My Niece is crazy over some Horse show that is only available on Region1 Dvds and with her Birthday coming up I'd love to be able to give her some!
I can't 'unblock' our DVD players because we will void the warranties and was trying to find if there was any other way to let her watch them.
Is there any chance of a laptop DVD being able to play region 1 (it's a Sony Vaio if that makes any difference) or if there is any way of copying a region1 dvd to the laptop and then somehow converting it to Region 2 and copying it to a DVD so she can watch them?

She seems to think I can make everything happen that she asks me - so now she has asked me for these DVD's I will loose the 'Aunty find it and fix it' title her and her brother have given me - so it would be great if anyone has any ideas on what I can do!

Know it's a bit late but    - Happy New Year - 

You should be able to do both these things.
The DVD player on your laptop should allow you to change region 5times.
You could also look at some software called any DVD
Multi region DVD players can be picked up for as little as 30pounds too.

One permenant solution is to use a desktop computer with a DVD recorder. Add a second inexpensive DVD ROM drive and set that to permenently stay on region 1.
Then use something like DVD shrink to remove the region encoding and record the discs from the DVD ROM to the recorder region free (or region 2 if you really want.)
The advantage to this is you will not use up all your "lives" by changing region on the laptop several times.

As mentioned, multi region players are also easily available. I can't understand why they bother with the different regions since it is so easy to get around.

I've not tried it, but it was recommended on Revision3's Tekzilla podcast:
http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html
which claims to play any DVD regardless of region or encryption.

 ;DCheers peeps ,  Now I know that she can watch the DVDs she wants I will go ahead and buy her some, I just need to decide which way to do it - was getting a little worried for the first time I would have to let her think 'Auntie Fix it' had become 'Aunty Flop It'!!!

Given how reasonable the DVD players are that will play all regions are I may just go for that (I presumed they would be sooo expensive) - seems the easiest option , good investment and knowing me If there's a way to mess up copying the disks and then changing the format, I'll find it- even the description on the 'slysoft' made my head spin!
With the movies the kiddies want to see always coming out in the US before here, I guess it will mean they can watch them sooner - and stop driving me mad to find clips on the internet everytime they come to visit!

As always peeps, you have been wonderfully kind and generous with your time and all the advice and tips are very, very much appreciated,
 

Multi region players are not a new thing, they have been about as long as DVD player have. I bought my Sony DVD player and 5.1 amp in 2001. Back then the player cost me £200 but if I remember right it was only an extra £10 for the multi region model which has been useful since.
I have had family members who have bought me DVD's for Christmas etc. from places like play.com without knowing anything about regions. I have at least one disc that is region 4 among ohers.

I also have a nephew who thinks that Uncle Sean can fix anything. He is 5 and I dread the day that there is something I cannot "fix". He may never talk to me again!  

Region coding for DVD's was cracked years ago.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/w...code#Software_DVD_players

Bubbly  as those horsey films are US  will they be PAL or NeverTheSameColourTwice, as you will get funny results if you play NTSC on a PAL machine

I thought PAL and NTSC were formats for videotapes.

No they are for tv systems. Pal runs at 60hz and ntsc at 50hz.
Also think they have different number of lines.

A Region 1 DVD will play fine on a multiregion player, the SCART or HDMI socket on the TV, even on a very old TV is 99% likely to be able to handle the video and audio signal it gets.

NTSC is 480i/60Hz, PAL is 576i/50Hz.

Most Region 4 releases was the exact same as the region 2, and most region 4 discs are also coded for region 2 and vice versa.  I have only ever came across 1 region 4 disc that wasnt also coded to region 2.

I have quite a few region 4 discs as at one time it was cheaper for me to import new release discs from Australia than buy them in the UK, but that was around 10 years ago when you were getting nearly 3 Australian dollars for one of our pounds.