Playing region 1 DVDs on a region 2 laptop

eyelinerprincess

I've a few DVDs that are region 1 as they weren't available in the UK, and on my old laptop I had DVD43 installed so that I could watch them.

My new laptop is Windows 7 64 bit and I can't seem to get a region killer that works. DVD43 says it's not compatible, DVD Region Free comes up with an error and closes itself, DVD Region Killer seems to do nothing when I click on it, as any media player I use it still comes up asking me to change the region (which I can only do 4 times).

Any ideas?

-TangleFoot-

Tried VLC?

eyelinerprincess

Yup, I put in the DVD, pressed play and nothing happened.

-TangleFoot-

Does VLC support DVDs from all regions?

This mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses libdvdcss and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with those drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that do allow raw access, it might take VLC a long time to crack the key. So just pop the disc in your drive and try it out, while you get a coffee. RPC1 drives should 'always' work regardless of the regioncode.

Hmm... looks like it can only bypass region protection under specific circumstances. Make and model of DVD drive?

eyelinerprincess

I *think* this is the right one:

Matshita DVD-RAM UJ8B0

-TangleFoot-

This might help, though you risk bricking it by doing so.

The_pc_tech

Region coding is locked into the hardware/firmware (control software that runs directly on the drive hardware).

You often have the option of changing the region up to usually five times before it locks permanently, this can be done via Device Manager.

-TangleFoot-

The_pc_tech wrote: »

Region coding is locked into the hardware/firmware

It's often also present on the software used to play the things which is why I suggested VLC in the first place.

The_pc_tech

True although I'd suspect VLC adjusts the register value on the drive so the amount of times you can do that will be limited.

eyelinerprincess

I know how to do that, but I want to watch them more than a couple of times. May be easier cracking the DVD player instead, or seeing if the one I had cracked previously still works.

-TangleFoot-

The_pc_tech wrote: »

True although I'd suspect V:LC adjusts the register value on the drive so the amount of times you can do that will be limited.

I thought it might circumvent the problem entirely. Alas, that hasn't been the case.