DVDs (US vs. Europe)

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"wolfgson" wrote:

> I live in the US, but travel to Europe quite often, and would like to
> use the DVD player of my laptop in both continents.
>
> Is it possible these days to play European and/or US DVDs on the laptop
> without changing any setting?
>
> If I'm not wrong a few years ago you were allowed to modify the region
> on your laptop, but just a few times (around five or so) before it was
> locked. Is it still the same?

It's still the same - you either have to locate a region-free firmware
for your laptops DVD drive (and take the associated risks with installing
the firmware) or use a software patcher - these tend to be shareware and
I've no personal experience of them, but "AnyDVD" & "DVD Region CSS
Free" are couple I've seen around.

I'd take the firmware route, if possible, though you would still need
something like "DVDGenie" (freeware) to eliminate your Windows XP and
software players region protection.


higgy.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On 16 Aug 2005 08:06:14 -0700, "wolfgson" <wolfgson@yahoo.com> wrote:

>If I'm not wrong a few years ago you were allowed to modify the region
>on your laptop, but just a few times (around five or so) before it was
>locked. Is it still the same?

As far as I know, three is still a limit of 5 changes. I just got a
new DVD writer for my ThinkPad last week, and it came without a
region set, and allowed only 5 region changes. The first time I put
a DVD into the drive, it automatically set the region to be that of
the disc I had inserted (which luckily had been a US disc so it was
set right).

>Is it possible these days to play European and/or US DVDs on the laptop
>without changing any setting?

I have DVD Region+CSS Free installed, and I have played DVD's from
regions 1, and 2, and I think from Region 3 all with my drive's
region set to 1 and without changing regions. I have DVD's from UK,
France, and Germany sitting on my desk at work, and I tested with all
of those and had no issues playing any of them, even the PAL ones
(even though the US uses NTSC). I have had some minor issues with
ripping some audio CD's into MP3's when the DVD Region+CSS Free was
active, but that was due to it's attempt to handle the Audio
protection on some newer CD's (even though the discs being converted
were over 10 years old).

All in all, I'd give DVD Region+CSS Free a "thumbs-up" recommendation
for what you want.