So I'm in BCN with a bored teenager and a brand-new portable DVD player (XMas present), and we've watched all the movies we brought with us. So we make a run to the local "Disco" for some new movies, bring them back to the room, put them in the player and... ruh-row, we get a "wrong region" error and our brand-new, non-returnable DVD movies won't play.

After some online research, I learn more than I ever wanted to know about region compatability, and after a LOT more online research I found a DVD player "hack" site that showed me how to change the DVD player to multiregion, something that was not in the manual, on the manufacturer's site, or here in the Technology forum.

The web site is VideoHelp, and the section that has hacks is http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php.

Just to be clear, this was my experience using legal (legitimately purchased) DVD's on a legal DVD player - no bad behavior is implied, suggested, or otherwise endorsed. But it saved me a great deal of teenage sighing and eyerolling, hope it comes in handy for you too.

Just another reason people buy/sell pirated items. This region coding is a lot of BS just to sell the same item at different prices. They get to decide what to sell it for in each region. I always get a multi-region DVD player when possible. Another rip-off IMHO.

Thanks for the link, but unfortunately my Toshiba SD24-VE isn't on any list that I can find.

I found this one for you to try (no promises, warranties, etc): http://www.dvd365.net/?hacks/toshiba.htm. It does look promising.

If it doesn't work, some folks think that model may require a CD, but here's a different link that worked for some people: http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums...=308098&Type=1.

Good luck!

Thanks, but none of these seem to be for my model. They all talk about pressing "enter" and there is no "enter" on my remote. There is a button called "return" and another one called "input selection" but they don't seem to work for these hacks.

Wow. I would be too concerned about screwing up my DVD drive to try to hack it. Is there a risk of that when using these hacks?

I was in Berlin a while back and had the experience of renting a DVD to watch with my son. My ThinkPad did allow me to change regions - but would allow me to do it only 3 times total before locking to the last region I set. We watched the video, I re-set to North America and there it stays. Now I take a few DVD's from home. I would love to be able to use this supposedly portable international device on the road as I spend 2 1/2 - 3 month per year in Europe.

Best wishes,

Teacher49

This thread is about standalone DVD players, not DVD drives built into laptops.

In your case, all you need to do is find a zone-free RPC-1 firmware for your physical DVD drive (its brand and model appear in the Windows device manager), and an utility such as DVD Genie to circumvent the '5 changes only' limitation of your DVD playback software.

sorry. I didn't mean to go off topic.

Does anyone know of any risk in using this utlities?

Thanks,

Teacher49

If you are not comfortable with flashing firmware, then don't do it. DVD Genie mentioned above only works with region-free players.

On the other hand, DVD Region+CSS Free here is software (39.95) that essentially tricks your laptop's DVD player into thinking it has no region-specific code restrictions. So, you could safely install it and watch DVD's from other countries that are not Region 1.

In the UK the sale of multi-region DVD players is so rife that Amazon does it

For a portable, Santa just brought my wife the Shinco SDP1720A.

http://www.allcam.biz/products/ptdvd.html

Absolutely oustanding player.... and I love the idea of it being multi-region for family vacations.

Meanwhile, on my own trips, will just stick to the region 1 DVD player on my laptop.... have not tried the DVD region free software, don't really want to mess with a company laptop.... any opinions on how well that region free software works ?

I use DVDIdle Pro by http://www.dvdidle.com/. The idle part worked great on my Thinkpad, but doesn't seem to do much for reducing battery drain on my HP Pavillion.

However, the Region Free part works fantastic. It's all done in software, so it does not affect the hardware region setting on your DVD-ROM/Writer, nor does it require you to flash your drive with new firmware.

Here's a region-free player sold in the US:

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=493522

I bought my mum the Phillips MultiRegion DVD advertised on Amazon.com for Christmas. It comes from a dealer who has opened it up and modified it. The picture is fantastic and at less than $100 including shipping it can't be beat.

Finally my mum can watch all those "Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" and "Good Neighbors" DVDs I bring her back from the UK...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...onics&n=507846

(if this link doesn't work go to Amazon and search "Phillips region free")

I have hacked a Mintek 7" portable DVD and a Cyberhome 300 DVD player with remote control codes only. My husband updated his Compaq EVO laptop with firmware and made that region free as well.

Regions are a scam to make the rest of the world pay more for DVDs. I hate them.

Am just about to take delivery of a Compaq Evo nc8000... would be very grateful for link to where I can download firmware to make the DVD region free

If anyone is ever in NZ, for US$48 you can pick up a 2-channel multizone DVD player and stuff it in your luggage, hoping that your home customs dept doesn't catch it. See: http://tinyurl.com/4dkdv

In NZ, it's almost impossible to buy a DVD player that isn't multi-region.