110W (yes, 1110W, not 1010W) is available, and can be loaded on the VCD-disabled AD-1010W units,
in order to gain VCD support. See below.

"FORCING" YOUR PLAYER TO BE "REGION-FREE"

There is no "true" way to make this player region-free. There is a workaround method which "forces" the player to read discs from other regions.
However, there are a LOT of limitations involved.

Before doing anything, go into the PREFERENCE SETUP menu and change the various options (i.e. AUDIO, SUBTITLE, etc.) to the settings that you desire. You won't be able to change these options once the disc starts playing.

The "force" method is as follows:

1. Open the disc tray

2. Place your DVD on the tray.

3. Close the disc tray.

4. While you see the words "LOADING" on the screen, try pushing ONE of the following buttons repeatedly, very quickly:

TITLE
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

5. If the trick works - and there's no guarantee that it will - the DVD will start playing, with the word WRONG REGION in the upper left corner.

If the button you pushed does not work, repeat the
process trying one of the other buttons on the list.

To get rid of the WRONG REGION message, push the P/N button on the remote 3 times. (You will probably see the "Stop" symbol in the upper right corner after doing this - there's no known way to get rid of this symbol, but it's more bearable than WRONG REGION.)

Besides P/N, the only other buttons that will function while the DVD is playing are:

POWER
Open/Close
SETUP
Arrow keys/ENTER (only when inside the setup menu)
VOL+
VOL-
MUTE

In order to stop the DVD, you must push EJECT or turn off the Power.

VCD SUPPORT (AD-1010W)

Within the "universe" of AD-1010W's, there are at least two different sub-versions.

Generally speaking, the firmware version will indicate whether or not the player has VCD support. To display the firmware version:

1. Make sure that the disc tray is empty.

2. On the remote control, push the following buttons:

SETUP
1 3 6 9 (one at a time)
Left Arrow 3 times -- NOT the |<< or << button
Right Arrow 1 time -- NOT the >>| or >> button

3. A new menu item labeled VERSION will appear between
the PREFERENCE SETUP and EXIT SETUP options.
Enter this VERSION menu.

4. Inside the VERSION menu, you will see a line of information titled VERSION, another titled SUB-VER, and possibly a date listed on the left column.

If you see the following:

VERSION 00.0B.04.08
SUB-VER 00.00.00.04

...your player probably does not have VCD support. It is up to you
to test this. If you have this firmware version, and you don't
have VCD support, but you want VCD support, scroll down to
the section titled "RESTORING VCD SUPPORT".

If you see anything other than the VERSION and SUB-VER listed
above, then your player should have VCD support. If you find that
this is not the case, please report your findings in THIS thread on the
AD-1010W/1110W forum.

RESTORING VCD SUPPORT (AD-1010W)

If your AD-1010W lacks VCD support, and it meets certain criteria, it may be possible
to load firmware to gain VCD support.

(Note: "VCD support" means that VCD's start playing automatically, upon insertion. If you see a file browser menu upon inserting a VCD, and you have to manually select the file to play, then your player does NOT have VCD support!)

To successfully load this firmware, your player MUST meet these requirements.

Basically, the player's main circuit board should look like this:

Here's a the board from another 1010W:

The most important components that it must have are listed below.

a. It must have the MediaTek MT1369 video processor (that's the large "M" chip - the one with the sticker on top of it - in the picture above.) It is possible that your AD-1010W is using another type of MediaTek video processor, such as the MT1379. DO NOT TRY THIS UNLESS YOUR AD-1010W HAS THE MT1369! Make sure that it actually says MT1369 on the chip. Here's a close-up of the MT1369 chip:

b. It must have the following firmware version
(see above for the procedure on how to check the firmware version)

VERSION 00.0B.04.08
SUB-VER 00.00.00.04

If you have an AD-1010W that lacks VCD support and has a firmware version other than the one mentioned above, please report your findings THIS thread on the
AD-1010W/1110W forum.

c. It MUST have a small chip that says "AVS AV3168". Here's a picture of an AV3168 chip:

(Don't worry about the numbers under the "AV3168",
such as the "0037" in the picture above.

d. It MUST have a rectangular chip that has the following printed directly on the chip:

-An "ATMEL" symbol
-A chip identification code that starts with "AT49F8192AT"

If your player's firmware chip says "AMIC" or anything else, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LOAD THIS FIRMWARE. DOING SO WILL LIKELY DESTROY YOUR PLAYER!!

