Is it relevant to set a specific region code for a new drive?

[Perenista]

I just bought a new Pioneer BDR-212-BK drive. As we all know, new drives don't have any region code configured. In my old ASUS, I set R-4, which is used in Brazil, for NTSC DVDs (like the US), and we also use "A" (same from US, for Blu-rays).

What I was wondering:

- Should we define one region code at all? Or if we pick an official DVD/Blu-ray and try to play (using PowerDVD or MPC if it's just a DVD), it will work just fine?

Let's assume I am trying to play (from my drive) a REGION 4 DVD.

Will this not play at all, and ask me to set a region code? Same for region 1? (Pioneer drives can only come from the US, but as I said I didn't specify for Windows to set anything).

Another question that I always had:

- If there's no region code configured, and I open AnyDVD or Xreveal (?), will this allow me to play these official discs, and even rip them?

From what I was told, even if an app like MAKEMKV can rip most discs, if there is no region defined for the hardware, this process may fail. And trying to play an official disc would probably trigger a warning and prevent playback. Unless, of course, that DVD is region 0/ALL.

[DB83]

IIRC The moment you try to play a disk the software will alert you to set the Region Code for that disk.

It is the software, not the drive itself, that controls the Region. And you probably know that the Region Code can be set 5 times although, practically, that is 4 since the very process of playing the first disk has taken the first setting.

[Perenista]

IIRC The moment you try to play a disk the software will alert you to set the Region Code for that disk.

It is the software, not the drive itself, that controls the Region. And you probably know that the Region Code can be set 5 times although, practically, that is 4 since the very process of playing the first disk has taken the first setting.

What is odd is that the (former) AnyDVD software also asked us to inform the region code from the disc itself (not to be confused with the one we set for Windows), but MakeMKV, which also decrypts all sorts of media, lacks such option.

I remember a discussion with the Slysoft mods (can't find that anymore), where they told me to not only inform the region code matching the disc (so, if it's R1-US, put region 1 in there), also to set a code for Windows. Unless the 2 (not just 1) settings were configured, this would cause issues with playback and ripping.

[DB83]

AFAIK MakeMkv is not unique in this respect.

There is a difference between a player that MUST know the Region Code and a Ripper/Converter that just reads the raw data from the disk. MakeMkv is one of many and I think that dvddecrypter is another.


TBH it is long time ago since I installed my drives. I certainly have no recollection of using Windoze to set the Region. The software, such as PowerDvd, might make a setting within Windoze and compare that after the first setting/reading and it could well be Windoze that limits the Region changes except that there is s/w, which I have also used, to reset the counter back.


But the bottom line is that if you want to play and not merely rip/convert then you must set a Region Code.


Even so I would wish that others would contribute to this thread since I might not have everything right.