Experimenting with Sunstech X505 and Star Cluster 3201 DivX DVD players

I have bought a very inexpensive Sunstech X505 for about 49Euros. I was looking for a Star Cluster 3201 that I have previously bought and liked very much. The Sunstech I didn't quite like as much at first for two reasons.
Region Hacking the Star Cluster 3201 was easy. Go into Setup, Preferences, 1379, arrows up and down to change region, Setup to end.
Although the menus are very similar on the X505, this procedure did not work. I had to dig around a lot more to find the correct way to hack the X505. Open tray, Clear, 13690, close tray (and you see no indication of what's going on), then Setup, 1379 and you see that the region has been unlocked to 0.

Version	05.00.02.06
SUB-VER	54.05.00.06
8032	05.00.02.06
Servo	02.06.00.00
RISC	05.00.02.06
DSP	03.03.00.36
Region Code	0

I still like the Star Cluster better because it has a volume control on the remote, and more variables to set about picture quality, brightness, contrast, hue and so on.

Still, I am messing with the Sunstech. It is now sitting here next to me opened and under surgery.

My main goal is to see if it is possible to replace the firmware of the X505 with something a little more versitile, just like the 3201.
The X505 is built around an MT1389E and the firmware is stored on a Atmel 49LV8192A (1Mbyte).
On the far right side there is a connector for interaction with the firmware loader that works even when the player seems dead.

Using a cellular phone cable that incorporates an interface to convert RS232 levels (+-12V) to LowPower TTL (3v3-0), I connected the Player to my PC.
Most of this is also written here http://personal.inet.fi/koti/mabreaker/mabreaker/mediatek/programs/index.html

I have loaded the latest firmware, and as a result of that this is the version as on the TV Screen

	Version	53.00.00.01
	SUB-VER	00.00.00.07
	8032	05.00.04.00
	Servo	02.12.10.00
	RISC	05.00.04.06
	DSP	03.03.01.94
	Region Code	0

I don't see a lot of improvement, but at least it seems I have changed it to a newer release, and hopefully that might bring some benefit.

I have also tried to load the firmware of the StarCluster 3201 on this player, but even the file size is too big for this Flash Chip, and so it is just impossible.

What I can confirm is that even when the player seems totally dead (after loading half of the 3201 firmware on the X505 it looked really dead), you can revert to your previous backup, and the player comes back to life.

 

As a personal tip, keep your cell phones away (and I mean really away, like another room) from your serial cable when you do this. If the cable is not well shielded (and cheap cables aren't), the emissions from the cell phone (even when it's not in use, but just logging into the network) can disrupt communication.