Fintec 904

I made an impulse purchase when I saw cheap 79 EUR DVD player that had features missing in my Baier 903. Fintec has optical digital output, Picture CD (.jpg) support and also "the greatest entertainment" in the world - Duo Karaoke. In the picture on the card board box the player has VDC indicator lit, so I bought it trusting that VCD is supported although it is not mentioned in its feature list.

First look

	The Box Comes with handle and audio/composite RCA-cables.
	The Remote Very light and cheapish plastic, but the button shapes are quite easy to recognise in the dark.
	The Tray Disc tray does not come fully out.
	The Back Almost all you need. A second SCART would be nice, but it is not expectable at this price range.
	The (Hack) Menu Spanking new MT1379 Type 2 Menu, but navigation logic is little bit awkward. My player was region free out of the box, but MT13x9 Yahoo group has some nice info about subject. Remove any disc (open disc tray) Press SETUP Navigate to PREFERENCE PAGE (3 times '>') Enter 1,3,7,9 Change region with UP/DOWN nav-keys Press SETUP to exit

Inside

	The Peek Overview. From bottom left: mic amp, PSU, SCART, Component out, mainboard.
	The Brains Processor board. MediaTek MT1379 FE chipset and interesting connector (top center) with RxD, TxD printed on silk screen. Atmel 24C16N Serial EEPROM. Firmware 03.7.14.
	The Dirty Device Loader upside down. PCB has markings 'Wellmei JIXIN-2'.

Notes

• SCART pin 8 (Status) has permanent +12.6 V in Stand-by and also in 16:9 mode (16:9 should be 5-7 V).
• VCD Imager sample SVCDs with PBC and subtitles have problems. Multiple audio tracks OK.
• Makes noticeable pause on layer change.
• Mic audio comes through only from analogue outputs (not a big surprise) and mic pre-amp has too low amplification for (semi)pro microphones. Probably an impedance problem.
• Media tested as OK: CD-R/RW(low, high, ultra speed), DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW
• Formats tested as OK: Copy Protected CDDA, VCD, SVCD(excl. Subs), miniDVD, CD/DVD-ISO(MPEG-1/2, VOB, mp3, JFIF)
• Formats not working: CD-MRW (InCD), UDF Compressed (DirectCD), HDTV 720p/1080i MPEG-2
• replace index.html with fintec904_serial.zip to get the original serial fw.

Continue to
Part 2: Hardware Tuning (power switch, mic)
Part 3: Software Hacking (serial EEPROM, serial port)