MAGNAVOX MDVD-100 DVD Player
WARNING: THIS PAGE ONLY RELATES TO THE "OLDER" MDVD-100 PICTURED ON THIS PAGE. If your MDVD-100 has a different rear socket layout and says "HELLO" in the display the firmware on this page WILL NOT WORK. Some pictures and brief information on the newer MDVD-100 can be found HERE.
The Magnavox MDVD-100 player. Nice and elegant with a well laid out front panel.
The Magnavox MDVD-100 is a neat looking DVD player that is sold in Australia at present through KMART and will do just about everything you could ever want from a relatively cheap DVD player. It will play DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW, VCD, S-VCD, Audio CD and MP3 discs in CDR and CDRW format.
The Magnavox MDVD-100 is Region Free and RCE immune straight out of the box. However Macrovision is permanently coded into the firmware and still enabled. Macrovision is a form of copy protection, but unfortunately it also makes the MDVD-100 incompatible with connecting through a VCR if your TV has no A/V inputs, and also upsets some video projectors and rear projection TV's. The good news is that if your viewing pleasure is upset by Macrovision, it can be easily removed by way of a simple CD upgrade disc you can make yourself. Details further down the page - keep reading!
The MDVD-100 background screen on the left (BORING!! I'll show you how to change it further down the page!), and a shot of an MP3 disc menu on the right. Unfortunately the MP3 menu system is very primitive and limited to the first 8 characters of the filename only, but it plays MP3 files OK even if the disc is made with long filenames.
Inside the MDVD-100. Nice neat layout with Power Supply on the left, main logic board to the right and a SCART connector rear. The DVD-ROM drive is a standard IDE interface DSL-710A made by DVS in Korea and discussed here.
However yours might come with an IDE interfaced "FUSS Audio" DV9929B loader as shown here. There are no other electrical differences inside the player between this version and the DSL 710A loader version, just the loader mechanism. Note: This DOES NOT mean you can upgrade a FUSS loader with DVS loader firmware or vice versa as quite a lot of people have misconstrued the above statement to think it does!
Close up of the logic board. It uses an ESS processor (the popular ES4318 - large black square chip), a 29F040 flashrom for the firmware (rectangle chip with white sticker), Analog Devices ADV7170 video processor (small square black chip at top of board, just right of centre) and a WolfsonMicro WM8720 2-channel audio processor (bottom, just right of centre).
Rear view showing the range of connections. You get standard 2-channel stereo (left/right) analogue audio out, Coaxial Digital Audio out (5.1 capable), S-Video out, a standard video output and SCART RGB video output. The SCART does everything it is supposed to, such as triggering the widescreen switching signal pin (so long as your TV supports it) when the material source changes for both PAL and NTSC discs. With the original firmware that comes with the MDVD-100, SCART does have problems with the first 5 or 6 lines of the screen at the top on fullscreen DVDs (or any DVDs that had picture right to the top of the screen rather than black letterboxing). The Macrovision removed firmware fixes this problem (see further down the page for this). The MDVD-100 is also capable of outputting WSS (wide screen switching) on the S-Video output with PAL discs, but with NTSC discs depending on your make of TV it may not be able to understand the different signalling format for this.
The remote control supplied with the Magnavox MDVD-100. Neat layout and easy to hold. It uses two "AA" batteries.
The MDVD-100 WILL PLAY BOTH NTSC AND PAL DISCS, and will convert NTSC discs to PAL output for viewing on a PAL TV (and also if you export one of these units, convert PAL discs to NTSC for viewing on an NTSC TV if you wish!). The user manual says it won't, but it does - so long as you set up the correct option in the setup menu as shown here:
Setting the MDVD-100 to "PAL" will make all discs play in PAL video format. "NTSC" will make all discs play in NTSC. "MULTI" will make a PAL disc play in PAL and an NTSC disc play in NTSC.
AUTO POWER OFF
The MDVD-100 has an auto power off feature after about 5 minutes. So don't be worried if after approx. 5 minutes the front panel goes blank with only the red power light lit and the TV goes blank too. The only two ways to "wake up" the unit is to either press the power button on the remote control, or cycle (turn off, turn on) the power from the front panel power button. No other front panel buttons will work but the POWER button on the standard firmware. The modified firmware makes the "return" button become a wake up/standby button - keep reading!
HELP! MY MDVD-100 IS NOT REGION FREE!!
...or: I'VE BEEN "TWEAKING" AND I DON'T HAVE A REGION FREE PLAYER ANYMORE!!
Okay don't panic! On the Magnavox MDVD-100, Region setting is NOT "hardcoded" into the firmware like many other players are. Therefore if your MDVD-100 is not region free "out of the box" OR you have been experimenting with different firmware other than the ones listed below (which will NOT alter region settings), the procedure for making the player region free is:
Power on
Press Open/Close button
Press these buttons in sequence: 330880
Close tray (press Open/Close again)
Power off
**Also: 330881 is Region 1, 330884 is region 4 and so on.
THE VCR & PROJECTOR FRIENDLY* FIRMWARE
*(macrovision removed firmware)
This firmware has been taken from an Australian Magnavox MDVD-100 and has been modified to remove Macrovision so you can hook up the player through your VCR if your TV lacks A/V inputs, or to your video projector and not have any viewing difficulties.
