would an old dvd rom be region free

[jii]

i read in many places that dvd roms that were made after 1/1/2000 had to have the region code settings on them...however, i want to get a region free dvd rom (without having to deal with either hacking or changing the flash rom or things like that), so i was thinking of getting a pre year 2000 dvd rom , maybe 8x, does anybody know if this would work(i.e. be region free)...also if i choose to get an old dvd rom would it have any side effects in ripping movies?

[Movie555]

Hello,
I have an ancient Pioneer DVD Rom drive, and it is region free. It rips just fine, but since it's old, it sure is slow!

[Battra92]

I have an old Toshiba that is region free. The model is an M1202 (I think). Its a slow 6X DVD and rips at about 2.5X Came Region free when I bought it used on eBay. A good way to check to see if a drive is Region free would be to download the free program Drvinfo http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/dvdf/driveinfo11.exe
Unfortunately most new drives have region protection that I have seen.

However flashing the firmware with a patched version is not as scary as it sounds. You may wish to rethink your descision on that. As long as you double check that the drive matches the firmware you should be all set. find firmware at http://www.firmware.fr.st/

Good luck and I hope I helped a little.