Region on disc - drivers doing this from windows setting or editor/burner?

[larioso]

Hi
Thinking the region setting for dvd drive in windows - how is that used?

Low level drivers seing to this is burned to media, or?
Or software creating the iso that is burned?
Or other?

Thanks.

[hech54]

Only store bought, factory pressed DVDs have region codes, although some are region free(mainly DVDs involving music/concerts).
Computer DVD drives have a region code assigned to them. They can only read DVDs with the matching region code.
Region codes are pretty easily defeated in computer DVD drives....sometimes with free software.
All DVD copying software defeats the region code problem, the copy protection on the disc is another story.

[larioso]

Thanks for a speedy response.

I had this issue with DVD RW media, that once I burned an image and then tried to use it on that same machine, windows was somehow confused and destroyed the media.
It could no longer be played on that machine or recognized by any other dvd drive either.

I looked around, and for some reason my DVD drive was set to region 1 - us or north america as I understand.

Setting this to region 2 - and my DVD RW media was recognized again.

So this question came up - what part is doing this?

I just recently started doing own videos, and using dvd drive for burning - so never discovered this or when I set this to region 1.
It is a windows 7 Pro but english language os - don't know if us or international.
Only 4 changes of region left - so I guess I must have changed it - is it 5 from start?

[october262]

If you use up the 4 changes the drive will be forever locked
To the last region it is set to

[usually_quiet]

Thanks for a speedy response.

I had this issue with DVD RW media, that once I burned an image and then tried to use it on that same machine, windows was somehow confused and destroyed the media.
It could no longer be played on that machine or recognized by any other dvd drive either.

I looked around, and for some reason my DVD drive was set to region 1 - us or north america as I understand.

Setting this to region 2 - and my DVD RW media was recognized again.

So this question came up - what part is doing this?

I just recently started doing own videos, and using dvd drive for burning - so never discovered this or when I set this to region 1.
It is a windows 7 Pro but english language os - don't know if us or international.
Only 4 changes of region left - so I guess I must have changed it - is it 5 from start?

The drive's firmware checks the DVD region coding against its own. Your DVD drive may have been set to R1 because it was made for N. America.

Some pro authoring software can set region codes for DVDs per user instructions, but most consumer authoring software sets the region code to all-region. PGCEdit can correct the region code for an already authored DVD stored as files/folders on a hard drive, or set it to "all regions". I don't know what software can be used to do the same for an ISO.

With your drive set to R2, as long as you only play R2 and region free/all region discs you will be fine. I think PowerDVD and maybe some other commercial player software will ask to change the drive region code to match the disc being played. ...but as you were told, it is best to avoid changing the drive's region after the first time, because it can only be set 5 times total.

If you need to play out-of-region commercial discs, then DVDFab Passkey or AnyDVD may be a worthwhile investment. They can remove region coding and decrypt as the DVD is being played.

[larioso]

The drive's firmware checks the DVD region coding against its own. Your DVD drive may have been set to R1 because it was made for N. America.

Some pro authoring software can set region codes for DVDs per user instructions, but most consumer authoring software sets the region code to all-region. PGCEdit can correct the region code for an already authored DVD stored as files/folders on a hard drive, or set it to "all regions". I don't know what software can be used to do the same for an ISO.

With your drive set to R2, as long as you only play R2 and region free/all region discs you will be fine. I think PowerDVD and maybe some other commercial player software will ask to change the drive region code to match the disc being played. ...but as you were told, it is best to avoid changing the drive's region after the first time, because it can only be set 5 times total.

If you need to play out-of-region commercial discs, then DVDFab Passkey or AnyDVD may be a worthwhile investment. They can remove region coding and decrypt as the DVD is being played.

Thank you.

Reason I ask is not because I want to make region dependent discs.

I had a really weird issue with AVCHD DVD RW disc, and Windows had a setting to region 1 - and normal here is region 2.
You could write discs working fine in standalone players - but inserting disc into windows again it destroyed disc and became unusable, and not even reformatable.

Seing this, and changing firmware to region 2 in windows setting - all has been fine and no more destroyed discs.

I try to understand it before contacting Microsoft about it.

Windows does identify a AVCHD DVD as BD, and set an icon for that.
So to guess there is some confusion with handling as BD and doing region checks or whatever.

But as long as disc does not contain AVCHD material, that you try to overwrite(erase + burn again), you are fine.

[usually_quiet]

Thank you.

Reason I ask is not because I want to make region dependent discs.

I had a really weird issue with AVCHD DVD RW disc, and Windows had a setting to region 1 - and normal here is region 2.
You could write discs working fine in standalone players - but inserting disc into windows again it destroyed disc and became unusable, and not even reformatable.

