Seiki SR212S & SR4KP1(4K) Region Free BD Players

[kiltymchaggis]

Many people have talked about the Seiki BD660 and it's region free capability, but that particular player is only available in Canada. Well people in the U.S. can finally rest easy, because Sears and Kmart are now selling the Seiki SR212S for the low price of $60 and, just like the BD660, can be made region free! Here are a couple things that you may want to know about the player: First and foremost, this is a BASIC Blu-ray player. There are jacks in the back for composite video and there is the obvious HDMI port as well. There are no Digital output jacks to speak of and there is no Ethernet port as well, so no BD-Live. There is a USB port on the front of the player which supports photo, music and video playback. I tested several discs on this player, and I was quite impressed with the results. I popped in Skyfall, and it loaded pretty quickly. Disc playback was perfect. Even the menus transitioned smoothly. After that, I decided to change the region and popped in the Region B locked Howard The Duck. Again, no problems whatsoever. Lastly, I popped in my Region 2 locked DVD of No Retreat, No Surrender. Naturally, the PAL video converted to NTSC and the disc played with no problems at all. The upconverting looked really good. I have an Insignia NS-BRDVD4 which can be made region free, and the Seiki not only stands up to it for disc playback, it surpasses it. The player is quieter, disc loading is faster, and menu transitions are smoother. Don't buy this player expecting to go online and watch Netflix or YouTube. This is a simple Blu-ray player for people like me who don't want to spend a lot of money to go region free. If anyone has any questions, please, don't hesitate to ask.


Update 12/2/2014 - thanks to member gahodapp

Originally Posted by gahodapp

Sears is now selling the Seiki SR4KP1 which can upconvert to 4K (although I don't have a 4K tv to test it on). The player runs around $100 and can be set to region free BD and DVD just like the SR212S and the BD660. It does have an eithernet port but no online apps for it. It will play "X-Men Days of Future Past" without any problems.

[Show spoiler]With the player on, press "set up" on the remote.

Then punch in 8520 on the remote and a menu will pop up.

They'll be a box at the bottom right for the region coding of dvds and another for blu-rays.

With the remote, punch in 0 for dvd. This will make it region free.

For blu-rays, punch in 1 for region A, 2 for region B and 4 for region C (Haven't tried these yet).

Once you're done, press set up. That simple. As already mentioned, you'll have to change the region coding for blu-rays everytime you change over.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by kiltymchaggis

Many people have talked about the Seiki BD660 and it's region free capability, but that particular player is only available in Canada. Well people in the U.S. can finally rest easy, because Sears and Kmart are now selling the Seiki SR212S for the low price of $60 and, just like the BD660, can be made region free! Here are a couple things that you may want to know about the player: First and foremost, this is a BASIC Blu-ray player. There are jacks in the back for composite video and there is the obvious HDMI port as well. There are no Digital output jacks to speak of and there is no Ethernet port as well, so no BD-Live. There is a USB port on the front of the player which supports photo, music and video playback. I tested several discs on this player, and I was quite impressed with the results. I popped in Skyfall, and it loaded pretty quickly. Disc playback was perfect. Even the menus transitioned smoothly. After that, I decided to change the region and popped in the Region B locked Howard The Duck. Again, no problems whatsoever. Lastly, I popped in my Region 2 locked DVD of No Retreat, No Surrender. Naturally, the PAL video converted to NTSC and the disc played with no problems at all. The upconverting looked really good. I have an Insignia NS-BRDVD4 which can be made region free, and the Seiki not only stands up to it for disc playback, it surpasses it. The player is quieter, disc loading is faster, and menu transitions are smoother. Don't buy this player expecting to go online and watch Netflix or YouTube. This is a simple Blu-ray player for people like me who don't want to spend a lot of money to go region free. If anyone has any questions, please, don't hesitate to ask.

Walmart use to sell a $48 LG Blu-ray player that was profile 2.0 and offered streaming services like Netflix (Of course it lacked region free and region selectable features). The Seiki Blu-ray player you mentioned is only profile 1.1 with no Ethernet connection for firmware updates. In the last few years all standalone Blu-ray players have been profile 2.0 BD-LIVE until this new model called the Seiki SR212S was released (I hope future low cost Blu-ray players will maintain their profile 2.0 BD-LIVE feature with Ethernet).

