Do DVD drives play all zone DVD's ?

[vinayag]

I have had this niglling question for some time now. Do DVD drives for pc's also have the dammed zone restrictions wherein a zone 1 dvd (USA) would not work with other zone dvd players and vice versa.

Any experiences with copyrighted DVD's ?

 

[konichiwa]

Yes, they have the same restrictions, however, there are several programs and registry hacks that can remove the protection (or alter the setting) very easily.

 

[SaturnX]

All new drives that being manufactured *must* have a region lock on them, earlier drives didn't, like me 6x Toshiba. For most now, you have to update the firmware on the drive to disable, or add more regions.

--Mark

 

[SilentBoB]

All you need is to download a program called DVD Genie and you can use it to change your region to play a DVD from anywhere. Just do a google search to find some place to downlaod it.

 

[Rafael]

You can make ur DVD drive REGION FREE using DVD Genie or finding a FIRMWARE for your DVD drive. I will look at home for the URL that you can look for the firmware for your drive, but you must know the model of your drive, and download the right firmware.
But it might be better for you use the DVD Genie, if you use saftware decoder. Its easier.

Raf

 

[BrutalJoeJoe]

I might be wrong but isn't it the decoder (decoder card or softwere) that's region locked and not the DVD player...

BTW why do they have to be locked... Here in sweden you can get DVD players for TV's that are'nt locked...

 

[vinayag]

That is a lot of confusion !!!

So, is it the DVD drive, software or the video card (In case of Radeon with buildin DVD decoder) that does the dvd zone verification ?

 

[DeeK]

<< I might be wrong but isn't it the decoder (decoder card or softwere) that's region locked and not the DVD player... >>


Both, actually.



<< BTW why do they have to be locked... Here in sweden you can get DVD players for TV's that are'nt locked... >>


The motion picture industry can't compete with themselves. Region coding is their way of enforcing regional price differences. As for the unlocked players, they are frowned upon by the MPAA, but maybe they're not aware that they're being made or they're afraid that the region coding scheme will be judged as an illegal trade barrier.