Samsung DVD 511 > Reviews > Samsungs little mean machine

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Excellent
Sound Level	Good
Range of Features	Above Average
Durability	Excellent
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Good performance, multi - region hackable
Disadvantages:	poor range of connections at the back  -  minor

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Following in the footsteps of Samsungs legendary 709 comes it's newer, stronger little brother, the Samsung 511.

It borrows very heavily from it's older sibling but improves on it in almost every way. Again Samsung have made one of the most attractive looking players on the market. This particular model includes a 3D sound spatialiser. For those of us who don't have dolby 5.1 sound systems this does a pretty good job of mimicking a surround system. The picture quality and performance of the machine is excellent. It's not plagued as much by the delay as the machine makes transitions between layers of discs. The remote control is also much improved from the 709's bohemoth effort with nice, easily organised buttons which don't require a Phd in Quantum Physics to operate it. The one minor gripe would be the connections at the back. Would it be too much to ask for connections for those of us who actually want to get a Dolby 5.1 decoder as this seriously enhances the DVD experience.

One of the best features of this player is that, like the 709, it is multi-region hackable by the use of it's remote control, meaning you can play American discs months before they are even released over here. Their discs are generally cheaper than ours too. I hacked mine about ten months ago and have had no problems so far. The beauty of hacking your machine this way is that it does not invalidate your warranty and it even plays the new RCE (Region Coding Enhanced) discs with no problems.

I would recommend this machine to anyone, though I have heard that the YELO 800 is currently the best budget DVD player on the market so I'd look there first before making a choice.

Because I'm so generous I've typed out the multi-region hack below -

This hack also works on the Thomson DTH-3600, DTH-4000, DTH-4200 and DTH-4500 models, along with the Samsung DVD-709, DVD-809, DVD-909, DVD-511, DVD-611, DVD-811 and Hitachi DV-P305e

On various Samsung models this hack will also disable Macrovision, but you have to turn off the Quasi-PAL option and set the SCART output type to Video rather than RGB.

Always perform a Cold Start before applying the hack below
1. Power on your player
2. Press and hold both the Play and Stop buttons on the player
3. After a short while you should be presented with a set of language options. Release the Play and Stop buttons on the player
4. You will now need to select a language option between 1 and 6
To convert this player to Multi-Region playback
1. Press the Repeat button on your remote control
2. Using your remote control enter the code below, note that you must know what Region your player is currently set to in order to know which code is appropriate
for Region 1 use 2, 9, 3, 3 and 4
for Region 2 use 3, 8, 7, 6 and 7
for Region 3 use 5, 6, 7, 3 and 2
for Region 4 use 7, 6, 8, 8 and 4
for Region 5 use 5, 3, 8, 1 and 4
for Region 6 use 2, 4, 4, 6 and 2

3. A code should be displayed on the screen indicating the current Region setting of your unit.
4. Press the 9 button on your remote control for Region free, or 1 for Region 1, 2 for Region 2 and so on.
5. Press the Open button on your player
6. Press the Standby button on your remote control

You are now ready to play region 1 discs. Enjoy!