DVD Regions. Is it possible to change??

[shafghah]

Hey guys

I have a Vaio FR315s Notebook. I just wanted to know if there are any ways I can get other regions DVDs and watch them on my R2 laptop.
I know you have 5 attempts to change the DVD region but is there any way that you can take the limit away??
The thing is, there are some R1 DVDs that arent availabe here in the UK and I really really want to get a hold of them.
Any help??
Excuse my English.

[jammold]

Be careful when changing the DVD region on your computer. After 4 or 5 attempts, Windows XP will write a small amount of code to the DVD Drive so when the number of attempts reaches ZERO then both the DVD Drive and Windows XP will be locked at the last selected DVD region and no amount of recovery or formatting and installing Windows XP will work.

If you want to watch American disks (Region 1 or R1) then try getting region-free DVD decoder software from the internet, WinDVD for VAIO is not region-free. Google is your friend.

Or if anyone can give a link to useful software...

EDIT: LOL UK and Spanish disks are Region 2. Doh!

[robpaxton]

You should be able to use VLC player to play your region 1 DVDs.

[shafghah]

Oh right. So it's not a hardware thing this whole Region business. But Windows writes a code to the DVD drive to lock it. But if I use programs that don't do that, then it'll be fine??
Am I right?

[kee-lo_]

Correct

Region codes are controlled by software in your DVD drive, and this software ignore it and reads the disk as if it was region 2. This doesn't damage the drive (with VLC it doesn't)

[shafghah]

Cheers guys.:smileygrin: