"Hacking Hex Strings and Checksum's"

Explanation of Hex Strings and Checksums:
Hex String: 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 Region/Macrovision String.
The 01 in this string is Region 1 and the last 00 is Macrovision ON
55 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 = Region Free and Macrovision OFF

Hex String: 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 1B = LP/3 Hour Hex String
The 1B in this string is LP/3 Hour mode OFF
00 00 00 01 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 1F The 1F in this string is LP/3 Hour mode ON

Below are the Checksums:
0x47 = Macrovision Checksum
0xA7 = LP/3 Hour mode Checksum
0xEB = Main Checksum

By making a change to this string: 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00
To: 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01
Making this modification, sets to Region free and Macrovision Disabled.
This makes the Region bit -1 and Macrovision bit + 1 so this being an offset,
there is no need to change the Macrovision checksum at 0x47

By making changes to this string: 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 1B
To:00 00 00 01 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 1F
Making this modification, sets to LP/3 Hour mode ON.
Changing the 1B to 1F on the end of this string, calls for adding + 4 to the
LP/3 Hour bit checksum at 0xA7 and + 4 to the Main Checksum at 0xEB
to compensate for the LP/3 Hour bit mode.

If you already have 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 1F in your Firmware
String which is LP/3 Hour mode enabled, no change is needed.

Long story short, if you already have LP/3 Hour mode, the only change needed to get Region free and Macrovision disabled, is to modify the Region
and Macrovision String as such: 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01

If you Add a hex number to a hex string, you must also add that number to
its corresponding Checksum and the Main Checksum.
Likewise if you subtract a number from a hex string, you must also subtract
that number from its checksum, and the main checksum.

Turn OFF Macrovision ONLY: Find 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 and
Change to : 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 001 and then find the
Checksum: 0x47 and Add 1 to its value
Checksum: 0xEB and Add 1 to its value

Disclaimer: (Hack at your own risk of course). I have used these hack's without any problems in the past. My thanks go out to all whom have helped to gather all of this valuable information. Just thought it will be helpfull to some.

Regards; Pop's

Hi Pops,

Thanks for a good explanation but one word of caution if you intend to manually hack - the checksum locations do vary a bit depending on version/location e.g. checksum location for European 5001 versions differ from US 5005 versions.

(The ILOhacker program is very good at sorting this out - an explanation of how it knows the different checksum locations would be interesting).

Your explanation is also somewhat US dependent for the simplest hack.

A more general form of this is as follows:

Search for and change this string: 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 0X 00 00 00 00
To: 55 53 00 00 00 00 00 0X-1 00 00 00 01

where 0X = region code (01 for US, 02-Europe, 04-Australia etc.)
and 0X-1 = region code-1


Making this modification, sets to (Region Code - 1) and Macrovision Disabled.

No checksums need to be altered, and so this MV removal hack will work for virtually any Liteon/firmware version.

For US users, it also sets the liteon to region free. For non-US users the region code is one less than before. This is easily over-ridden by using the exit-2960 remote control method for setting a region (or setting region free).

To change to LP mode is more complex as checksums need to be altered (unles you have a 5002/6 which have it enabled by default).

Overall, I have used the ILOhacker program several times, and it is great for the standard liteons on the market.

Cheers!

Oilman; Thanks for your input on the European versions, I was not sure about that. Hopefully other memebers will have something to add. Just noticed that some new members may need some of this information and decided to put it out there.
Regard's; Pop's

My guess is that in 1F, binary 0001 1111, each of the five bits represents one of the five recording modes. Since the 3-Hour mode is the middle of the five, I wouldn't venture a guess as to whether the higher bits represent the higher speed, shortest time modes or the opposite.

Has anybody looked into this? I'm not sure whether the information is useful or not, but I am curious.

Do these hex strings apply to the 1101hc1 with the mediatek chip, or just for those with the LSI chipsets?

Excellent information
I have a LDW1105HC - it will not copy VHS Movies - I get the "Protected Content" message and recording stops.

2 Questions: Will these hex code string changes resolve this? and How do I get in to the Hex Code to make the changes.

Thanks in Advance

Thanks all for the wealth of detailed info on this subject! I am willing to try removing MV but have the most basic questions: where do I find, how do I get to the hex strings in a Lite On 5045 and do I just overtype with the remove to change them?
Your posts and time are greatly appreaciated.
Tom

The information re. hacking is a year old. Look at post dates. Liteon has updated firmware to make it hack proof as I guess all new machines ship with hack proof firmware.

As far as I know, nobody has managed to hack new versions.

I would recommend against trying manual hacks as you could "fry" your machine.