They said Ned Ludd was an idiot boy!

[TT Dee]

I want to buy a DVD. However it's not available as a stand alone item in this country. I can get it on ebay though it' says it is Region Code 1 (USA and Canada).

I watch all my DVDs on the 'puter via Power DVD, which informs me that I can change the region setting for a limited amount of times before it is fixed. What exectly does this mean???

[gettin2dizzy]

as it says!
Regions - to stop people selling cheap foreign dvds they have encoded data on them which only allows them to be played in a specific 'region', eg europe, america, japan.... So an american dvd shouldn't work on a british dvd player.

you may get to change the region your dvd player can play 3 times (could be once, could be 5...), after which it will stick to the last one you selected. This sucks if you choose a foreign region and can't play any of your dvds afterwards!

however..
. ..if you happened to type something like "power dvd region free' in to google you may find some software that can make your dvd player region free for free free free :D

[TT Dee]

Thanks G2D

Mwhhhhhhhhaaa x

[lynw]

I queried this with the PowerDVD helpdesk. Apparently they are legally required to fix it at 5 times. So when I asked why that was when I could go buy a multiregion DVD player they went a bit quiet and reverted to the Copyright organisations have that agreement set up. :rolleyes:

[rpwoodman]

Download a free version of AnyDVD (Slysoft) and it will effectively make the drive region free. Either watch it, or make a region-free backup.

[Mr Toad]

I could be wrong, but I thought it was an actual setting on the DVD device that allowed you to change the region up to 5 times, and then it was stuck forever (ie. encoded in the hardware/firmware). I had a Pioneer player once that I downloaded a utility that made it effectively region free, by resetting this.

These days I just use DVD Decrypter . . .:-$

[Filipe M.]

Or..................... you could look up for an RPC1 firmware revision for your DVD drive, but we're way into geek territory there. I'll go with rpwoodman suggestion too, AnyDVD (http://www.slysoft.com)is the best thing since sliced bread (shut up Hovis).