Re: DVD Region

It's hard to read posts that intermingle great chunks of pasted text with commentary, without flagging which is which. Providing URLs to the source is more helpful.

The article below describes how the default region is set, but I don't think it is applicable when you've been using the device for a few years.

Finally I don't see a description of the problem you're trying to fix, only that of the person Jono who had some other(?) DVD region-related problem.

reinhold wrote:
Initial Region Selection in Windows 2000/Windows XP
In Windows 2000/Windows XP, the following registry key should be created and set to the desired default DVD region for each DVD-ROM drive:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Class\ <CDROM GUID>\ <instance number>\ DefaultDVDRegion (binary)
Because there may be multiple DVD-ROM drives, the proper way to set the keys is to enumerate all devices of class CDROM (using the GUID), then iterate through each one, setting the appropriate default region (see the sample code available for download at the beginning of this article). This is the preferred method, because region settings created on an RPC1 system by inserting a single-region disc will be reset by the OPK.
For RPC1 drives, the first time a DVD title is played or the DVD-ROM drive is accessed in any manner, Windows 2000 selects a region for the drive. The default region key is used if it matches one of the regions of the disc or if there is no disc in the drive. Otherwise, the lowest numbered region on the disc is used.
For RPC2 drives, the first time a DVD title is played or the DVD-ROM drive is accessed and it contains a disc, Windows 2000 sets a region if none is set. That is, region setting only occurs if a disc is in the drive. The default region key is used if it matches one of the regions of the disc. Otherwise, the lowest numbered region on the disc is used. This will use one of the allowed region changes in firmware. Once a region is set for an RPC2 drive, it is not changed by a reinstallation or clean installation of the operating system.
If the user installs a new drive later, the same procedure will take effect.

The above is from Microsofts site about making a registry entry to correct problems with DVDs not having a region selected. It is pretty cryptic, and am not sure what the entry in the registry should be. This information was not written for the average computer user, so would like information on what code should actually be put in the registry to correct the problem.

Ron Geiken

"Mike Williams" wrote:

It's a year of so since Chris last posted here. In general there's not much that Windows can do about region-issues since the settings reside in the device's firmware. You either need to find a hack for the firmware to overcome region-issues or try running other software like DVD Idle.

The only way to solve the issue for good is to get region settings eliminated from DVD devices.

reinhold wrote:
Hi Chris,

I have posted on this site. The problem I have is my Memorex CD/DVD recorder player works OK except for DVD-R +R. This is an external device. I checked in Device Manager, and it shows that no region is set, and XP will not allow me to make any setting. Comes up with box about not having Administration permission, but I am the administrator of my computer. There is something on the Microsoft web site about making a registry entry to force the DVD region to go to 1 or whatever other region you want. I haven't tried to make it yet, since the information if pretty cryptic, and can't figure out exactly how to do it. The DVD player has worked fine for a couple of years, and it is only in the past week or so that I noticed the problem. I would like to get this fixed once and for all. There are a lot of fixed out on the internet to try to work around this problem, but would like to do it the correct way and solve it for good.

Ron Geiken

"Chris Lanier [MVP]" wrote:

I'm not sure if your problem is not wanting to change it, or not be able to.
There is generally a limit set by your drive's firmware so you can change it
5 times. After 5 it will lock at the last region it was on. There are many
applications that can be used to get around this, search Google if you wish.

--
Chris Lanier
Microsoft MVP - Digital Media
---
"jono" <jono@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0822CD86-B920-49D1-974A-D49D7E04BF7A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To any users that face the same problem

I've been using my media player to watch different dvds from different
region and sturggle to change back to the usual region in Australia .. Does
anybody have any idea with this problem at all ?

.

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