Hi all,

I'm back

Didn't have much time to hang around here the last few weeks. I got a new girlfriend Heh heh heh (Ehm... sorry about that...)
She's realy great Realy ! Sigh.....

Anyway....

I bough a present for her, the first seasons of 'ALF' on DVD I got them from Amazon.com, and they are region 1. My DVD players are region 2 (europe), so I took them to a guy somewhere in Holland (http://www.stegen.com/index.php) who fixed them both for me. And 'ALF' plays fine now
Maybe usefull for some of you who want to play all regions aswel.

Now I noticed that when I wanted to 'backup' (ahem...) the DVD using DVD shrink on my WinPC that the DVD writer (NEC) in that PC is also only region 2 ! I aparently (sp?) can switch back and forth between regions 4 times, and than it gets locked at the last region. So, maybe that same guy can fix DVD writers aswel (havent checked) otherwise do any of you have any experience with DVD drives and regions on computers ?

OK, talk to ya all later....

A very happy Martin....

ps, did I tell you that my girl is great ? Cause she realy is ! Realy !

_________________
Theres a time to live and a time to die
When its time to meet the maker
Theres a time to live but isnt it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying

@Metalheart

Quote:

Didn't have much time to hang around here the last few weeks. I got a new girlfriend Heh heh heh (Ehm... sorry about that...) She's realy great Realy ! Sigh.....

Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more...

_________________
After a decade away from the scene, I am back!

@Metalheart

There is all kinds of software for Windows that deals with this problem. A search on google will probably yield lots of results. Slysofts anydvd etc..

_________________
AMiGA

@Metalheart

Here you can find region free firmware for most NEC dvdwriter. Use at your own risk though. (They worked fine for me)

@Metalheart

> do any of you have any experience with DVD drives and regions on computers ?

My Liteon DVD+/-RW drives seem to be region code free.
I have a large amount of anime (Japanese animation) DVDs that are mostly imported from the United States (Region 1). When I was testing to see which ones work with DVplayer en Mplayer, I must have swapped between region 1, 2 and 4 hundreds of times.

CSS encoding is a worse problem on the AmigaOne/OS4. There is currently no software for OS4 that can play back an encoded DVD (68% of the commercial DVDs I tried is encoded).

Kind regards,

Dennis

@A3000T

Eh, MPlayer...

_________________

@Metalheart

I dont know anything about hacking dvdroms, but since i have one dvdrom and a dvdburner with reading abilities, i just set the dvdrom to read/play region 2 while the dvdburner does region 1.

@Metalheart

Quote:

Metalheart wrote: Hi all, I'm back Didn't have much time to hang around here the last few weeks. I got a new girlfriend Heh heh heh (Ehm... sorry about that...) She's realy great Realy ! Sigh..... ps, did I tell you that my girl is great ? Cause she realy is ! Realy !

Ok! There's no need to brag about your girlfriend! It makes it more difficult for me who's never had a girlfriend!



Firbodi

_________________
MicroA1 G3, 512MB RAM, DVD-RW; and A1-SE G3,512MB RAM, CD-RW & DVD-ROM
Avatar: Perspolis, Capital of Achaemenid Empire 500 B.C.

@firbodi

Sorry 'bout that

It came as a surprise to me too.... Never been that lucky either in the past.

Cheers,

Martin

_________________
Theres a time to live and a time to die
When its time to meet the maker
Theres a time to live but isnt it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying

@all

So I might need region free firmware for my DVD writers ?

_________________
Theres a time to live and a time to die
When its time to meet the maker
Theres a time to live but isnt it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying

@Metalheart

only on your PC the Amiga currently does not set a region.

funny thing is the region setting is really artificial for the most part.
your DVD software is supposed to read the region code and not play software the is encoded in a different reqion than the one on the DVD.

your choices
you could get a patch that removes it from your DVD player software.
You could get a patched firmware that allows multiple settings.
you buy another DVDROM unit and set it for region 1.

Also not all DVD's have a region code set. Those can be played in any country such as the earlier mentioned Anime DVD's since allot are not encoded or even copy protected.