I googled the Seiki SR212S and I see there is a website that mentions how to access the secret menu to make the Blu-ray player region selectable for Blu-rays and region free/selectable for DVD’s. The only problem with this is that the Blu-ray license agreements do not allow Blu-ray player manufactories to offer a region selectable menu. So what will most likely happen is that in the future when a firmware update is required to play the latest Blu-ray new releases the manufactory of the Blu-ray player will be forced to issue a firmware update to remove the secret region free menu. This has happen before with other company’s that have shipped their Blu-ray players with firmware that offers a secret code to access the region selectable menu. When the time a firmware update is need to play the latest new Blu-ray releases the secret region free menu will disappear and the Blu-ray player defaults to region A and region 1 for North America models and one will no longer be able to play optical discs from other regions.

Both Sears and Kmart are offering the Seiki SR212S for $59.99 plus free shipping.

[HyperRealist]

How bout telling us how to make it region free...

[Jutty]

pretty sure this is it >
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/seiki-sr212s/12040

[HyperRealist]

Is the power cord detachable or permanently attached like Insignia?

[kiltymchaggis]

Originally Posted by HyperRealist

Is the power cord detachable or permanently attached like Insignia?

Permanently attached.

[kiltymchaggis]

Originally Posted by Jutty

pretty sure this is it >
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/seiki-sr212s/12040

And those are the proper instructions for making the player region free.

[Jutty]

i cant say from experience but ,and i quote
"the Blu-Ray hack works perfectly"
So im pretty sure it is correct,,but please dont send out a mob if im wrong

[kiltymchaggis]

Originally Posted by Jutty

i cant say from experience but ,and i quote
"the Blu-Ray hack works perfectly"
So im pretty sure it is correct,,but please dont send out a mob if im wrong

Well the hack does work perfectly. I followed the instructions as written and the submenu pops up right after you enter the code

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Walmart use to sell a $48 LG Blu-ray player that was profile 2.0 and offered streaming services like Netflix (Of course it lacked region free and region selectable features). The Seiki Blu-ray player you mentioned is only profile 1.1 with no Ethernet connection for firmware updates. In the last few years all standalone Blu-ray players have been profile 2.0 BD-LIVE until this new model called the Seiki SR212S was released (I hope future low cost Blu-ray players will maintain their profile 2.0 BD-LIVE feature with Ethernet).

I googled the Seiki SR212S and I see there is a website that mentions how to access the secret menu to make the Blu-ray player region selectable for Blu-rays and region free/selectable for DVD’s. The only problem with this is that the Blu-ray license agreements do not allow Blu-ray player manufactories to offer a region selectable menu. So what will most likely happen is that in the future when a firmware update is required to play the latest Blu-ray new releases the manufactory of the Blu-ray player will be forced to issue a firmware update to remove the secret region free menu. This has happen before with other company’s that have shipped their Blu-ray players with firmware that offers a secret code to access the region selectable menu. When the time a firmware update is need to play the latest new Blu-ray releases the secret region free menu will disappear and the Blu-ray player defaults to region A and region 1 for North America models and one will no longer be able to play optical discs from other regions.

Both Sears and Kmart are offering the Seiki SR212S for $59.99 plus free shipping.

[kashif]

@kiltymchaggis

Did you buy this player on my advise at the other Toshiba thread? or were you already searching for it?

I have mine in transit and glad to know that you have a good first experience with it. I also read mixed reviews about this player and mostly its good. I was looking for the cheapest possible option and glad I found this player.

The best thing about this player is that its Dual voltage (120v-220v) and can be plugged straight out of the box to any socket in USA or UK etc without any converters etc and also it supports both 50Hz and 60 Hz too so you can watch each and every Region A or B movie on your USA, UK or European TV set. Also this new model has the USB port in front instead of previous model (BD660) which had the USB slot at back!

I live in UAE and my region is B so I was looking for a Region A player with dual voltage functionality and only the expensive ones like Oppo etc has this but they were beyond my purchasing capacity and then I found this unit at ebay and immediately ordered it.

PS: How much the unit with packing weights? and did you try to play any MKV files through an external Hard Disk?

[kiltymchaggis]

Originally Posted by kashif

@kiltymchaggis

Did you buy this player on my advise at the other Toshiba thread? or were you already searching for it?

I have mine in transit and glad to know that you have a good first experience with it. I also read mixed reviews about this player and mostly its good. I was looking for the cheapest possible option and glad I found this player.

The best thing about this player is that its Dual voltage (120v-220v) and can be plugged straight out of the box to any socket in USA or UK etc without any converters etc and also it supports both 50Hz and 60 Hz too so you can watch each and every Region A or B movie on your USA, UK or European TV set. Also this new model has the USB port in front instead of previous model (BD660) which had the USB slot at back!

