Have I Broken My DVD Writer? Region Change!

[VideoGeekUK]

Ok Ive been backing up my DVDs with DVD Shink and changing the region well I fianlly did my last USA dvd and when I went to change the region back to Europe Region 2 it would not let me it said I have 0 Changes left. Ive been told I need to upgrade my firmware or region free my drive but how would I do this.

My DVDRW is:
HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H30L (What is this drive and brand )

How do I region free my drive
How do I get the firmware or ID my drive

Any help would be great

Thanks

[redwudz]

Probably a LG GSA-H30L. Used on HP computers and has Lightscribe and a SATA interface? Maybe this one: http://h18002.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12549_div/12549_div.PDF

You may be able to make it region free, but it has it's risks. :
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f91/any-firmware-upgrade-i-can-do-gsa-h30l-217506/

This appears to be a firmware update you could use with the MCSE program: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&sof...reg_R1002_USEN

Thsi thread is more suited to our DVD Writer Forum. Moving you.

[aedipuss]

probably an LG. but you may need a new burner now. i don't see any hacked firmware for it. a standard LG firmware update will not give you any more region changes. get another burner and leave it region 2 with this one in the computer also as region 1.

[jman98]

VideoGeekUK - An unfortunate name for here to say the least because if you were truly a video geek you would NEVER NEVER NEVER have changed the region on your drive. Most rippers don't require this - they can rip regardless of the region. I wish you had asked about what to do BEFORE you got started.

Try here
http://forum.rpc-1.com/dl_all.php
but if they don't have any hacked firmware for you to use on this burner, you've learned a hopefully very valuable lesson on what NOT to do in the future. By the, for a variety of reasons it's a really really bad idea to rip with DVD Shrink, if that's what you're doing. There are a lot of American DVDs that it can't rip.

[OneSickPup]

One last POSSIBLE option might be to go here:

http://tdb.rpc1.org/

scroll to the bottom of the page and study the "Request Firmware" instructions. Vlad or Igor may be in a position to help you. Can't hurt to ask. Be sure and search their forum first on any info about your H30L. As others have stated, firmware flashing is not going to solve your problem unless that firmware has an RPC reset patch. Read up over at TDB and this will make more sense. Good Luck.

[Noahtuck]

What jman98 said...

There is no reason to change the region of your drive and ripping and backing up other region dvd's will not change the region of your drive & there is no need to change the region of your drive to rip another region dvd.

This only happens when you PLAY the dvd's in your drive.

Rip them to your HDD and watch them from there or burn the backup's back to dvdr and watch them from the BU.

If you can't find a region hacked firmware for your drive there are a few programs you can use in the background to disable the region lock on a drive.

On some machines i use DVD Region+CSS Free .

But for the most part i flash my drives with hacked firmware to remove ripping speed locks and region locks.

[[_chef_]]

"HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H30L" is LG!

You cannot change the region anymore that way, it is locked at ZERO now.
Even reflashing will not help.

Get a tool like AnyDVD to overcome the region limitations.



@jman98,

please use the correct URL when referring to RPC1.org!

[Noahtuck]

]"HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-H30L" is LG!

You cannot change the region anymore that way, it is locked at ZERO now.
Even reflashing will not help.

Get a tool like AnyDVD to overcome the region limitations.



@jman98,

please use the correct URL when referring to RPC1.org!

Yeah you damn n00b jman98!!!!!!
Oh wait..... that link took me right to the main page of RPC1.org!!!!!!!!!!!
:P

And no... his drive is NOT locked to ZERO... it's locked from changing regions.....
And are you saying it can not be unlocked by flashing the firmware ??
Oh wait... yes you are!!!!!!
WRONG!!!!!!!

[[_chef_]]

Yeah you damn n00b jman98!!!!!!
Oh wait..... that link took me right to the main page of RPC1.org!!!!!!!!!!!
:P

That was not the point of my post and rpc1 moved to .org already years ago for a purpose.