DVD-ROM & Regions

[The Silver Bullet]

Basically, this is simply a question about regions. I live in Australia, as some/none/one of you know. This means I cannot get copies of the greatest films [for example, say, The Seven Samurai], and also that I cannot get the better releases of the newer films [for example, The Royal Tenenbaums Criterion edition].

So what I am asking is about DVD regions on the DVD-ROM drives. Someone told me that the region thing only applies to DVD players, and not to computer drives. I've got a DVD-ROM in my computer. That's all I know. I've been told that to play R1, R2, R3 and R4...all of them, in other words, that's all I need. Is this the case?

I don't care if this has been asked before, by the way. For I am petty, and obnoxious.

[Cecil]

yes you can play any region dvd in a dvd-rom drive (can someone confirm? im afraid of being wrong)

[The Silver Bullet]

I smile.

[Cecil]

you may be right. this is what i found about my dvd player on my mac: "Many DVD discs include a region code. The first time you play one of these discs, your DVD drive is set to the region code of the disc. The drive's region code restricts DVD Player to playing discs with the same region code or with no region code.

Generally, the region code of your DVD drive matches the region code of the DVD discs available in the region where you live.

If you insert a disc with a different region code from the one set for your DVD drive, a dialog appears to let you change your drive's region code.

You can only change the region code of your DVD drive five times. After that, the region code is set permanently and you cannot change it.

You should only change the region code of your DVD drive if you plan to play only discs with the new region code in the future."

[Redlum]

http://www.dvdidle.com/

DVD REGION FREE

This program will let you play any region you want. Even on the newer drives. Hope that helps.

It doesn't involve any 'hardware' change of your players region setting either.

[bonanzataz]

dvd genie is the program i use (for windows) to have region free capabilities.

[cron]

if anyone's interested , i found this

[monodynamic]

on roughly the same topic, what if i create a region free DVD here in the US of A with the NTSC standard, but have someone in Germany (with the PAL standard) who needs to see the DVD.

Is it true that it doesn't matter between NTSC & PAL when playing on a DVD-Rom drive in the computer?

Clarification?

[cron]

yep, true true.  as long as the german guy's DVD player is multi-system    (that is NTSC and PAL)  . in the abscence of that,   he could use his computer and this .

[You Never Got Me Down Ray]

you can find DVD REGION FREE to download with a registration code maker thingy. It will ask you if you want to "evaluate" it for 30 days. When the 30 day trial is up, just use the registration code thingy again and again and again. FREE! But of course i paid for mine...
Most dvd programs are able to play all regions, but only for a certain amount of changes. For example if you have a US PC, it is automatically set for R1, but if you play an R2 disc, it will ask if you wanna change to an R2 setting, but it will only let you change back and forth 5 times or so. Hope that helps. And yeah, PAL and NTSC doesn't matter on dvd-rom drives like someone already said. Peace.

[molly]

i didn't want to open a new thread for this:

Do DVDs in your country have commercials on the beginning, before film? Ones that you can't skip?

[cron]

in Israel they do have commercials(unskipables),  and in England also, some.