Multi Regional DVD CD Rom for PC
11-11-00, 05:50 AM
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Excuse my ignorance however I know nothing about multi regional DVD.
I am about to get a new pc and realised I can get a CDROM drive that can play also DVDS. However I have also heard that mulit regional DVD exists. My question is therefore what is the official name of this type of DVD (so I can look it up in CDROM catalogues) and does anyone have any suggestions of which brands and models are multi regional?
I assume multi regional means you can play DVDS from anywhere around the world?
Main reason I want a multi regional players is because I want to get some non-english films from Europe and unfortunately you don't get such stuff in Oz.
Any suggestions would be greatly Appreciated.
Thanks
Obie77
I am about to get a new pc and realised I can get a CDROM drive that can play also DVDS. However I have also heard that mulit regional DVD exists. My question is therefore what is the official name of this type of DVD (so I can look it up in CDROM catalogues) and does anyone have any suggestions of which brands and models are multi regional?
I assume multi regional means you can play DVDS from anywhere around the world?
Main reason I want a multi regional players is because I want to get some non-english films from Europe and unfortunately you don't get such stuff in Oz.
Any suggestions would be greatly Appreciated.
Thanks
Obie77
11-11-00, 06:18 AM
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You seem to have gotten a bit mixed up here. Let me see if I can help...
What I presume you're talking abouit is a DVD-ROM drive. Superficially similar to a CD-ROM drive, but the laser is a completely different wavelength to a standard CD-ROM, which allows it to read the finer data tracks on DVDs. DVD-ROM drives can read and play both DVDs and CDs, but a CD-ROM drive cannot play DVDs. DVD-ROM drives are easy to spot; if you look on the front of the disc tray, they bear the "DVD" logo as opposed to the "CD" logo (visit a computer shop and have a quick look, you'll see what I mean.)
As for playing DVD movies on youir PC, there are two ways to go about this. Basically, your computer has to read the MPEG-encoded video stream off the DVD, and decode it so it can be displayed on the scren. This takes up a heck of a lot of processor power, and so to make it easier, you can get a hardware decoder card, which does the decoding on a separate plug-in board, saving the computer's processor from having to do the hard work. If you have a slowish PC, or if you want to be able to use other applications in the background, you'll probably want to get a hardware decoder. On the other hand, if your PC is fast enough (typically ~450MHz should do the trick, as long as you shut down all background apps) you can probably get away with a software decoder, which just uses the computer's main processor to decode the video stream.
Multi-region drives are a little more complex. Some DVD-ROM drives are RPC-1 devices; these drives are not region coded, and can play back DVDs from any region. Usually in this case, the player software will have some form of region protection; typically it will allow you to change the region code 5 times and no more. However, there are dozens of utilities that can disable this type of region protection, providing the drive itself isn't region locked.
Newer drives, however, are RPC-2, which means that the drive itself is region-locked at a hardware level. In this case, you can ONLY play DVDs from that region, regardless of what you do to the player program. However, some RPC-2 drives can be made region-free by upgrading the drive's firmware; this is a pretty severe step, however, and will almost certainly invalidate your warranty, so it's not something to take lightly.
About the best site for DVD-ROM information is www.7thzone.com . They have a dedicated section for DVD on PCs here which has all you could ever possibly need to know about DVD on PCs. It also has a list of which drives are region-locked and which aren't, which drives can be made region-free by upgrading the firmware, a list of programs to disable software-level region coding, and plenty of "buyer's guides" about DVD-ROM drives, decoding hardware and software, and all sorts. Check this site out first before you go out buying a drive; it'll probably save you a lot of hassle in the long run.
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What I presume you're talking abouit is a DVD-ROM drive. Superficially similar to a CD-ROM drive, but the laser is a completely different wavelength to a standard CD-ROM, which allows it to read the finer data tracks on DVDs. DVD-ROM drives can read and play both DVDs and CDs, but a CD-ROM drive cannot play DVDs. DVD-ROM drives are easy to spot; if you look on the front of the disc tray, they bear the "DVD" logo as opposed to the "CD" logo (visit a computer shop and have a quick look, you'll see what I mean.)
As for playing DVD movies on youir PC, there are two ways to go about this. Basically, your computer has to read the MPEG-encoded video stream off the DVD, and decode it so it can be displayed on the scren. This takes up a heck of a lot of processor power, and so to make it easier, you can get a hardware decoder card, which does the decoding on a separate plug-in board, saving the computer's processor from having to do the hard work. If you have a slowish PC, or if you want to be able to use other applications in the background, you'll probably want to get a hardware decoder. On the other hand, if your PC is fast enough (typically ~450MHz should do the trick, as long as you shut down all background apps) you can probably get away with a software decoder, which just uses the computer's main processor to decode the video stream.
Multi-region drives are a little more complex. Some DVD-ROM drives are RPC-1 devices; these drives are not region coded, and can play back DVDs from any region. Usually in this case, the player software will have some form of region protection; typically it will allow you to change the region code 5 times and no more. However, there are dozens of utilities that can disable this type of region protection, providing the drive itself isn't region locked.
Newer drives, however, are RPC-2, which means that the drive itself is region-locked at a hardware level. In this case, you can ONLY play DVDs from that region, regardless of what you do to the player program. However, some RPC-2 drives can be made region-free by upgrading the drive's firmware; this is a pretty severe step, however, and will almost certainly invalidate your warranty, so it's not something to take lightly.
About the best site for DVD-ROM information is www.7thzone.com . They have a dedicated section for DVD on PCs here which has all you could ever possibly need to know about DVD on PCs. It also has a list of which drives are region-locked and which aren't, which drives can be made region-free by upgrading the firmware, a list of programs to disable software-level region coding, and plenty of "buyer's guides" about DVD-ROM drives, decoding hardware and software, and all sorts. Check this site out first before you go out buying a drive; it'll probably save you a lot of hassle in the long run.
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