Once you've confirmed that your player matches the specifications outlined above:

1. Download THIS file.

2. Unzip the SAD1110W.BIN file (contained within the zip file)

3. IMPORTANT:
Rename the file from
SAD1110W.BIN
to
MAD1010W.BIN

3. Open your CD burning program. Perform the steps necessary to set up
the process of creating a new data CD.

4. Burn MAD1010W.BIN to a blank CD-R/CD-RW.
Be sure to apply these specifications before burning the disc:
Data CD, ISO9660, Mode 1, "Close"/"Finalize" disc session.

(If you need help with burning the disc, you might want to check out this excellent article put together by the guys at Area 450. The article references Sampo firmware, but the burning specifications are basically the same. Note that the article does NOT make any mention about creating a subfolder, or closing/finalizing the disc, so you will need to figure
out those steps on your own.)

5. After the disc is burned, view the contents of the disc in Windows Explorer/My Computer/whatever. Right-click on the .ROM file that is burned on the disc and select "Properties" (or do whatever is necessary to view the Properties.)

Make sure that the file size is
EXACTLY 1,048,576 bytes.
If the file size is NOT 1,048,576 bytes, DO NOT CONTINUE! M

6. Read the disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I DO NOT OWN THIS PLAYER SO I CANNOT TRY THIS UPGRADE MYSELF. I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT MAY RESULT TO YOUR PLAYER. PERFORMING
THE PROCEDURE DESCRIBED HERE MAY
VOID THE WARRANTY OF YOUR PLAYER!

7. Eject the disc tray on the DVD player.

8. Push SETUP. Enter the PREFERENCE menu. Scroll down to the DEFAULTS option. Select the RESET option and push PLAY (ENTER). Then push SETUP to exit the menu.

9. Put the CD-R/CD-RW, data side down, on the tray.

10. Close the disc tray.

11. The upgrade process will now begin.

Within a few seconds, you should see the following on your screen:

UPGRADE FILE DETECTED

UPGRADE: ?
PRESS PLAY TO START
WARNING: DO NOT POWER OFF DURING THE PROCEDURE OF UPGRADE

12. Press PLAY on the remote control.

13. You should now see the following on your screen:

1. REMOVE THE DISC NOW (but wait until the disc tray ejects!)
2. DO NOT POWER OFF
3. WAIT AROUND 1 MINUTE
4. ENJOY

(NOTE: If, at this point, you see messages like "RETRY FILE COPY" and "CHECKSUM FAIL", your player cannot be upgraded. Wait about one minute after seeing the final error message. Then try to eject the disc tray. If you can't eject the disc tray, cycle using the main power switch on the front of the player -- when the player is turned back on, and you see "LOADING" on the screen, eject the disc immediately.)

14. WITHIN A FEW SECONDS, THE DISC TRAY WILL AUTOMATICALLY EJECT. REMOVE THE DISC, BUT
************** DO NOT **************
TURN OFF THE POWER! THE UPGRADE IS NOT YET COMPLETE!!!

After removing the disc, don't do anything at all! Just let the player upgrade. The player will AUTOMATICALLY reboot itself and eject the disc tray when it is done upgrading.

If you have the Real Player G2 (or higher), you can watch a video of the upgrade procedure. Click HERE.

Once the upgrade is complete, try playing a VCD. If it starts playing automatically (i.e. you don't have to do through a file browser menu first), then the upgrade worked. Please report your results by responding to THIS message.

WHERE TO GET HELP

AD-1010W/1110W forum

Please Note! I do not own an Apex AD-1010W or AD-1110W player. All care taken in accurately providing this information which is kindly provided by others who do own these models. Please visit the sites linked above if you require any assistance.

ALSO NOTE I AM NOT A FIRMWARE PROGRAMMER!!!
So please don't ask me when other features will be available...