Unsupported Format DVD

[Seekermeister]

Out of 300+ DVDs that I have, I just got the first that will not play on my computer, but plays fine on my standalone DVD player. PowerDVD says that it is unsupported, and when I Open WinTV which accept the output from the external player, it just shows a black screen, but plays the audio. If this is some kind of encryption, I would be surprised, because it is an old title that I bought at the Dollar Store. Is there some other factor that might be involved?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Prob a different region?

 

[Seekermeister]

I think that you might be right, but aren't regular DVD players coded by region, just like a CD/DVD drive in a computer? It seems strange, because near the end of the movie, some text appeared across the screen that looked something like Japanese, but the soundtrack sounded like it was original, in English, and without dubbing. If the region was wrong, why would it work in the DVD player? Is the signal itself coded throughout the movie, so that it could not even be received by the PVR150?

 

[Childs]

You can change the region in Windows, or simply rip the DVD and strip out the region.

 

[Seekermeister]

I don't think that I want to change anything in Windows, because that would cause problems with other DVDs. By ripping, I guess that you mean copying it to the harddrive, but I would have no idea what to look for, as far as the region code. Can you tell me specifically what to look for?

 

[Captante]

Be careful about changing the region code in your DVD player because although it can be hacked to become region-free, if you don't feel comfortable doing this you can only change it 5 times before it locks.

I suggest grabbing a program like Slysofts AnyDVD which will strip the region code in real-time & should allow Power DVD to play the movie right off the disk .. if not it will also allow you to rip it to the hard-drive region free & then play it from there. The program costs $39 (& is well worth it) but offers a free 30 day trial if you don't feel like paying for it.