Region Free DVD Drives?

Kalivos · Oct 9, 2007

This just occured to me, I never thought about it before. Are DVD Drives on a computer typically region free? I would think they are, what with the capability to read the burned DVD discs. And I know it sounds like a stupid question. But I have to make sure, heh.

aja · Oct 9, 2007

THat is an interesting question!

DVD players for TV used to be region bound, like playstations that could only play certain regional games...

But I dunno about current computer drives.

I would like to think they aren't, just to simplify production and distribution...

Cheator · Oct 9, 2007

They are still region-code bound. All DVD players are.

The rare ones that were region-free were usualyl discontinued, since the DVD alliance sued the hell out of the companies (that was long ago so I can't remember the details).

JigPu · Oct 9, 2007

Yup, and it sucks. I've twice now had to explain to my siblings why their DVDs don't work in their players (standalone or PC)

Region coding is specific to DVD Video, not data. You can read DVDs that were burned in what would be a different region just fine--the video itself is what contains region coding (so you'd be just as screwed trying to play a US-burned region 2 video as playing a Japanese-pressed region 2 video).

JigPu

curtis1552 · Oct 9, 2007

On some computer DVD players you can change the region, however the number of times it can be changed can be limited.
MY Lite-On DVD RW (SHW-160P6S) drive can change it's regional code, however it is limited to four changes in region.
E.g. I can change to 4 and back to 1 then to 4 and back to 1 again, but then I will be unable to change it a fifth time.
As I only own region 1 DVDs I have not had to change it, and due to the limited number of changes I do not plan on changing it unless necessary.
Oh, it came with my Gateway media center computer.

Quick69GTO · Oct 9, 2007

I have no problems playing any region DVDs including PAL on my PC.
I have two Pioneer DVR-111Ds.
I did have problems playing DVDs, other than region 1 disks, on my stand alone until I bought a region free player from here:
http://www.regionfreedvd.net/
I bought the Pioneer DV-400V-K and now I am happy :beer:

.

aja · Oct 9, 2007

thanks for the link GTO!

Kalivos · Oct 13, 2007

Thanks for the replies! Sorry for the late response from myself.

Another question I have then. My girlfriend currently lives in England, she's attending college. Her laptop is from the UK. So. If I burn her some DVD's with random crap. Will it read fine, or will she have to switch the drive to read for Region 1?

MadMan007 · Oct 13, 2007

I believe there are region-free firmwares to be found for certain drives but that mainly applies to standard 5 1/4" drives, not sure how many firmware hackers would be looking to do it for laptop drives. Then again maybe there aren't all that many different laptop drives :shrug:

I don't want to link to avoid any unnecessary nastiness with the lovely mods here bceause hacking to region free may be illegal in some wierd way, but you can start at a place where the people into cd drives are freaks .. .com

Omsion · Oct 13, 2007

Kalivos said:
Thanks for the replies! Sorry for the late response from myself.

Another question I have then. My girlfriend currently lives in England, she's attending college. Her laptop is from the UK. So. If I burn her some DVD's with random crap. Will it read fine, or will she have to switch the drive to read for Region 1?

DDVDShrink (should be no issue pointing that one out, since it's old and fails hard against encryption) can set the DVD region of a burned DVD. You'll need other tools to actually get the video off the DVD, however (also, I'm not sure if what I do for that step is involved in removing the region coding, so...you might need the right ripper :shrug:

)

Which leads to a question on what is acceptable to post - I seem to recall that in the past, people posting a name of a program would be fine, is that still fine now? Or a link to a location with more info (not the actual programs)? I'm not sure, since I haven't posted about something like this for awhile.

newxperiment · Oct 13, 2007

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html

Kalivos · Oct 14, 2007

Thanks for the responses. So, the question wasn't directly answered, so I'm gonna ask again just to make sure, hehe....If I burn the DVD's, then send to her...They'll be read as region 1 right? They're not videos or anything. Just burning data discs.

Omsion · Oct 14, 2007

Kalivos said:
Thanks for the responses. So, the question wasn't directly answered, so I'm gonna ask again just to make sure, hehe....If I burn the DVD's, then send to her...They'll be read as region 1 right? They're not videos or anything. Just burning data discs.

As mentioned, probably depends on what you used to rip and burn it - evreything I've burned ended up region-free.

Also, why use AnyDVD when free tools exist? I'll send you a PM.

Cheator · Oct 14, 2007

newxperiment said:
edited out quote- muddocktor

Yeah... um... piracy is against the rules

read em sometime.

fel · Oct 15, 2007

DVD drives have 5 region changes, the last you use will stay.

I use "DVD region-free" (a software) to watch any region i want.
And USUALLY when you burn a DVD whit stuffs you want, the result is region free. (Like DVD movie factory, SONIC My DVD, etc...) they also have config if you want a especific region.
If you have a software just read the manual in the region section.
Cheers!

Region Free DVD Drives?

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