Cyberhome AD-M212/AD-M512 FAQ 

Here are answers to most common questions and problems regarding popular Cyberhome DVD players AD-M212 and AD-M512. Feel free to comment and contribute new additions or suggestions to improve this FAQ at http://forum.cyberhome-help.de

Version: 1.11 
Last update: 2002-12-02
Author: Arminio
Changes: link in section 1.1 and cleaning method in section 5.3

Some informations in this FAQ taken from M(1)uffy and Melvin's FAQs and from Cyberhome-help forum.
Thanks to all who contributed with questions and answers.


For addititonal details and details about firmwares, updating etc. visit:
http://www.cyberhome-help.de
http://home.t-online.de/home/0306855728-0001/cyber.html

For general DVD FAQ visit:
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

Cyberhome-help forum:
http://forum.cyberhome-help.de

 
1. Region code topics  2. Macrovision  3. Hidden system menu  4. Firmware  5. Playback related stuff   
 
 
 
1. Region code topics
 
1.1. I get WRONG REGION CODE message when I try to play a DVD

Your DVD player is not set to the same region as the region on the DVD. Select correct region or put player into 'all region' mode - see I want to make my player region free for details.
 

1.2. I want to make my player region free

First, to be able to change regions, your player must have firmware version 9.8 or below. Also, you need to enter into hidden system menu.
Following procedure should enable your player to play DVDs from all regions:

To enter in hidden menu with player powered on:

- If disc is inside DVD player, press OPEN/CLOSE to open tray
- Press 7 6 and SEL to enter in hidden system menu

To change region code:

- Select option "COUNTRY CODE", hit ENTER and enter desired region number, or put value 13 which represent 'all region' mode. Press ENTER to store value.
- Exit from system menu by pressing OPEN/CLOSE
 

1.3. Does the AD-M212/AD-M512 plays Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) disks?

Depends on DVD authoring and region detection method used on RCE DVD. But, to achieve this, player must be in 'all region' mode.
Also, if it fails to play in 'all region' mode, selecting propper region will help to played any region DVD (even RCE discs).

Read here how to change region code.
 
 
2. Macrovision
 
2.1. How do I turn Macrovision off?

If you have one of early devices (from some of first releases) you may be lucky and have no Macrovision at all.
For others, to be able to turn Macrovision copy protection off, your player must have firmware version 9.8 or below. Also, you need to enter into hidden system menu to do that.

Following procedure should turn Macrovision off:

To enter in hidden menu :

- If disc is inside DVD player, press OPEN/CLOSE to open tray
- Press 7 6 and SEL to enter in hidden system menu

To change region code:

- Select option "NEXT" to go to next screen
- Find option "MACROVISION" and press ENTER twice. Value should be 0 after this.
- Exit from system menu by pressing OPEN/CLOSE

NOTE: This change is valid while player is turned on. After turning player off and on, macrovision will be again turned on.

 
 
3. Hidden system menu
 
3.1. How to to access the hidden system menu?

Hidden system menu contains several options that are not usually used and can setup some of very interresting player features. This menu is "officially" called DVD PLAYER SYSTEM SETUP and cannot be accessed normaly but using special key combination that is not published in any AD-M212/AD-M512 manual.

To enter in hidden system menu, do the following steps:

- If disc is inside DVD player, press OPEN/CLOSE to open tray
- Press 7 6 and SEL

Menu will now display.
 To exit from menu, press OPEN/CLOSE.
 

3.2. What the various items in the hidden system menu mean/do?
 
There are many options in hidden menu and for some of them are not very clear what they actually do. So, I will explain only those that I am familiar with.
 

DVD PLAYER SYSTEM SETUP
Description of usefull options and informations
 
First page
FIRMWARE VER  DVD player firmware version
COUNTRY CODE Shows which region disks the player will play. Can be edited in firmware version 9.8 or below - read here
OP PROH ON Possibly stands for Operator Prohibit - This should allow skipping of Copyright notices, FBI warnings, commercials and simmilar 'non-skippable' clips at start of DVD's. It is not known what value need to be entered but you can experiment (I noticed that value '0' works on some DVDs)
PARENTAL PSWD I don't know why this options is also here when it is in standard player setup options.
DVD-ROM: ... 
MOD: ... 
REV: ...
Respectively: DVD-ROM manufacturer, model and DVD-ROM firmware (firmware of the DVD-ROM drive itself) of DVD-ROM used in player.
 
Second page
MACROVISION  Status of Macrovision protection system - editable in firmwares version 9.8 and below. 
Read here
ERROR CORRECTION Force player to handle possible encoding errors in MPEG files during playback. Can have 3 values: FRAME, SLICE or OFF. I didn't noticed any difference between FRAME and SLICE but basically anything besides OFF skip problematic frames during playback.
TEST NOISE Here you can turn noise on each sound channel and do some simple sound effects to test your 5.1 system. Possible options are: OFF (no noise), LEFT, RIGHT, CENTER, SUR-LEFT, SUR-RIGHT, SUBWOOFER, CYCLING
POWER SWITCH Here you can set "hardware" power switch to LOCK or S/W state: 
- LOCK - normal state - player can be physically turned on and off using power switch on the box and turned off into "sleep" mode via power button on remote control. 
- S/W - player can be physically turned off with power switch on the box but can be turned on only via power button on remote controll (in this mode, when player is off, by pressing power switch at the box, player goes into "sleep" mode instead to be fully operative)
MICROPHONE This should turn microphone ON and OFF on device that have microphone input (Asian models that can play Karaoke)
VIDEO OUT SW EN Hide or show VIDEO OUTPUT option (where you can set RGB or S-VIDEO output mode)  in DVD player's VIDEO SETUP menu: 
- ON - VIDEO OUTPUT option is visible 
- OFF - VIDEO OUTPUT option is hidden
ABOUT Information about DVD player and software manufacturer.




