My DVD drive has turned anti-R2 - Help!

Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
I've been using my DVD drive mostly for R2 DVD's as you'd expect, putting in the occasional R1 DVD here and there. PowerDVD (or so I assumed) has been giving me a message, telling me to select the DVD region, after I started playing R1 DVD's using a program called 'DVD Region Free', and I always simply clicked the region of the DVD I was playing at the time.

To cut a long story short - I'm in the rather odd situation where my main DVD drive is now playing R1 DVD's fine (without needing any region free players/software) and not playing any R2 DVD's at all (even with region free players/software). The R2 DVD's are showing up but nothing is happened when I try to play them, PowerDVD even telling me my DVD player settings have changed...or something like that. I've tried lots of programs, including the region free MPC player, but no R2 DVD will play on my main DVD drive.

What have I done wrong this time? :/
 
the only thing i know is that each computer has a limited amount of times in which the region chosen can be switched, after that it sticks too the last region you chose, by the look of things R1. As for what program to use, i did hear you could use a region free player but i've never tried it out. Maybe some codecs are needed? =/
 
Arbalest said:
the only thing i know is that each computer has a limited amount of times in which the region chosen can be switched, after that it sticks too the last region you chose, by the look of things R1. As for what program to use, i did hear you could use a region free player but i've never tried it out. Maybe some codecs are needed? =/
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Just been reading up - I've now found out (way too late) that all DVD drives offer only 4-5 region changes before locking. Mine has decided to lock at region 1, and I only have 2 (soon to be 3) anime R1 box sets...

The only way to fix this seems like a firmware update. My PC is ancient...can't find any custom firmware and don't really know where to look. All I know is that my drive is an 'Atapi 16X' with '1.16' firmware. :/
 
skikes said:
y didnt you just switch it to region 0 and leave it at that? lol
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There were only ever 2 options selectable when it popped up, neither being 0. I simply pressed ok, assuming it was a PowerDVD pop-up...
 
Not sure if theres a way around it onces its been hard locked but search for a program called RPC and look for the one that matches your dvd drive, it should be able to reset the counter for you. but no guarantee's.
 
I think I have 1 change left for my drive. There must be a way to 'trick' the computer into thinking it can do it for a infinite number of times.

Also what was you actually using the player for. I don't see much of a point of watching DVDs on a computer unless you are planning on taking screen shots etc. Oh, if you don't have a DVD player I guess it can't be helped. :S
 
Download "DVD Genie", which can reset the region code limit in a number of programs, including Power DVD. I'm not sure if this will work since you've already used up your region count but worth a go (I use it to switch regions).
 
Top drive = R1 DVD player
Bottom drive = R1/R2 DVD player

The above wouldn't be so bad if my bottom drive actually worked like it should. I have to use the 'pin in the hole' technique to open it when there's no disc in, and it's more noisy than the above drive. Would've prefered this region issue to be the other way around...

@Nyu: Had a look on that website and 'Atapi' didn't give me any results? :/

@Paul: Cheers, it's worth a shot. Will download and give it a go tomorrow.

DaNiMe-sama said:
Just download Media Player Classic...
It's region free, but still uses the dvd decoder.
You can get it by downloading CCCP.
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Pretty sure I've already said that I tried MPC - No region free program will work now as my main drive is locked tight as a R1 DVD player now. :cry:
 
Yeah, unfortuantely DVD drives are locked to only a certain number of region changes. Because this is counted in the firmware of the drive, not your computer's software, it is difficult to counter.

A number of programs available around the internet can lift the region protection off of the direct data stream of your disc, essentially surpassing the whole region locking malarky. These include AnyDVD, which is unfortunately shareware.

As far as I know, other than a program such as that you can either reset your DVD changes with a firmware replacement/change/update or possibly by sending the drive back to the manufacturer and describing what you did to be a mistake (I dunno; might work!. Be careful if you choose to play around with firmware, though. Assuming you can find suitable firmware for your drive, if you don't let it copy accross properly or interrupt the process, you run the risk of rendering your drive irreversibly useless. I nearly did that - scared the hell out of me!
 
Maxon said:
Just get a cheap multi-region DVD player from Amazon. It's less hassle.
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Good plan!

Oh, wait... I haven't got a TV at the min! I've been iffing and butting about getting my first LCD TV since bloody DQVIII. I did have a crappy 32" CRT that decided to die on me a couple of months ago.

It might be a good plan for me to simply get a new PC instead of a new DVD drive. I'd have one already if a) the 22" Dell monitor sent with my first Dell E520 didn't have the worst backlight bleed I've ever seen an b) the PSU in my second Dell E520 hadn't died within a week.
 
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