Kgrach

@firbodi

Easier than you think.
most of the time all it takes is a little attitude.
Approach the target like you really don't care and its thier loss if they don't go out with you.
fawning never works.
Also never let a rejection slow you down.
also NEVER let one pass becuase you think they are out of your league.
Those are the ones most will pass by and will give you your best shot.

kgrach

@kgrach

Thanks for the nice tips buddy. I know I really can use them.

Firbodi

_________________
MicroA1 G3, 512MB RAM, DVD-RW; and A1-SE G3,512MB RAM, CD-RW & DVD-ROM
Avatar: Perspolis, Capital of Achaemenid Empire 500 B.C.

@kgrach

Yes exactly ! Thats absolutely true !

The difficult part is actualy having the nerve to do it ! But if you have done it once.... The rest is easy

Martin

_________________
Theres a time to live and a time to die
When its time to meet the maker
Theres a time to live but isnt it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying

@Metalheart

I know that.
Patching a DVD-ROM is very easy :)

Bye,
TMTisFree

_________________
The engineering approach to our non-problems: "build a better washer".
The scientific approach to our non-problems: "find a new energy source".
The environmentalist approach to our non-problems: "stop washing your shirts".

@Metalheart

Hehe... good news on the girlfriend front. Appologies if someone has already posted something similar, I only had time to skim this thread before going out to a birthday party.

There are a couple of "simple" options:
1) Region free firmware for your drive - http://www.rpc1.org is a good start;
2) Region ignoring software - which is effectively what happens when you're player is "fixed"; and
3) Something that lives between the drive and the OS that ignores regions.

1 is a bit dangerous as if the firmware upgrade goes wrong... you may have a new paper weight, but can often give the greater longer term benefits (i.e. works on any hardware/machine).
2 can be a bit hard to find...
3 for Windows, there is some software called DVD Region Killer (I think) that is basically a driver that is installed between the drive and Windows and intercepts the region information - you can turn it off and on, specify the region to use etc.

Hope that helps.

@Reaps

About point 3.

I use (and recommend) SlySoft's AnyDVD. It strips out the CSS protection from DVDs before it hits whatever program you want to use to access the DVD, like PowerDVD to watch 'em or DVD Shrink to back 'em up. It also disables some of the crap that seems to be infesting more and more DVDs these days, like promotional clips that you can't fast forward through and you can't skip through, as well as cleaning the Macrovision protection out of the video feed.

It also knocks quite a lot of the copy protection schemes employed on CDs right on their arse, so now my Linkin Park CD can actually be recognised in my PC (stupid bloody manufacturers, petty minded asswipes every f'n one of 'em!).

All in all, it's worth every cent I paid in registering it.

_________________
logicalheart wrote:
You know that pretty sound you play when the computer starts?
You need another one to play when the computer is actually ready to use.
Maybe add more for malfunctions and then we'll have music all day.

@AMiGR

> Eh, MPlayer...

MPlayer on OS4 isn't fast enough to play DVDs. I hope this will change when the p96 video driver is finished.

Kind regards,

Dennis

@DJRJ

Thats interesting with what you said about CDs. I agree that sort of "copy protection" just gets my goat! Oddly however, I've an old SCSI HP CDRW (I forget the model number) that just seems to ignore (or be able to handle) it transparently so I've never had any trouble reading these "copy protected" audio CDs on my machine.

Quote:

by Tomas on 2-Dec-2005 19:19:45 @Metalheart I dont know anything about hacking dvdroms, but since i have one dvdrom and a dvdburner with reading abilities, i just set the dvdrom to read/play region 2 while the dvdburner does region 1.

That's an interesting workaround for compatibility issues between DVD regions! Just remember this might not work on all systems or devices due to varying firmware restrictions. Always ensure you have proper licenses when using media in different formats/regions legally and ethically. Respecting copyright laws is crucial, even with region-free technology like HDMI connections that can bypass these limitations without any legal issues if used correctly within your own devices or for personal use on compatible equipment.