4. Firmware

4.1. How do I check which version of firmware I am on?

This information is visible in hiden system menu. Read here how to enter system menu.


4.2 . Can firmware be updated unlimited number of times?

By information (found on Internet) about flash chip which contains firmware, 100 times are maximum number of updates.



5. Playback related stuff
 
5.1. Why I have jerky playback and/or black&white picture?

AD-M212/AD-M512 can play PAL and NTSC discs in both, original  modes or using conversion from NTSC to PAL.
There are three options that can be selected at VIDEO MENU under option TV SYSTEM: PAL, NTSC and AUTO.

- AUTO is used if you have multistandard TV which can play PAL and NTSC discs. If you have PAL TV that can't handle NTSC signal, picture will usually be black and white in this mode.
- PAL is used if you want to play NTSC or PAL discs on PAL TV - to solve problem with b&w picture with NTSC discs, use this option if you doesn't have multistandard TV. This option will convert from NTSC to PAL which might cause slight jerkyness in panning scenes (mainly in scenes with movements from left to right and vice versa) because of used algorithm for conversion and can also depend on DVD itself (usuall problem with players that does not support PAL60 where the strength of possible jerking depends on the DVD)
- NTSC - use if you have TV that support only NTSC TV standard.


5.2. I setup RGB mode and now there is no picture on TV !!!

If you setup video output to RGB and your TV does not support it, there will be no picture on TV (or it will be totally messed up).
Solution is to switch back to S-VIDEO which is imposible without seeing anything.

Here are steps needed to swich back to S-VIDEO "blindly" - without any picture on TV.
Follow this carefully and slowly - do not rush and give player time to proccess any keystroke:

Be sure that there is no disc inside player and do the following:

1. Turn on player without any disc inside
2. Wait until "NO DISC" shows on display
3. Use remote control and press SETUP
4. Press right arrow key 3 times
5. Press down arrow key 2 times
6. Press ENTER
7. Press down arrow key once
8. Press ENTER
9. Press SETUP
Now you should be in S-VIDEO mode and have picture back.


5.3. I have lot of problems (pixelation, freezings ...) with DVD playback

Playback problems can be caused by various reasons - but mainly, problem can be in disc (scratched, dirty, badly authored ...) or in player (dirty laser lense, "incompatibility" with problematic discs, overheating, DVD-ROM fault ...).

IMPORTANT: Dual-layer DVDs usually cause slight pause during playback, always at the same point. This is NOT FAULT - it is layer change and it is normal if it occurs during playback of dual-layer disc. For details about layers and dual-layer discs and how to detect them, read http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html.

Here are some common reasons for playback problems:

- Dirty and scratched discs: most common source for playback problems with rental discs. Dirty discs can be claned using soft "microfibre" wiper for glasses. DO NOT clean it in "round" movements around surface - use movements from center to outer edge. Try this even is the DVD is not visible dirty. If nothing helps, try to use player's error correction to skip problematic parts and reduce problems (see "Hidden system menu" for details).
- "Incompatibility" with problematic discs (or badly authored discs): some DVD titles are authored in specific ways that might cause problem in playback. Most common example is DVD "Matrix" which can cause various problems on various players. To be sure you have incompatible disc, try to play it on another player of the same or different brand - if it produces the same problem, reason is disc. You can try to solve this by upgrading player firmware to never version.
- Dirty laser lense or laser head needs calibration: playback problems can be caused by dirty laser lense. To clean it, use special cleaning kits for DVD players. Also, after some time, laser head can go out of "sync". For now, I don't know how to re-calibrate laser head on Cyberhome but you can try re-upgrading the same firmware because sometimes playback problems vanish after re-upgrading (looks like upgrade procedure re-calibrate heads but this is only assumption!).
- Overheating: if problems always occurs after some time of playback, overheating can be reason. To avoid this, place player in well aired, opened place, away from heat source (TV, VCR, amplifiers ...)
- DVD-ROM fault: if playback problem occurs on almost every disc and approx. at simmilar place, it is possible that DVD-ROM within player is faulty. You can exchange entire DVD player if it is under warranty or replace DVD-ROM drive with another one. Complete list of compatible DVD-ROMs and tutorial of changing DVD-ROM within AD-M212/AD-M512 can be found at http://users.otenet.gr/~prplasma/Cyber/hardhack/DVDchange.htm (thanks to Arianos).


5.4. I have problems with MP3 playback

There are problems in MP3 playback on firmwares v8.0 and below, and at original firmware v9.9.
Problems manifests by stopping of playback after approx. one hour, by playback without any sound or skipping during playback of MP3 files placed at folders ("Albums" in terms of Cyberhome AD-M512) on CD.

These problems are solved in firmware 9.8. Upgrade to firmware 9.8 to solve this if you have older firmware version.

NOTE: Do not burn multisession MP3 CD-s because 512 will play only files form first session untill you finish CD.





-| End of FAQ |-