Vista region coding maddness

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Nety

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#9793 13-Oct-2006 13:32

OK have just become aware of some maddness by Microsoft...

In Vista media centre and media player DVD drives without region coding or RC1 drives will not play region coded DVDs!!!

however they will play region free DVDs.

So what this means is that I will be able to play DVDs for region 4 DVDs in my drive that is coded for region 4 but I cannot play my legal region 1,2 etc. DVDs. However I CAN play ripped (so no region coding) DVDs!!!! So in affect they are making it more difficult for those that are buying legal DVD's and not affecting those that are breaking the law.. NICE ONE MICROSOFT!!

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NokiaRocks

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#48567 13-Oct-2006 13:44

DVD regions are a joke anyway

JAMMAN2110

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#48568 13-Oct-2006 13:44

Awesome! I never saw the point of 'regions' anyway... other than

bradstewart

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#48577 13-Oct-2006 15:12

Nety: OK have just become aware of some maddness by Microsoft...
In Vista media centre and media player DVD drives without region coding or RC1 drives will not play region coded DVDs!!! however they will play region free DVDs.

So what this means is that I will be able to play DVDs for region 4 DVDs in my drive that is coded for region 4 but I cannot play my legal region 1,2 etc. DVDs. However I CAN play ripped (so no region coding) DVDs!!!! So in affect they are making it more difficult for those that are buying legal DVD's and not affecting those that are breaking the law.. NICE ONE MICROSOFT!!

How is this Microsofts fault?

The region coding is actually in the drive itself. You have always been able to play region free or region 4 only. Vista hasnt changed this.

grant_k

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#48578 13-Oct-2006 15:18

bradstewart: How is this Microsofts fault?

Precisely! It's the media moguls in Hollywood who are to blame for this extortion. They get to make much more money from their DVDs by delaying the releases for each region after the date they are released in the US (region 1 of course...).

It's yet another example of a technology that is being bypassed by the internet. Good job I say

bradstewart

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#48580 13-Oct-2006 15:29

If you somehow managed to region encode and protect your home made DVDs.... Then use SlySoft AnyDVD to get around that... Also good for removing any anti-piracy warnings and trailers you may have inserted

grant_k

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#48581 13-Oct-2006 15:36

bradstewart: If you somehow managed to region encode and protect your home made DVDs

Yeah, I'm sure people often manage to do that by mistake... LOL

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Nety

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#48583 13-Oct-2006 15:40

I think you’ve missed the point. Currently if you have a drive that is region free (hardware region free) either out of the box or via a firmware upgrade Windows will play DVDs from any region or region free DVDs quite happily. Microsoft basically left it up to the hardware manufacturers to worry about the region coding.

This was already stricter then any of the manufacturers of DVD players most of whom produce DVD players as they are multi region out of the box or if locked at all most can be easily unlocked with remote codes etc.

What Microsoft have now done is to make it so that region free RC1 DVD drives will not work in windows on ANY LEGAL DVD (unless the DVD is region free). However they will work just fine with any IILEGAL DVD!

I would not have a problem with the idea if it made it harder for people that pirate DVDs but the point is that once again the people that will suffer are those that have paid for their DVDs and those that have pirated them will not be inconvenienced at all

Nety

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#48584 13-Oct-2006 15:43

By the way it sounds like tool like AnyDVD will not work under Vista as they have changed how the region lock works.

bradstewart

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#48585 13-Oct-2006 15:46

Well I'm using Vista at the moment and have AnyDVD sitting in the tray.... it works fine