Hi, I was thinking about changing the region of my dvd burner.  When I checked the settings, it said that I could only change the region 4 times.  Afterwards, I would be stuck with a certain region for good.  Does anyone know if there is a way around this?  Is there any way to patch the burner so that you can change the region as many times as you want?

Is this a stand alone unit or one inside your PC?
 
I don't think there is a physical difference --- it is only the format in which it "encodes" before it burns.
 
Let us know what you are using?  Is it blue ray?

Some manufacturers released firmware updates that allowed all regions, but not all of them did this. There are some hacked firmware files around but they could render the drive useless. I'm sure there are some relatively safe ways of doing it by now, but I wouldn't know of any.

I have two burners, and I use one for North America and one for Europe. But then I'm a bit weird, living in Canada and buying videos from Amazon Deutschland.
 

 
It's an internal burner in my desktop.  It's a Matshita dvd-ram LF-D311 (capable of burning both dvd-ram and dvd-r).  This burner came with the desktop when I bought it in 2002.  Obviously, it does not have any bluray capabilities.

 
And where exactly could I get these hacked firmware files?

 
Well if you wanted to watch dvds from other regions, couldn't you just make a dvd rip (since that would not have any protection features and could be played in all regions)?

Couldn't tell you. Just look up region-free software or something, I think there's some of that too. Don't know how reliable it is.

I know there is some "Hacked" firmware out there.  I have not used it on any of my internal DVD writers, BUT I have used it one 3 of my stand alone units.  all three are liteon models.  The oldest one is a liteon LV 5001 and the fireware mod removed region and added three hr recording mode.  On the newest model the hack didn't work on removing the region restriction, But there may be a newer version.  As mike..  pointed out there is software that will change the region code to "0"
 
Here is a site I go to for info on DVD recorders.  Scroll down to hardware and pick your manuf.  Try to find (or ask) an problems with a given ver of hacked fireware.
 
http://club.cdfreaks.com/
 
Added: The liton 9001.  I had to replace the DVD drive as the door would not open.  I repaced it with a computer internal dvd writer.

 
Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out.

If you want to watch movies from all reigons, use ANY DVD, it will unlock all reigons on all DvDs.

Darn it roadrunner... you stole my thunder!!!!    
 
http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html

Some models have resetting tools made by 3rd parties to reset the change limit back to 5 and some also have firmware patches to remove the region lock.  
 

For dvd's anydvd is a godsend. Its practically the only tool that can deal with region locks, CSS, and structure based corruption *ahem, i mean encryption). Its well worth the price.

However, if your dvd's dont come with any non standard structure, you can go for a free option: dvd43
http://www.dvd43.com/

Not quite all of the features of anydvd, but it does its job (region free and deCSS)