De-regionalising PowerDVD

[jellybaby]

If u install This the WMP9 should be able to play DVD's (and then dvd idle should work)

[Russ]

Tried that...and it's riddled with spyware!! But thanks anyway.

[Matth]

The best fix, is if there is "RPC2 Autoreset" hacked firmware for your drive - then the drive just eats as many region changes as you wan't - www.rpc1.org - spreading the region-free word.

[Indians]

Originally Posted by Russ D

I've had PMs from people advising me to look on Kazaa for a 'solution' but I'm not really comfortable with doing that.
Cheers Indy

I can understand that, I've found DVD Decrypter an excellent program, free of course, they have a reasonable support forum for decrypting, re authoring etc. should work fine with default settings.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Just to plug it again...

DVDIdle's "DVDRegionFree" works great for letting you play DVDs from other regions.

It works with several different DVD Player progs, & will work even if you have an RPC2 drive or try an RCE-encoded disc.

http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm

[Defiant]

I think this whole region lock thing is a load of bull. Its supposed to be a free market. I got my ex a DVD player from argos that was already unlocked

I think it only cost £29 too

[jellybaby]

What about Zoom Player . Got Some great reviews

[Russ]

Yeah, there's an electrical retailer who has a stall at my local market who sells Bush deregionalised DVD players for £38 - I might get one on the weekend...or maybe just get the old Xbox chipped

Originally Posted by Tezcatlipoca

Just to plug it again...

DVDIdle's "DVDRegionFree" works great for letting you play DVDs from other regions.

It works with several different DVD Player progs, & will work even if you have an RPC2 drive or try an RCE-encoded disc.

http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm

the latest update of dvdidlepro includes support for Ulead dvd player

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by punky

Well, technically it is. Thats why the invented the region coding system, otherwise all disks would of been region 0. <snip>
Edit: I suppose doing it isn't illegal, but playing a region 1 DVD in a region 2 area, must be?

Actually, as far as I can understand, playing the discs is not illegal. It is illegal for companies to sell them over here though.

You'll probably find that any companies selling region 1 dvds by mail order will actually ship them from America or Canada (I know Play does), thus avoiding the law.

[Stuart]

Actually the tool I use is free and works for ALL software and PC based hardware DVD players (the RealMagic cards for instance). It does need a region-free drive to work (you can either flash the firmware as above, or buy a hacked drive).

The way is works is actually quite simple. It does not rely on hacks to the software.

It works because most recent DVD playback software will ask the drive what region it is. If they don't get a reply, they'll use their own setting. DVD Reg Kill intercepts the request to the drive, and then reports the drive's region as whatever is needed by the disc.

The downside is that due to pressure from various companies, the orignal developer no longer supports or hosts it.

It is by Elaborate Bytes software (the company that used to do the brilliant CloneCD, the only CD copier that can crack most protection on CDs) (http://www.elby.de). It is called "Region Killer".

I found a download link. It says on the link that the program is for Window 98/ME only, but it works fine on 2000 and XP Pro (I use it on XP Pro). It also works with RCE discs.

The download link is http://www.dvdcopyworld.de/dvdcopyworld/regionfree.html

[punky]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

The regional thing is just a marketing thing so they can spread the releases.
With VHS this was done because of the different technologies, like PAL/NTSC/SECAM but DVDs don't have that problem so they invented the regions.
IIRC the australian courts are dealing with this on behalf of consumers as over there the manufacturer has no right to dictate to the consumer how to use products.

Not true - DVDs and DVD players still have the NTSC and PAL switch, because TVs are either NTSC or PAL. Although, that said, most dvd players (especially region free for obvious reasons), can switch between NTSC and PAL output.

[Stephen]

Using the softwares changers is ok. but the best way to change regions is to flash the DVD rom drive making it totally region free then I use DVD genie to erase the windows region code and also to make power dvd region free. DVD genie also works on many other software dvd programs. That way you are asured that you will never be promted that the DVD is from the wrong region.

The USA uses NTSC the UK uses PAL. The regions were setup to restrict the sale of DVDs from other countries as the US get films before we do and same with other countries, it really has nothing to do with the TV frequency, as I have seen a few region 2 DVDs that are in NTSC and the same with region 0.

[Nemesis]

These any good ...

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/ar..._software.html

[dropoffpoint]

What about the VideoLan client ? www.videolan.org