Do all DVDs play on PC's regardless of whether they are produced for another region? Say could a region 4(Australia) dvd play on my home pc?
DVD 'regions'
No not all its all down to the manufacturer of the PC driver some can be changed some can only be changed a few times.
Originally Posted by 3dom:
“No not all its all down to the manufacturer of the PC driver some can be changed some can only be changed a few times.”
“No not all its all down to the manufacturer of the PC driver some can be changed some can only be changed a few times.”
Only if you use the supplied software.
Firstly, try Videolan (www.videolan.org) - it may play it anyway; it certainly plays all older "wrong" region discs but the protection has got better of late.
Then AnyDVD can be used, if needed.
Region coding applies on all PC drives in the same way as it does on a set top.
Most PC drives will allow 5 changes to the region coding before locking on that region.
After the 5th change you can remove the drive ,reset your PC to factory settings and other stuff but it wont make a difference -the region will be locked.
But there are various programs out there that will unlock the region coding.
Recent copying and region restrictions like Sony's Arccoss can also be got round with recent updates to the multiregion programs.
Just make sure your PC drive is not a Matshita drive from the last year or two as these cannot be unlocked by any known program.
A combo of wrong region and CSS protection will prevent the disc from playing or copying.
But consider the fact that a lot of R4 dvd's are dual or multi coded for more than just R4 .
What is the movie?
The classic British tv released in Oz by Umbrella is sold on most sites as R4 but is actually uncoded and will play on all UK players
Most PC drives will allow 5 changes to the region coding before locking on that region.
After the 5th change you can remove the drive ,reset your PC to factory settings and other stuff but it wont make a difference -the region will be locked.
But there are various programs out there that will unlock the region coding.
Recent copying and region restrictions like Sony's Arccoss can also be got round with recent updates to the multiregion programs.
Just make sure your PC drive is not a Matshita drive from the last year or two as these cannot be unlocked by any known program.
A combo of wrong region and CSS protection will prevent the disc from playing or copying.
But consider the fact that a lot of R4 dvd's are dual or multi coded for more than just R4 .
What is the movie?
The classic British tv released in Oz by Umbrella is sold on most sites as R4 but is actually uncoded and will play on all UK players
Originally Posted by brightwaybilly:
“Region coding applies on all PC drives in the same way as it does on a set top.
Most PC drives will allow 5 changes to the region coding before locking on that region.
<snip>
Just make sure your PC drive is not a Matshita drive from the last year or two as these cannot be unlocked by any known program.
A combo of wrong region and CSS protection will prevent the disc from playing or copying.”
“Region coding applies on all PC drives in the same way as it does on a set top.
Most PC drives will allow 5 changes to the region coding before locking on that region.
<snip>
Just make sure your PC drive is not a Matshita drive from the last year or two as these cannot be unlocked by any known program.
A combo of wrong region and CSS protection will prevent the disc from playing or copying.”
. You obviously have never used AnyDVD 
-Chris
Originally Posted by ntlhellworld:
“. You obviously have never used AnyDVD
-Chris”
“
. You obviously have never used AnyDVD -Chris”
Anydvd was one of the first I tried after my original programs failed to work.
It made no difference and failed in the same way as DVD Region + CSS Free,DVD Shrink,DVD Decrypter and DVD Fab.
Unless you have tried a recent Matshita drive I suggest assumptions are not useful
If you look on forums across the world the problem with Matshita drives (only recent ones not older ones) is well known.
DVD Region+ CSS Free even mention in their T&C's that they know the problem exists but they wont be doing anything to help.
Apparently in a deliberate move to quash region hacks ,the way it is implemented on Matshita drives is different to the way it normally works on other drives.
While it is still possible to play and copy coded disc for other regions ,if the disc also has CSS protection (and 99% do) they wont work.
The UK Professionals discs dont have CSS for some reason so they work fine but I've yet to find any other region 2 discs that dont use it (I've locked the drive to R1)
So I have to use another laptop for copying R2 discs.
Anyway,all Anydvd does is remove region coding and copy protection.
All my other programs do that aswell.
My existing programs will copy R1 and any R2 discs without CSS
Edit:
Just in case Anydvd have altered anything since I tried it last year I downloaded it again today.
But nothings changed ,although trying to play a R2 did switch on a rather large window where Anydvd explain they are aware of the problem too and that not only does it affect Matshita but it also affects some Philips,Ricoh and Panasonic drives aswell.
So it looks like other drive manufacturers are wiseing up to the situation which is a tad inconvenient so I will have to continue using my other 2 laptops for R2
