Does anyone know about this stuff? I don't want to buy a whole new DVD player just so that I can watch some old school Kung-Fu flicks. But I would like to get a few of the old classics I remember from long ago on DVD. After investigating them, it appears that for a good version of a DVD many of the movies will require a region 3 or all-region dvd player. There are a few I could get without that which will be great for a while but eventually I may need a way to watch stuff coded for other regions. Is there an upgrade or program that would allow me to copy a region 3 disc onto a DVD-R or that would allow me to play DVD's from other regions? Any information about region free dvd players/upgrades etc. would be appreciated. Thanks.
You can generally change the region on your PCs DVD player a set amount of times. It should start with region 1 and then you can change it to region X. I believe there may be hacks (do a google search), which allow you to set this limit (usually 5) to unlimited. If the DVD is copy protected then it will be hard copying it to disk or another DVD. A program like DVD Xcopy would do it, but it was deemed "illegal".
You can get region free players pretty cheap these days. And a fair number of Region 3 discs play on R1 machines, so you could get lucky and not even need multi-region capability.
ok thanks for the info. If for some reason I found a copy of dvd xcopy and I changed my computer's dvd to region 3. It would be possible to make a region one copy? I need to know to prevent this from ever happening since it is illegal.
Is there a way to know which region 3 discs would play on an r1 player ahead of time? Maybe I will just try and get lucky. Thanks.
Hypothetically speaking, I would set my PC DVD player to region 3 and copy the region 3 DVD to disk and then copy from disk to DVD after resetting the player to region 1. I truly do not know if that would work, but it should.
there's an easier way- download the free VLC player from http://www.videolan.org/ it not only will playback virtually any audio/video codec, it's cross platform and will play any region DVDs. an amazing software tool. even plays FLAC, although not yet shorten files.
Just search all the DVD message boards, like the Home Theater Forum or DVDTalk. They're pretty reliable. I know all the R3 Superbits work on R1 players, but beyond that I'm not sure.
also check out VideoHelp Fantastic sites for DVD players, burners, and anything thats in a shape of a compact disc for information. Shows which DVD media it will play, +,-, or both, which blank medias are reliable, etc... addicted to that site for any DVD/CD info. also lookup plenty of programs to convert videos to whatever format u want. EDIT: whoops someone above me already posted the link sorry
More specifically, go here: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks Maybe your machine is already on the list. But the procedure is usually quite convoluted. I just recently researched this topic, and ultimately decided that the time it takes me to do it on my own is not worth the <$100 I would pay for a region-free player (that also plays PAL, which no hack or what-not would allow you to do on a NTSC TV -- unless you go through time-consuming conversion on a computer). I think it's a good investment if you have an international taste for DVDs. I've been very happy with my purchase.
My sister got me this $20 DVD player from Target a few xmas' ago. Its a Portland brand. I went online and figured out how 2 make it an all region DVD player with the remote control. Also it converts PAL to NSTC which is very important if u wanna watch European DVD's and some Asian imports. Very important for the DVD 2 convert the systems or it wont show on your TV screen. Unless your TV converts it automatically. Best Present my sis ever got me.
