My New DVD is ALL Regions =D YAY~!

[Renegade]

I just got my DVD of "The Corporation" in the mail. I quickly opened the package, then checked the back for the region... ALL. Hahah~! They get it. They make the DVD playable for any DVD player. They're not the total douches that the rest of the industry seems to be.

It was just nice to see. I'm sick of spending money on products that are designed to be broken. (Very not happy at my Star Wars DVDs not being playable...)

[KynloStephen66515]

Start Wars?

[Renegade]

Start Wars?

Ooops... Fixed. 

[Deozaan]

If all the Star Wars geeks in the universe were unable to watch their DVDs, that would definitely Start Wars.

[4wd]

(Very not happy at my Star Wars DVDs not being playable...)

Wait...you're in Australia aren't you?  One of the few countries where it's legal, (or I should probably say: 'not illegal'), to have/sell region free DVD players and you've got a region locked player?

[Renegade]

(Very not happy at my Star Wars DVDs not being playable...)

Wait...you're in Australia aren't you?  One of the few countries where it's legal, (or I should probably say: 'not illegal'), to have/sell region free DVD players and you've got a region locked player?

Yes.

I *was* using my Mac for DVDs... Apple doesn't seem to have the brains to include a region free optical drive... Go figure.

I only watch on my computer monitors, and not the TV. It's packed away somewhere as we never use it. I'm not sure if my (regular) DVD player is region free or not. I bought that in Malaysia.

My DVD burner has regions on it. Not sure about the Blu-ray as I only ever use that for burning backups. Probably has region destruction coding though.

I fail to understand how it could be illegal to sell a region free DVD player anywhere. I can see the patents only being licensed to people with agreements, but after that, who's to stop anyone from buying parts or selling them in different regions. But those would be civil agreements, and not in criminal law.

Anyways -- region free = good. Good = me happy. Me happy = post at DC~!

[f0dder]

DVD?

[Ath]

DVD?

LOL

[Carol Haynes]

Can't you simply unlock your player - I have managed to do that with every player I have owned.

[Renegade]

Can't you simply unlock your player - I have managed to do that with every player I have owned.

Too lazy. For my Mac... God... I can't imagine the nightmare...

I looked into it, but everything I found had too many warnings, and I just shied away.

If I knew of a RELIABLE way to do it, sure. But I don't have that many to unlock, and don't feel like spending money to replace them if they get screwed. And I would simply hate to have to fart around with spending time getting a new one. Pain then pain. It takes like a week minimum to get anything done here. (I really miss Korea sometimes.)

Any hints on reliable methods?

[Carol Haynes]

Tell me the make and model number of the DVD player and I'll see what I can find out.

Some models you just use a strange sequence of key presses on the remote control, others you need to buy or hire a special remote control to do it. I have done this now on 6 or 7 DVD player/recorders and never had a problem. FWIW next time you buy one buy it region free - there are loads of sellers out there!

WRT the Mac drive not sure what you can do about that but on Windows boxes there are loads of software tools that fake the multi region approach. I used to use one that worked well called DVDidle but I don't think it is available any more (the same people that make DVDFab produced it). You could try http://www.dvdfab.com/passkey-lite.htm (which is free) which will probably work with older DVDs or buy http://www.dvdfab.com/passkey-for-dvd.htm which should work with all DVDs (but costs $40).

I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives for Windows but I'm not sure what. A well respected application is http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html but that costs 49 Euros.

PS: A much cheaper alternative for Windows is to buy a second DVD drive - make the main drive set to your region and set the second drive set to region 1 (which is what most people want). You could probably do the same with the Mac if it is a tower type computer - or use an external USB or Firewire based DVD drive for the other region and use it on the Mac and windows.