Are DVD drives region-free for life?

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    May 2005
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    Are DVD drives region-free for life?

    Just bought a DVD-RW from WCC and was told that all drives are now region-free for life. That is it will not prompt you for a change to the region and only do this five times. I watched a region 1 movie last night and would you believe it a prompt came up to change to region 1 (I usually watch region 3 movies). The prompt also reminded me that I have five changes remaining. Have I been told a porky?


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
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    Sounds like you may well of been or the hack hasn't been configured on the drive yet.

    its usually 5 times on software based dvd players unless you get some sort of region free hack on it. best bet is to do a quick google search for your make and model and take it from there.


  3. #3

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    May 2005
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    I thought as much.

    To warn you all the shop is on the 1st floor of WCC, up the escalators, straight ahead to the PDA shop, turn left then left down the impossible-to-navigate corridor and it's the second shop on the right. There are usually two guys and a girl. The girl is the dodgy one - all smiles until you've paid. She tried to sell me an NEC model then when I agreed she took my money and then found it out of stock. She offered the ASUS model which I then agreed to and on getting home found it was missing the manual, warranty card and cable (all I wanted was the warranty card). I went back and got the manual, no cable and was told that the warranty is on the box. Got home and found it was not. Went back and the b***h looked at me like I had leprosy. One of the other guys found my warranty under a pile of papers. Great service eh! Don't say I didn't tell you so.


  4. #4

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    Apr 2003
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    What drive do you have?

    I usually buy my stuff from a couple second floor shop.

    You might be able to flash it to become region free.


  5. #5

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    May 2005
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    It's an ASUS DRU-1608P3S. Which shop is it?


  6. #6

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    Don't have a receipt -- will be going back to WCC to buy some stuff tommorrow, will get you the name.


  7. #7

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    Wanna do lunch?


  8. #8

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    http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?...52f080bbe71232

    The folks over at rpc1 have been able to flash most drives to region free versions.

  9. #9

    I use betanews.com to find lots of useful software. I ran across some software to "unregionize" your dvd drive that you might find useful. Its freeware.

    http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...r/1021575740/1

    If that doesn't work you can go through the list of DVD software. Some have some good reviews. This site is great since lots of people review software so you know if its got spyware or just doesn't work. Doesn't promote paid software more than free software either so you get a good bang for your buck.

    http://fileforum.betanews.com/browse...&sortby=rating


  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    334

    most of the new DVD drive is "hardware lock" on the region
    the best way to override them is to visit

    http://www.rpc1.org

    to search "region free firmware patch" for your DVD drive


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