How do I region-free a DVD-ROM?

[Cobra]

Hi guys,

Just taken a look at a friend's laptop to see if I can persuade it to play a region 2 DVD, since it's region 1 originally and he's used up the four allowable changes.

We tried using DVD Region Killer but it made no difference. Windows Media Player, Real Player and WinDVD freeze when trying to play it. The players don't get past the first screen, letalone to the menu. The disc spins up and they crash.

The player doesn't have any trouble with other DVDs and had no problem with this disc when it was changed using the region changing tool.

His laptop is a Dell Inspirion 8500. I was wondering if we could use a firmware flash on the DVD drive that would convert it into a real multiregion player - does anyone know where I could obtain this firmware?

Thanks for any advice,

Cobra

[indolikaa]

Possibly. What does Windows report the DVD-ROM drive as being?

I'm thinking it's a Toshiba drive...

[Cobra]

indolikaa,

Thanks for the response. I had to wait for my friend to e-mail me with the drive name. It reported as a:

"SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SN-324B"

I'll have a hunt myself, but if yourself or anyone else knows about how I can get these drives region-free I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

Cobra

[tompika]

[indolikaa]

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=9646

This drive could be a real problem, Cobra.

[tompika]

Yep I just saw it too

[Cobra]

Would you believe that I was just reading that EXACT page?!

It looks to be a real pain - perhaps it's not such a good idea. Having said that, it's an old topic now with the last post being months ago. Perhaps there's a new patch around but I can't find it.

Cobra

[indolikaa]

Would you believe that I was just reading that EXACT page?!

It looks to be a real pain - perhaps it's not such a good idea. Having said that, it's an old topic now with the last post being months ago. Perhaps there's a new patch around but I can't find it.

Cobra

It's looks like two people got the updater to work, but it doesn't say for sure whether it dealt with the Regions issue or not...

[tompika]

I used AnyDVD 3 on my notebook CDRW/DVD combo

AnyDVD is a driver, which descrambles DVD-Movies automatically in the background. This DVD appears unprotected and region code free for all applications and the Windows operating system as well. With AnyDVD's help copy tools like CloneDVD, Pinnacle Instant Copy, InterVideo DVD-Copy, etc. are able to copy CSS protected Movies. With the help of AnyDVD you can watch movies with non matching region codes with every DVD Player Software you like!

AnyDVD decrypts not just DVDs: AnyDVD allows you also to play, copy and rip protected Audio CDs!