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Steps to Flash the HP ENVY 14 laptop's Matshita DVD RAM - to make it Region-free

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IainB:
Q: Aren't all drives manufactured after 2000 or 2001 RPC2? I thought I read that somewhere. :huh: Or did that just apply to drives sold in the USA?
-40hz (August 23, 2012, 06:39 PM)
--- End quote ---
I've no idea about the USA, but no, clearly they are/were still churning out RPC2 locked DVD drives in new laptops - mine being an example (well, I have had it for about 18 months now).

My Plextor is region free and it's no where near that old.
...Or am I thinking of the wrong thing??
@IainB - What DiskInfo utility are you using in the above screen shots?
-Stoic Joker (August 23, 2012, 06:50 PM)
--- End quote ---
Some manufacturer brands of DVD drives - like your Plextor - are often/usually issued RPC1, but it seems that the **AA still have a stranglehold contract (Copyright) on some of the manufacturers - e.g., presumably such as Matshita, which is a major OEM producer. Toshiba brand DVD drives were made notoriously difficult to unlock, though I gather that Toshiba does not produce their brand now. There is some good info re this at http://discinfo.rpc1.org/

In answer to your Q: I am using the proggie DISK Info v1.7.0ß, available from http://discinfo.rpc1.org/#Download
(I have edited and added that into the opening post to this discussion thread.)

4wd:
Wouldn't the drop in read/write speed be cause for concern?-Stoic Joker (August 23, 2012, 11:12 AM)
--- End quote ---

A lower write speed will generally mean a better quality write, I don't write at anything above 6x - not unless I don't want a disc to be read on the majority of playback devices.

Q: Aren't all drives manufactured after 2000 or 2001 RPC2? I thought I read that somewhere. :huh: Or did that just apply to drives sold in the USA?-40hz (August 23, 2012, 06:39 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yes, all drives are should be RPC2, (part of the DVD Alliance/Forum, **AA, MPEG-LA entanglement), but you can still flash them back to RPC1 to get around region encoding, (well, TBH, I haven't seen a recent factory drive that wasn't RPC2, eg. LiteOn, Samsung, Pioneer, Optiarc, Benq or LG, but I guess that doesn't mean they don't exist).

From memory the basic difference between them was the way the region was requested/reported.

For RPC1:
DVD: "Hi, I'm region 4."
Drive: "OK, I can play you."

For RPC2:
DVD: "Hi, what region are you?"
Drive: "I'm region 0, (ie. free)."
Drive: "Hello? Are you still there?"

Flashing the drive to RPC1 allowed you to make it region free.  RPC2 put the onus on the DVD software/encoding to check whether the drive was of the correct region which, at the time, was harder to bypass.  If the drive reports itself as RPC1 then it falls back to the old way of doing things which allowed for region free.

These days you can rip a DVD removing the region encoding in the process which kind of makes the whole region thing moot unless, of course, you are an honest, law-abiding person....in which case you're screwed.

For drive info, if you use ImgBurn you can go to the Tools->Drive menu to check capabilities/region/etc.

40hz:
Are they still putting the Regional Coding enhancement (RCE) on some disks? I remember a period not too long ago when I saw a spate of DVDs that wouldn't play on any of my PCs since I had set the drives to be region free. They'd flash a message that the disk was not authorized for the selected playback device, and then helpfully suggest I try using a different player.

Stoic Joker:
Wouldn't the drop in read/write speed be cause for concern?-Stoic Joker (August 23, 2012, 11:12 AM)
--- End quote ---

A lower write speed will generally mean a better quality write, I don't write at anything above 6x - not unless I don't want a disc to be read on the majority of playback devices.-4wd (August 23, 2012, 07:49 PM)
--- End quote ---

Right, knew that part. Back when, I spent a lot of time SlipStreaming Service Packs and burning OS disks so 6x is a bit fast for (that type of) a solid burn. :) My concern was not so much that it had capped the write speed (however shouldn't vs. can't is a factor), but that it had capped the read speed also.

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There is a DVD Region tab on the properties dialog of the drive I have here at the office that says I can use it to change the region 4 times (I'd always thought it was only 2). So assuming that it won't just let me set it to R0 ... Is there a country I can select that would be the equivalent of R0?? (Yeah, I know, dumb question ... But I gotta ask. :))

IainB:
There is a DVD Region tab on the properties dialog of the drive I have here at the office that says I can use it to change the region 4 times (I'd always thought it was only 2). So assuming that it won't just let me set it to R0 ... Is there a country I can select that would be the equivalent of R0?
-Stoic Joker (August 24, 2012, 06:52 AM)
--- End quote ---
The number of Region changes that are left is shown in the DISC Info details in the screenshot above. It's up to 4 max, I gather.
It gets locked on the last one you use. I recall reading somewhere that you can't RPC1 Flash the drive once you have used up the last change.
As far as I am aware, there is no Region provided that you can select that is equivalent to R0.

Like I said, "ruddy annoying" "a real nuisance".    ;)

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