As an added bonus you get a cool new looking background and the "RETURN" button on the front panel turns into a "standby" button so you can wake up and shut down your DVD player without trying to find the remote control.
Thanks to the guys on the Magnavox Yahoo Group for the standby button feature & new background, and Sakman for the Macrovision removal.
Click HERE for the firmware and read below for CDR upgrading info.
To make a CDR for upgrading firmware:
If your Magnavox MDVD-100 has been sold to you either not Region Free (so you cannot play your imported DVD discs) or still has the Macrovision enabled (so you cannot connect through a VCR) then you can use the instructions below to make a CDR which will correct these problems, and also add a new background and modify the "return" button to be a "standby" button....
To CDR upgrade follow the instructions below:
| 1. | Download the firmware (from above) |
| 2. | Unzip the file to extract the U-MAM.ROM and TEST20MB.TXT file |
| 3. | With your CDR burning software, create a standard file type CDR disc and add the U-MAM.ROM and TEST20MB.TXT files to the list of files to be burnt to the CDR. If you wish you may also use a CDRW disc to do the update. |
| 4. | Burn disc ISO9660, Mode 1, Track at once, closed CD. For example with Nero use ISO 1 MODE 1 and click ASCII Character set.
If you don't have Nero then almost any burning software will do. IMPORTANT! Make sure your burning software does not change the filename U-MAM.ROM to U_MAM.ROM. If it does the update WILL NOT WORK. Also make sure your burning software burns the firmware file in ALL UPPERCASE. If it converts the filename to U-mam.rom the update WILL NOT WORK. |
| 5. | Turn on player and insert the update disc. Screen will show DISC LOADING Then U-MAM.ROM will appear in the top left hand corner on the screen. Then WRITING will flash three times and then DONE will appear. When finished the player will go into standby mode. Press the "RETURN" button on the front panel and the player should power up. You will see the new background screen. IMMEDIATELY press the OPEN/CLOSE button to eject the update CD before it tries to upgrade the machine again!
|
What if you don't see the upgrade happening?
If you get a "write fail" message then most likely you need to ensure the disc is CLEAN and also ensure that the firmware filename is called U-MAM.ROM. Also make sure the filename is ALL UPPERCASE otherwise it won't work. If you are still having problems I can arrange to have your firmware chip manually programmed for free. EMAIL ME for details.
What if you do not like the new firmware?
If for some reason you do not like the firmware you can download the original Australian MDVD-100 (Macrovision ON) firmware HERE and apply it in exactly the same way as described above following steps 2 to 5. Note that the original firmware has the original background image.
CHANGING THE BACKGROUND IMAGE
If you want to change the background image your player shows when you turn it on to your own different background image you can!
The procedure to modify the firmware file to add your picture is to use a program called ApexLogo which will allow you to change the background image. Click HERE for instructions on how to do that, and then return to this page and follow this procedure:
| 1. | Download either type of firmware from above |
| 2. | Unzip the file to extract the U-MAM.ROM and TEST20MB.TXT file |
| 3. | IMPORTANT! Rename U-MAM.ROM to U-MAM.BIN so ApexLogo can read it. |
| 3. | Create your picture and save it in .bmp format (704x480 pixel size) |
| 4. | From DOS use MKLOGO to compress the picture as explained on the background page |
| 5. | From DOS use C2BIN to make the picture a .bin format (check the filesize of the picture - must be no more than 28,302 bytes) |
| 6. | Use ApexLogo to merge the new picture into the U-MAM.BIN file you renamed in step 3. Then save the new firmware. Call it, for example, MYIMAGE.BIN |
| 7. | Rename MYIMAGE.BIN file saved from Apexlogo to U-MAM.ROM |
| 8. | With your CDR burning software, create a standard file type disc and add your Background Picture Modified U-MAM.ROM file and the TEST20MB.TXT file to the list of files to be burnt to the CDR. If you wish you may also use a CDRW disc to do the update. |
| 9. | Burn disc ISO9660, Mode 1, Track at once, closed CD. For example with Nero use ISO 1 MODE 1 and click ASCII Character set.
If you don't have Nero then almost any CDR software will do. |
| 10. |
Turn on player and insert the update disc. Screen will show DISC LOADING
|
How many times can you change the picture? As often as you like because the firmware chip has approximately 100,000 erase/write cycles. Just remember that every time you do this process you do run the risk of having a power failure or a "bad burn" where for some reason the file does not get written properly. It is not all bad news, however, because if this does happen I can recover your chip by manually re-programming it. If you do run into problems of a "bad burn" just email me.
LOST YOUR USER MANUAL??
You can download the Magnavox MDVD-100 user's manual HERE
(zipped up PDF file, 4.3MB download)
WHERE TO GET FURTHER HELP
You can get further assistance from the helpful guys at the Yahoo Magnavox Page or you can also look at the Yahoo OneFirmwareForAll Page for more information on firmware hacking. Unfortunately I am not a firmware programmer so I cannot answer any questions regarding different (custom) features for your MDVD-100. These guys can!
