Playing region free DVD on Sony SR200P DVD Player

[merik]

We bought a SR200P DVD Player from Walmart yesterday. We have a region free DVD (edited by a friend, based on the videos he took with his hanicam when he was in Asia), but the DVD Player refuses to show it saying that it can't find "area info" (I guess it needs a region code, but it can't find it).

I'd like to know if there's a way for me to make it show my region-free home-made DVD.

[jman98]

Strange. A homemade DVD should NOT have any region coding on it at all. It is theoretically possible to create a homemade DVD with a region code, but I don't know why someone would do that. It's not done by default and the process to do it is so convoluted that someone would have to deliberately want to take the steps necessary to do it.

My guess is that DVD may actually be a PAL DVD and your player has problems with that. A Google search I did suggested that this error message may be misleading and may actually be trying (in a very poor way) to indicate that the DVD is PAL and it can't play it. What country does this friend live in?

By the way, the vast majority of Sony and Samsung DVD players CANNOT be made region free, just in case you wondered.

If I'm right about the PAL issue, it is possible to convert PAL DVDs to NTSC, but it's a lot of work. If you really want to do it, we have guides here on doing that.

[merik]

I'm looking for making the device region free! I'm looking for a way to change my disc so that the device can handle it.

Can you show me a tool which can both detect the region code of a DVD (if any) and its system (PAL/NTSC/etc)?

[Noahtuck]

1. sony players are basically 99% impossible to make region free.

2. If it is a home made dvdr, there is no region code on it so making your player region free, if even possible, will make no difference.

3. Even if you could make your sony player region free, that will not make it play a PAL disc on and NTSC system.
Two totally different issues.

You can use Gspot to open one of the VOB's on the dvdr and it will give you the framerate & resolution of the video which will tell you if it is PAL or NTSC.

And as jman98 stated about the error message.
Sony's are notorious for saying a disc is the wrong region when in fact it is not a "region code" problem but a format issue.
IE: PAL/NTSC

Take the $ony back to walmart and buy a Phillips player, most of them either come out of the box playing both PAL & NTSC disc's on NTSC systems and can easily have the region code setting made to be region free or play all region disc's.

[hech54]

Some players DO require a region code on the disc. It's rare...but I remember OLD Sonys doing that. Most likely it is a PAL/NTSC issue though.

[merik]

Resolved:

It was a PAL/NTCS issue and thanks to Naohtuck, changing the Sony with a Phillips did the thing! It was only $4 more expnsive and it is now capable of showing DivX and JPEG files too