How to play a region protected DVD movie ?

[ajayritik]

My friend gave me Spiderman DVD to me the other day. When I put that in my DVD ROM Drive it popped up a message asking me to select the region. It gave me options like US etc. My friend bought this from US. He told that I may have problem playing this on my DVD Player also. If I select the region in US when I'm playing it on my DVD ROM drive will I have playing other movies in the future on my computer? Will I be able to play this movie on my DVD Player.

[debsuvra]

I think you can change the DVD region code for maximum of 5 times. So, you can change the code for now to play the DVD. But later, if you want to play some Indian DVD, you should change the region code again. On that time, you will only have 4 times left.

[The_Devil_Himself]

^^use google for 'hacks',this region codes sh!t was cracked a long time back.

[ajayritik]

You mean to say that on my DVD ROM drive I will have restriction on playing all region DVD's?

[The_Devil_Himself]

^^you can change your dvd drive's region settings a max. of five times after that it locks up.Use google man and get the bloody hack to make your dvd drive region free.

[Ponmayilal]

And if you have a Liteon DVD writer, download ltnRPC.zip, extract and run the ltnRPC.exe. It can disable or enable the counter. No need to flash the firmware with hacked ones.I understand that this software was written by a person who worked for Liteon and on all my Liteon drives I use it to disable the Region counter.
And also remember that apart from the region counter in the hardware, the playback software like Power DVD, WinDVD etc., also keeps a similar count of region change and allow five changes. There are many software , free and paid, that sit between the OS and the Player software to fool it into believing that the hardware is playing that particular region DVD to which the player software is set.You can google "DVD Region free" and get details.

Even standalone DVD players which are sold set for a particular region can be made region free by inputting certain keystrokes from the remote. The exact procedure of changing it varies from model to model even of a particular manufacturer.You can again google search for details for your particular model number.

[kumarmohit]

You can create a region free image of DVD using DVD Decrypter.

[Ponmayilal]

Yes, using DVD decryptor one can remove the region protection.

But the basic problem will still remain.As you load DVDs of different regions, the counter will reset and after five changes you will get stuck with the hardware refusing to play any DVDs of a different region than set last by the counter and also the player software.

Also development of DVD decryptor was abandoned long time back.It will not be able to decrypt some of the new DVDs with different copy protection techniques and where deliberately DVD makers introduce dummy sectors.You can still copy such DVDs by using a combination of appropriate software. Refer the following tutorial by go4saket
!!! Guide To Copy DVD Movies !!!

All said and done, if you are a "DVD maniac" trying different region DVDs, you need to make your hardware region free as well as take care of the region-setting mechanism of the player software.

Practically speaking, such a situation does not arise for most users as we all play either Region 1 (North America) DVDs, or Region free indian film DVDs.

In any case, knowledge is Power

[praka123]

the best thing is linux plays all region coded DVD's.thx 2 libdvdcss 8)

[ajayritik]

thanks for the info!

Right now I'm thinking of playing on my Sony DVD player! Do you think its possible?

[azzu]

^ it is possible

[ajayritik]

How is it possible Azzu? I think you are from Hyderabad?

[Ponmayilal]

@ajayritik, if what you have asked is whether you can play region 1 DVD on your Sony Standalone player ( and not the computer DVD ROM drive), the answer is it depends on the region set in the DVD player. Usually the region code of your player is indicated in the manual.You can also find it on the sticker somewhere on the back panel. If it is set to Region 5, (India, Africa, Russia and former USSR countries) then you cannot play, unless you make your player region-free by unlocking the region code for your particular model.