regional dvds on laptop

valerie · 18-06-2006 2:48pm #1

I'm a bit confused about this whole different regions on dvds thing. I have a Dell Inspiron 1300. What regions does it play? and how can I get it to play other regions? usually use media player to play dvds

sceptre · 18-06-2006 8:31pm

Windows and the hardware itself allow you to change regions up to five times. It was presumably set to region 2 (Europe and Japan) when it left the factory and that's presumably what it's set to now. After you've reached the limit on region changes Windows locks itself to the last region you set (can be sorted by reinstalling windows from scratch) and so does your hardware (in a simple sense without piddling around with firmware upgrades it's locked forever)

AnyDVD (google for it) is a handy program that allows you to basically play any region you like without using up the few region changes your operating system and hardware allow you to make. It's easy to use (though it could be easier) and it's the usual suggestion people will make, for good reason.

Most people who want to play DVDs from different regions will want to play region 1 (US) discs, note that many Australian discs (region 4) are dual-coded for region 2 as well.