windows media player region free??

greengirl31

Hi all ...

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum but perhaps you can help.

I bought a sony Vaio in the states and it's been great. I let the kids watch DVD's on it in the mornings in bed and I have a few DVD's from the states which they were watching and swoping regions - what I did't realise was that you can only change the region so many times and now it's stuck on Region 1 (USA) and we only have about 5 DVD's from there?? Any Ideas how I get it back ??

Thanks

old_aussie

Buy a DVD player/burner for it in Ireland could be a possibility

yoyo

Check www.rpc1.org for a firmware hack which will make your computers DVD drive region free, alternatively install something like VLC which ignores region locking on DVDs, some drives will need a firmware hack to allow playback though

Nick

Tea_Bag

check out a little program called 'any dvd'. I used it in the past and it just overides any locks on the dvd so happy days no matter what you put it.

for the life of me I can't see how dvd makers get away with it. have they never heard of people who travel regions on business?

yoyo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

check out a little program called 'any dvd'. I used it in the past and it just overides any locks on the dvd so happy days no matter what you put it.

for the life of me I can't see how dvd makers get away with it. have they never heard of people who travel regions on business?

AnyDVD is great but it aint free DVD43 is a similar program, doesn't work on all drives, think Mat****a ones especially are very difficult to trick into making region free

Nick

Tea_Bag

yoyo wrote: »

AnyDVD is great but it aint free DVD43 is a similar program, doesn't work on all drives, think Mat****a ones especially are very difficult to trick into making region free

Nick

I used to be free! :(

greengirl31

Hey Folks,

thanks for the replies. I tried the VLC but it didn't recognise the DVD when I put it in the drive. I,m not much of a techie so when I had a look at the RPC.org site and It was like double Dutch !!! I was hoping not to have to purchase anything either ....
I don't suppose anyone could recommend a firmware hack ??????????
Thanks

yoyo

greengirl31 wrote: »

Hey Folks,

thanks for the replies. I tried the VLC but it didn't recognise the DVD when I put it in the drive. I,m not much of a techie so when I had a look at the RPC.org site and It was like double Dutch !!! I was hoping not to have to purchase anything either ....
I don't suppose anyone could recommend a firmware hack ??????????
Thanks

What dvd drive you got? Find it in Device Manager (Right click computer/mycomputer in xp and below>Properties>Device manager in vista+ or hardware tab>Device Manager in XP) under DVD/CD Rom drives your drive will be listed

Nick

greengirl31

Hi Nick,

Under the DVD/CD Rom Drives it says Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H . Does that make sense ??

Thanks

A

yoyo

greengirl31 wrote: »

Hi Nick,

Under the DVD/CD Rom Drives it says Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700H . Does that make sense ??

Thanks

A

http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/Optiarc-AD-7700S/

Theres a patched firmware there, flash the drive using BinFlash (Get GUI version), there is always a risk flashing a DVD drive and I will not be responsible if things go arseways! You should be fine though, Optiarc AD-7700H Firmware 1.FA this firmware should be fine for the drive
Detailed flash instructions from the firmwares readme is here: http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com/page/en/How-to-Flash/binflashgui

Nick

Just to add: Close any anti virus/security programs and have nothing but bin flash running while flashing, also don't use the laptop while flashing is in progress!

greengirl31

Nick,

Thanks for going to the trouble - I'm going to print the instructions and give this a go this week. Honest to God, I shouldn't be let near these things :-)
Thanks again

A

yoyo

greengirl31 wrote: »

Nick,

Thanks for going to the trouble - I'm going to print the instructions and give this a go this week. Honest to God, I shouldn't be let near these things :-)
Thanks again

A

Best of luck, just make sure you do a backup of the drives origional firmware just in case (how to do this is in the bin flash tutorial linked), post back if you need any more help

Nick