Komplett DVD/HDD recorder (250GB) - €253 + delivery

peckerhead

http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=319244

Any opinions? Only BenQ product I ever bought before was a €30 mp3-CD player from Lidl...

tk123

I was tempted until I saw it was region 2..I had a look around and couldn't find a hack so I didn't bother buying one..

cpk

Quite cheap for a 250 gig dvd recorder.
Suppose this would suit those who don't have many us dvds etc
But if yer pushed you can always try the hack code for benq models.

First is to power up your recorder and press "INPUT" to switch the display to "Cam1" and press "OK", Next press "3 5 0 0" and press "OK", finally you would see the display to "000" and your player is now a multi-region player..

This would be for the 350, the first 3 digits are the model, the last one is the region. For the model 325 (which definitely works) you enter "3 2 5 0".


Even if that doesn't work you can swap the firmware by burning the regions you need on separate cd's then use it to swap the region of the player to suit your needs.

US Region firmware here : (ignore n/a, it's there if you click)

http://support.benq.com/front/BenqMain.asp?MenuHead=128&ShowType=program&FileURL=service/driverlist.asp&Dataid=18642&downloadclass=Driver&product=18638&langu=null&ops=null&GenMenu=&RootId=undefined)

European firmware here:

http://www.benq-eu.com/ServiceAndSupport/downloads/downloads.cfm?product=795&type=M

deadl0ck

Not a bad price.
Pity it doesn't play DivX (not that I could see anyhow)

peckerhead

Yeah, pity about the DivX... but I have another DivX-compatible player I could use for files that *cough* end up on my computer somehow...

Ran the model through a couple of price comparison engines, and was surprised how much cheaper Komplett's price was (€253 here, £170 up north) — it's around the €450-€500 mark in most European stores, and the (OK, probably better) Lite-On 250G alternative is £260 from Amazon...

Stugots

Just received my one yesterday...

Can confirm all comments so far:
- Fan is a little noisy - but not enough to be bothersome.
- Multi-region hack works.
- TV tuner is not very good (detail below)
- Great value at the price.

I previously had a Chorus digital box connected to a VCR via scart. The VCR was connected to the TV via scart and the VCR coax output was connected to a second wall socket to route the signal to other TVs in the house. These other TVs can then see the channel selected on the digital box and 3 others (not sure where these are coming from - picked up by the chorus antenna or coming from the digital box).

With the DVD HDD player in place of the VCR, the quality of these channels is severly degraded and two are pretty much unwatchable. As a result, I have kept the VCR connected to the Chorus box VCR output in order to keep these channels available elsewhere in the house.

tk123

Are you using the remote hack or the swap disk one Stugots?

TheDriver

Got the same yoke, Fan is noisy but you get over it. My tuner works grand from normal aerial analogue though contrast is a bit strange on one channel though not enough to complain for my reception.
Where did you get the multi region hack??
Find the editing a bit sparse in that its hard to edit out ads etc onto DVD+R but can do it on RWs. HDD is class, just keep recording and the timer is easy to set.

cpk

TheDriver, from my post above

Quite cheap for a 250 gig dvd recorder.
Suppose this would suit those who don't have many us dvds etc
But if yer pushed you can always try the hack code for benq models.

First is to power up your recorder and press "INPUT" to switch the display to "Cam1" and press "OK", Next press "3 5 0 0" and press "OK", finally you would see the display to "000" and your player is now a multi-region player..

This would be for the 350, the first 3 digits are the model, the last one is the region. For the model 325 (which definitely works) you enter "3 2 5 0".


Even if that doesn't work you can swap the firmware by burning the regions you need on separate cd's then use it to swap the region of the player to suit your needs.

US Region firmware here : (ignore n/a, it's there if you click)

http://support.benq.com/front/BenqMa...otId=undefined)

European firmware here:

http://www.benq-eu.com/ServiceAndSup...uct=795&type=M

Stugots

I used the remote hack - sweet!

tk123

Stugots wrote:

I used the remote hack - sweet!

WooooooooooT!! I'm getting one so for myself for - it IS my b-day next week!!
EDIT - NOoooooooooooooo - i think they're all gone!!