I live in UAE and my region is B so I was looking for a Region A player with dual voltage functionality and only the expensive ones like Oppo etc has this but they were beyond my purchasing capacity and then I found this unit at ebay and immediately ordered it.

PS: How much the unit with packing weights? and did you try to play any MKV files through an external Hard Disk?

I actually bought this on a whim. I had heard good things about the BD660 but since I live in the U.S., I couldn't get access to it. I was walking through Kmart the other day and I saw the SR212S on display. I immediately researched to see if it could be made region free like the BD660 and sure enough, it could be. Overall, I am more than pleased with this the unit operates. As far as the weight is concerned, I would estimate the unit and box weigh about 6 pounds. I haven't been able to play any media through the USB slot either.

[stevejason]

Does the region code remain at the new setting, or revert to the default when the unit is powered off?

[kiltymchaggis]

Originally Posted by stevejason

Does the region code remain at the new setting, or revert to the default when the unit is powered off?

It remains at its setting when the player is shut off.

[stevejason]

Originally Posted by kiltymchaggis

It remains at its setting when the player is shut off.

Thank you.

[kiltymchaggis]

So after 2 days of testing every movie I can throw at it, I have found a flaw that I hope is just inherent to the player I bought. While watching a DVD or Blu-ray, the sound becomes distorted after an hour or so of playback. Stopping and ejecting the disc resolve the problem, but it will return again. I will be returning the player this afternoon and exchanging it for a new one. I will report back with the results of the new player later this evening.

[Roy_Batty]

I've owned a Seiki 660 for a year now, and I absolutely love it. From a price point alone you cannot beat it. I wanted to get a region b player and this fit the
bill, I also own an Insignia which is also set to be region B. I researched on line and was taken aback by how expensive the modded players were on sites like
220 Electronics. The great thing about the Seiki is it offers performance at a low price and will play everything. I have started collecting Region B titles, that are not available in North America, like The Innocents, and others. After having
used both players for a while the Seiki is more stable. As for my regular Region A disc watching, I leave that up to my trusty PS3.

[kashif]

Originally Posted by kiltymchaggis

I actually bought this on a whim. I had heard good things about the BD660 but since I live in the U.S., I couldn't get access to it. I was walking through Kmart the other day and I saw the SR212S on display. I immediately researched to see if it could be made region free like the BD660 and sure enough, it could be. Overall, I am more than pleased with this the unit operates. As far as the weight is concerned, I would estimate the unit and box weigh about 6 pounds. I haven't been able to play any media through the USB slot either.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by kiltymchaggis

So after 2 days of testing every movie I can throw at it, I have found a flaw that I hope is just inherent to the player I bought. While watching a DVD or Blu-ray, the sound becomes distorted after an hour or so of playback. Stopping and ejecting the disc resolve the problem, but it will return again. I will be returning the player this afternoon and exchanging it for a new one. I will report back with the results of the new player later this evening.

Thats bad though. I hope its a player related issue only. Is your player brand new or refurbished? I am worried a bit about my Unit which is still in transit that if it has a defect I will have to pay about USD 50 only to return it back to the Seller!!! I hope mine works great with no problems!

Originally Posted by Roy_Batty

I've owned a Seiki 660 for a year now, and I absolutely love it. From a price point alone you cannot beat it. I wanted to get a region b player and this fit the
bill, I also own an Insignia which is also set to be region B. I researched on line and was taken aback by how expensive the modded players were on sites like
220 Electronics. The great thing about the Seiki is it offers performance at a low price and will play everything. I have started collecting Region B titles, that are not available in North America, like The Innocents, and others. After having
used both players for a while the Seiki is more stable. As for my regular Region A disc watching, I leave that up to my trusty PS3.

Did you try to play files like AVI, MKV through USB External Hard Disks? Do they play? Two people here are having no luck in playing any video file through external HD.

[kiltymchaggis]

Originally Posted by kashif

Thats bad though. I hope its a player related issue only. Is your player brand new or refurbished? I am worried a bit about my Unit which is still in transit that if it has a defect I will have to pay about USD 50 only to return it back to the Seller!!! I hope mine works great with no problems!

I bought the player brand new. I already returned it and I was going to get another one but they were sold out. I am heading to a Super Kmart right now to pick one up


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[kiltymchaggis]

Just got out of Super Kmart with a new player. I will make a report of my findings ASAP.