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Thread ID: 39099 2003-10-27 10:00:00 DVD region issue tech_mister (433) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
187048 2003-10-27 10:00:00 Does anybody out there know what the story is these days with the region setting on PC dvd drives.
It says that you have 5 uses before it permanently sets on a region.
However when you rent a dvd it is often region 1 which is USA and this country is I think region 4, I know that you can buy region free dvd players, so is the region setting still important these days or have they done away with all that?

Can someone please enlighten me. ?:|
tech_mister (433)
187049 2003-10-27 10:08:00 If you've got a dvd-rom drive get DVD Region Free to avoid the hassles of region changing. It can even unlock region-locked drives.

Everytime you play a unique dvd, that will minus one region change out of the 5 you can make. When it gets to the very last region change, and you played say a region 4 dvd, then it will lock the dvd-rom drive to region 4.

With the dvd-region free players sometimes they don't play certain dvd-region specific discs.
PoWa (203)
187050 2003-10-27 10:16:00 Sorry, PoWa do you mean that there is a program called DVD Region free
that will let you play any region DVD and will stop your DVD drive locking on a region?
tech_mister (433)
187051 2003-10-27 10:37:00 There is another option other than software to get around DVD regions.

You can go here (forum.rpc1.org) and download patched firmware for your drive which can make it region free.
b1naryb0y (3)
187052 2003-10-27 18:55:00 I was let to believe that it is a requirement for Distro to supply only DVDs that are region 4. Therefore most recent DVDs one hires are region 4. The region 1 DVDs floating around for hire (as well as other regions) obviously must have been before this requirement. Or have I been mislead?

There are DVD Drives out there that allows the user to reset the region counter such as Asus E616 model. As easy as pushing 2 buttons.
aNtzy (4070)
187053 2003-10-27 22:12:00 tech mister,

what is the actual dvd rom drive called?? Go to system properties.

what is the windows version and DVD player program and version u using?

Is it a laptop or a desktop?? - jus makes searching for the patch a lot easier ..
nomad (3693)
187054 2003-10-28 03:11:00 Yes, goto dvdidle.com and download the latest version.
It will cost you, but it is worth it!

Also defeats Macrovision among other things!
Chilling_Silently (228)
187055 2003-10-28 05:58:00 Yes I found the website that has that DVD idle utility, looks like the way to go for me .
Flashing the firmware on the drive sounds a bit risky to me, I often
flash cdwriters with the manufactures firmware no problem but someone
elses hacked one is a different story.

Yes Nomad it is a laptop an ECS Excel G550 Slimnote, however I do not know what the brand of the DVD combo drive is as I do not have the
notebook with me at present.

I have to say that I find the whole thing a bit of a joke when drive manufactures and movie companys go to such great lengths to stop
people copying and even playing DVD's and some bloke comes along
and writes a utility that defeats the lot !!.
If movie companys want poeple to take DVD's seriously they better start
please there customers rather than anoying them!

I would like to thank everyone for there help, much appreciated.
tech_mister (433)
187056 2003-10-28 06:55:00 Flashing the dvd drive is such an unnecessary risk. Remember if it stuffs up or you use the wrong firmware you'll have to buy a new drive. I wouldn't personally be making a firmware flash unless I was desperate. DVD Region Free works very well and you can have unlimited changes. PoWa (203)
187057 2003-10-28 07:28:00 > Flashing the dvd drive is such an unnecessary risk.
> Remember if it stuffs up or you use the wrong
> firmware you'll have to buy a new drive. I wouldn't
> personally be making a firmware flash unless I was
> desperate. DVD Region Free works very well and you
> can have unlimited changes.

Ummm... it's pretty much impossible to flash with the wrong firmware nowadays... and even if you did, it wouldn't mean you would have to buy a new drive... the effects can be reversed.

Lo.
Lohsing (219)
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