Page 1 of help with multi region playback on pc

i`ve finally taken the plunge and gotten a new pc with dvd rom. can anyone recommend the best way to playback different region discs. it has win dvd installed but says you can only change the region code 5 times before it lock
thanks

It`s possible to make a PC DVD-ROM multi-region, but it`s not as straightforward as multi-regioning a standalone player. DVD-ROM players are fixed to allow only five region changes before they lock to a single region under a standard called RPC-2 (which makes RCE look positively cuddly). RPC-2 is part of the firmware built into the drive by the manufacturer, so if you`re feeling brave, you can go to certain sites who can provide you with patched firmware which will enable you to operate the drive under RPC-1 (the previous standard which had no limitations on region changes). It involves flashing the memory chip in the drive with a piece of software to load in the RPC-1 firmware. The only thing is if anything goes wrong you can wind up with an unusable player (and of course you void the warranty on the drive doing this anyway).

Mind you, I`ve tried it myself and provided you`re not of a nervous disposition it does work. You also need DVDGenie to hack your software player into playing along.

There is a single piece of software to allow multi-region without flashing, but it`s $40 to a hacker`s website and the version doing the rounds on Kazaa has a worm virus kindly attached so I personally wouldn`t touch it (on security as well as moral grounds).

J Mark Oates

This Might Help

It works

http://www.elby.ch/en/fun/software/index.html

No flashing just dowload and play to your hearts content

again, like dvdgenie, it`s useless on RPC-2 firmware drives..

"RegionKiller 2 takes care of the proper functioning of your (Region Code free) DVD Drive - from now on you`ll be able to watch foreign DVDs on your home theater PC without being hassled by possibly non-working DVDs" (take note of the bit in brackets)

This item was edited on Wednesday, 7th May 2003, 22:41

I got RPCMan for mine. I think it only works on certain DVD-ROMs though. LG DVD/CDRW combi mine.