DVD Writer
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code#Software_DVD_players
Region coding was cracked a long time ago.
Region coding was cracked a long time ago.
Ah I remember looking into this ages ago.
How much detail can I go into before I upset the mods
It was some time ago that they (the DVD consortium) made it a requirement that all new players were RPC2 (a region counter in the firmware).
So no new players will be RPC1, I think you'd have to find one around 7-8 years old.
There is a site, which is still going, where people patch firmwares to make them RPC1.
It is here
So you can flash a modified RPC1 firmware to your drive.
Of course, it is a bit minefield getting the right one. Certain drives are just rebadges of other drives, so certain firmwares will work with other drives, etc.
Then you've got the risk of flashing stuff in the first place .. unless it is a cheapo drive you're prepared to replace if you make a mistake then I wouldn't bother.
If it's a laptop then that is more difficult, as you can't easily replace the drive.
Although saying that, I did manage to successfully do an old laptop!
But even with RPC1, Windows has a software counter you have to get around.
You can do that of course, but I'd better not go into it
Much better is software solution like AnyDVD, which makes the computer think any disc is region free.
How much detail can I go into before I upset the mods
It was some time ago that they (the DVD consortium) made it a requirement that all new players were RPC2 (a region counter in the firmware).
So no new players will be RPC1, I think you'd have to find one around 7-8 years old.
There is a site, which is still going, where people patch firmwares to make them RPC1.
It is here
So you can flash a modified RPC1 firmware to your drive.
Of course, it is a bit minefield getting the right one. Certain drives are just rebadges of other drives, so certain firmwares will work with other drives, etc.
Then you've got the risk of flashing stuff in the first place .. unless it is a cheapo drive you're prepared to replace if you make a mistake then I wouldn't bother.
If it's a laptop then that is more difficult, as you can't easily replace the drive.
Although saying that, I did manage to successfully do an old laptop!
But even with RPC1, Windows has a software counter you have to get around.
You can do that of course, but I'd better not go into it
Much better is software solution like AnyDVD, which makes the computer think any disc is region free.
BTW if it is writing then there is no real issue, the dvd's you produce will be region free. The RPC cr*p is only really a method for the film companies to charge different prices in different parts of the world.
And if you want to play then a copy of anydvd will do it, or better still rip the dvd and play the divx
And if you want to play then a copy of anydvd will do it, or better still rip the dvd and play the divx
A selection of DVD rippers is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_ripper
Once you've written it to hard disk, you can burn a (writeable) DVD and this will not have region coding.
Once you've written it to hard disk, you can burn a (writeable) DVD and this will not have region coding.
It's a bit silly really, the old region coding.
Still technically shaky ground discussing it on here I guess
The companies claimed it was because films were released at different times in different parts of the world.
So it was to prevent harming revenue for the cinemas.
If that was true (which of course it wasn't) then I never understood why older films had region coding when it is possible for a DVD to be region free from the factory.
I agree with Biker, it is just to control prices and sales from the various distribution companies.
Given that many people must buy a £20 player from Tesco's, Google 'x region hack' (x being the model) and enter a simple code via the remote, I wonder why they still bother.
Still technically shaky ground discussing it on here I guess
The companies claimed it was because films were released at different times in different parts of the world.
So it was to prevent harming revenue for the cinemas.
If that was true (which of course it wasn't) then I never understood why older films had region coding when it is possible for a DVD to be region free from the factory.
I agree with Biker, it is just to control prices and sales from the various distribution companies.
Given that many people must buy a £20 player from Tesco's, Google 'x region hack' (x being the model) and enter a simple code via the remote, I wonder why they still bother.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Scramble_System
Quote In October 1999, Jon Lech Johansen and two people who remained anonymous reverse engineered the algorithm and DeCSS was released. The CSS algorithm was soon revealed to be easily susceptible to a brute force attack, apart from being an example of the trusted client problem. The algorithm's weakness is primarily due to US government crypto-export regulations, which, at the time, forbade the export of cryptosystems employing keys in excess of 40 bits - a key length that had already been proven to be wholly inadequate in the face of increasing processing power by the time DVD was released (see DES). In addition, structural flaws in the algorithm reduced the effective key length to only around 16 bits, which could be brute-forced by a 450 MHz processor in less than a minute.[2] As a 450 MHz processor was the stated minimum necessary to decompress a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 videostream in realtime, it effectively meant that any computer that could play a DVD could also crack one.
The CSS algorithm has been superseded by the Cryptomeria cipher in newer DRM schemes such as CPRM, or by AES in the AACS DRM scheme used by HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.