Paul,
Two thoughts that may help:

1) When you go through this process you don't end up with a player which is 'region free' or 'region zero'. The player should accept and play a DVD of any region but if asked by the disc, will report that it is a 'region 1' player. Disregard what the 'Information' menu on the 596 or any disgnostic DVD tells you: they will still say that the player is Region One. The way to check if the process has worked is to try playing a region 2 disc.

2) If that doesn't fix it, try running the hyperterminal dialog again but this time replace the '%z 1f' command with '%z 2'. You should now have a true 'region 2' player. Once more, using this time using '%z 1' - the player should now become a true region 1 device. If this little test works you know that the hyperlink comms is working correctly, and we'll have to go back to the drawing board on why you aren't getting the results you need.

- Pete