Seing this, and changing firmware to region 2 in windows setting - all has been fine and no more destroyed discs.

I try to understand it before contacting Microsoft about it.

Windows does identify a AVCHD DVD as BD, and set an icon for that.
So to guess there is some confusion with handling as BD and doing region checks or whatever.

But as long as disc does not contain AVCHD material, that you try to overwrite(erase + burn again), you are fine.

This is the first time you have mentioned AVCHD. AVCHD is strictly a consumer format. Since it is not used for commercial video distribution, region codes shouldn't apply and I've never seen any mention of them with respect to AVCHD. Plus, even if your DVD-RW was identified as a Blu-ray by windows, many Blu-ray discs are region 0 (region free).

I don't know why Windows would react this way, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised after my own strange experience with a DVD-RW over the weekend. I burned an HD H.264 video file as data to a UDF-formatted DVD-RW disc using an LG Blu-ray drive. Imgburn verified the data, but Windows and PowerDVD Ultra on the same Windows 7 computer see nothing on the disc. On my other Windows 7 computer, Windows sees the file and PowerDVD Ultra can see and play the file using either the computer's Pioneer Blu-ray drive or its DVD drive.

[awgie]

If you use up the 4 changes the drive will be forever locked
To the last region it is set to

There are (or were, at least - I haven't used one in years) utilities that allow you to reset the count of the region changes, so the drive's firmware will show that no changes have been made.

The region that is set on the drive only affects playback of a DVD video (i.e. a drive set to R2 will not allow playback of a R1 DVD). Ripping software, such as DVD Decrypter and DVDFab, ignores the setting, so it is possible to rip a R1 DVD, even though you can't play it.

[larioso]

This is the first time you have mentioned AVCHD. AVCHD is strictly a consumer format. Since it is not used for commercial video distribution, region codes shouldn't apply and I've never seen any mention of them with respect to AVCHD. Plus, even if your DVD-RW was identified as a Blu-ray by windows, many Blu-ray discs are region 0 (region free).

I don't know why Windows would react this way, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised after my own strange experience with a DVD-RW over the weekend. I burned an HD H.264 video file as data to a UDF-formatted DVD-RW disc using an LG Blu-ray drive. Imgburn verified the data, but Windows and PowerDVD Ultra on the same Windows 7 computer see nothing on the disc. On my other Windows 7 computer, Windows sees the file and PowerDVD Ultra can see and play the file using either the computer's Pioneer Blu-ray drive or its DVD drive.

Yes, we live and learn.

AVCHD was my choice since you can burn full hd images to DVD as well, the first I know about anyway.
And also formats to burn to memory random access media like usb thumb drives and SD cards, which I use most of the time.
It's only Premiere Elements that does not have burn to removable memory, so PowerDirector and Nero Video are used for those.

About you issue, check if all files are 8+3 characters - I learned that this is for memory format and usually start with a PRIVATE folder having the others below like BDMV and AVCHD folders. So all files are MTS not M2TS etc.

Normally burned discs start with BDMV folder in root, and long filenames.

This might be a reason some software does not recognize, just an idea anyway....

[larioso]

If you use up the 4 changes the drive will be forever locked
To the last region it is set to

There are (or were, at least - I haven't used one in years) utilities that allow you to reset the count of the region changes, so the drive's firmware will show that no changes have been made.

The region that is set on the drive only affects playback of a DVD video (i.e. a drive set to R2 will not allow playback of a R1 DVD). Ripping software, such as DVD Decrypter and DVDFab, ignores the setting, so it is possible to rip a R1 DVD, even though you can't play it.

Thanks for tip, I'll check them out.
I still have three changes left, hope I don't have to use them at all.

[usually_quiet]

About you issue, check if all files are 8+3 characters - I learned that this is for memory format and usually start with a PRIVATE folder having the others below like BDMV and AVCHD folders. So all files are MTS not M2TS etc.

Normally burned discs start with BDMV folder in root, and long filenames.

This might be a reason some software does not recognize, just an idea anyway....

My problem is more likely to be related to UDF or the UDF version used, although I have burned HD media files to DVD-R in exactly the same way with no problems using the other PC with the Pioneer drive. If the LG Blu-ray drive on the PC is going bad, I'll be very upset. It is less than a year old and has seen only light use.

My DVD-RW isn't an AVCHD disc. The file was burned as data using UDF alone for a file system. It only contains one media file, no folders. The computer that cannot see anything on the DVD-RW using Windows Explorer had no problem reading the file name using Windows Explorer when the file was on the HDD, so I very much doubt that there is a problem with the file name.

[Edit]Anyway, this thread is not about my problem, so I don't want to spend any more time on it here.