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Thread ID: 122768	2012-01-11 09:16:00	Can't Play DvDs on XP-Pro comp.	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1253570	2012-01-12 08:56:00	Well, a new drive is not expensive, so if it came to that I'd wear the cost of a new drive with a smile. It seems strange that you can easily make a stand-alone DVD player region free, and a Panasonic I bought on special from DSE was region free straight out of the box, yet they make all this fuss about DVD players. I have a couple of DVD player/recorders, so if push came to shove I could try making an AV copy. It would be slow, but who cares, and it might possibly bypass the region restriction. I'll try VLC first though, but that road-cone icon looks awfully familiar so it may be indicating a road previously travelled. :( Ever the optimist.... Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1253571	2012-01-12 09:00:00	Well, a new drive is not expensive, so if it came to that I'd wear the cost of a new drive with a smile. It seems strange that you can easily make a stand-alone DVD player region free, and a Panasonic I bought on special from DSE was region free straight out of the box, yet they make all this fuss about DVD players. I have a couple of DVD player/recorders, so if push came to shove I could try making an AV copy. It would be slow, but who cares, and it might possibly bypass the region restriction. Where actually do you go to change the Region? I looked in CP but nothing leapt out at me. I'll try VLC first though, but that road-cone icon looks awfully familiar so it may be indicating a road previously travelled. :( Ever the optimist.... Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1253572	2012-01-12 10:32:00	if it is region problems, you could try this www.dvdidle.com	bevy121 (117)
1253573	2012-01-12 11:00:00	There are few DVD software tools that can get around region problems, AnyDVD and DVD genie are two that I've tried and both work ok. They aren't free though. NZ is region 4 so most of us are best with it set to that and only overseas disks have any problems. Their are two region settings on a PC, one in whatever software you use and one in the firmware. The drives firmware normally can be changed 4 times then will lock. Now that you mention it, the fact that PC DVD drives are the only ones rigidly locked to regions does seem a bit inconsistent. Likely it's some misguided attempt to help reduce piracy as much as anything, not that region protection does that in any way.	dugimodo (138)
1253574	2012-01-17 00:56:00	Now that you mention it, the fact that PC DVD drives are the only ones rigidly locked to regions does seem a bit inconsistent. Are not quite true. Some brand name DVD players(boxes) were really well locked into single regions, & could not be hacked into multizone without an expensive hardware 'fix' Looks like Blu-ray may be pretty much the same with some brands. But anyway, welcome to codec hell. Those codec packs, can often make things worse, and can be very hard to undo :badpc: Some even have bundled malware. if its really old, there are 2 types of DVD, DVD- & DVD+ . Really old drives may only recognise one type That DVD's Region locking can be both in Win (yes ) & on the drive itself . Win XP originally had no Native DVD(movie) playing software. You would have needed a program to actually play the DVD's, perhaps a later version of Win Media Player (garrh, its aweful) VLC will play almost anything. Always try it 1st.	1101 (13337)
1253575	2012-01-17 09:26:00	Well, I'm making slow but steady progress. :) I downloaded VLC (again as it turns out, so I'd been there before) and the Magical Mystery Tour DVD would auto-start and go to the disk menu without any problem. After an extended period with no results I then managed to get the first disk of the Beatles Anthology to play as well, so I moved on to a Billy T James disk. That also booted straight to the start menu so I was getting confident. Next I tried a MASH disk and it started up in its own start menu as well, so I tried another BTJ disk (dual layer) and it won't work at all, so am I right to assume that computer DVD players are not necessarily compatible with dual layer disks? Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1253576	2012-01-17 09:35:00	Dont think its the actual dual layers. Now that you mention it, there are several times when playing rental DVD's from the video shop, they wont actually play past the main menu. For some reason the mouse clicks, or tab keys to select options, even though they get highlighted, simply wont work on the Computer. (something to do with the way the menus are created or their contents on some DVD's) Put the exact same DVD into a DVD player (stand alone) and they work perfectly. If thats the case then you have to, errrrrrrrrrrrrrr - lets say play them a different way on the PC. Several ways to do it, Ones just a little painful - one "easy" ;) way.	wainuitech (129)
1253577	2012-01-17 22:29:00	MPEG-2 Codec: www.free-codecs.com If you want region-free either patch your drive firmware or use DVD43	Agent_24 (57)
1253578	2012-01-18 03:57:00	Well, I have a region-free DVD player so that is one problem solved. :D Edit: I have just checked some Warehouse Region 4 and "All regions' disks and while I expected the latter to work OK, and they did, the Region 4 disks (USA/Canada etc) played as well. I have some US films here sent by mistake from Amazon so I'll se it they work too! Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1253579	2012-01-18 08:16:00	Oops, got that wrong way around, Region 1 is the US, and they are coded for NTSC, not PAL but they all play just fine. Seems that VLC went through some self-adjustments of some sort, because disks that initially failed consistently to run are now playing OK and the only problem left is the dual layer disk, which doesn't really matter anyway. I'm not surprised that disks labelled "All Regions" play ok, but I don't understand why Regions 1 and 4 both run on a standard ASUS DVD player, however I'm not going to look a gift player in the mouth! Thanks to all for the advice and support. Cheers Billy 8-{) :thumbs:	Billy T (70)
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