A question about DVD regions...
 

Will a computer play a region 2 disc? I really want a region 2 DVD that just came out but i have no way to play it. Can someone help with this? thanks!

Depends on the computer. Some can be reset, some can be hacked.

You are allowed 5 changes on a computer DVD-ROM drive until it locks into the last region unless you flash the firmware with regionless software or get add-on software that makes your drive look regionless.

DVD-ROM drives are so cheap that you could always add a second drive that would handle a second region too.

so your saying buy another DVD-ROM drive that is regionless?

I'm sure you can't buy regionless drives. I think he means buy a second drive and set it to Region 2. I ended up buying software (AnyDVD). You can flash the firmware. Or, try VLC Media Player to play the DVDs--it bypasses the drive's region coding, and it's free: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Don't buy a new DVD drive or try to flash the firmware of your player. Just get software - that will work with any drive and is easiest. I have DVD Region + CSS free (http://www.dvdidle.com/products.htm) on my machine, and it works just fine. Other products do the same job, I'm sure.

can somebody confirm that VLC works with any region? i actually already use it...

I have Friday The 13th (Region 2 I think) and VLC plays it just fine.

Is there a reason that you need to play this dvd on your computer? If not, I recommend just getting a cheap dvdplayer that can easily be remote-hacked to be region free.

If Target is still selling the Philips DVP 642. I recommend that as a cheap player that is pretty damn good for playing other region and PAL dvds.

You can search for hacks here:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?

You do? Then get going, man! I have DVDs from Regions 1, 2 and 4 and VLC plays them with no trouble. Mainly I use AnyDVD in conjunction with PowerDVD and have never had any problems.

Why pay $40 when flashing your drive is free and takes just a couple minutes?

Even if you killed your drive you could buy a new one and try again for under $40.

I generally go here:

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php

for DVD-ROM region-free firmware.

Out of about a dozen drives I may have one or two drives that are still region locked. And that's just because I haven't used them for movies yet.

Because I wanted one solution that would solve my region free issues on DVD drives on all my computers. Because I wanted to play DVDs off of internal laptop DVD players - even though the possibility of frying my drive is small, the inconvenience would be big. :shrug:

I think I spent about $20 on the software a few years ago. It's been passed on to a number of computers, and I can keep upgrading it. I consider it money well-spent. Of course, all of these options (firmware, software, region free external) are valid and its up to the OP to weigh which works for them.

Ok, spreading its use over many computers makes sense to me then.

Another option is Remote Selector (freeware) which worked great with PowerDVD on my old system. I use VLC now, though.

DVD X Player is another software player that will play without a firmware hack.

Okay, can someone please explain to me exactly what is and isn't acceptable discussion here??? It really bugs me that discussion of custom covers made by scanning copyrighted artwork is tolerated (and even encouraged), and now even an administrator is jumping in on a "how to defeat region coding" thread, but any discussion of bootlegs is promptly shut down "for legal reasons". WTF???

My guess would be that buying an original DVD from another region and looking for a way to play it does not violate the DMCA, while bootlegs do, but thats just a guess. :shrug:

That's a good guess, and I'd go along with it not going against the DMCA, but it doesn't seem like something that should be condoned. I'm just trying to figure out if there are ANY standards that are universally applied, and so far I haven't seen any.

Buying a DVD from another region is perfectly legal. So is figuring out how to change the region coding on your DVD player or drive. Making a custom cover for personal use is perfectly legal too. Trying to copy a copyguarded DVD is illegal due to the DMCA. Why the confusion, seems simple enough to me. :shrug: