Is it possible to get a multiregion dvd player for a laptop computer? If so, do you need any special software or anything (sorry, I’m very non computer savvy)?
If it’s not possible, is there any way that I can make my current player multiregion?
Thanks
[quote=“gcat”]Is it possible to get a multiregion dvd player for a laptop computer? If so, do you need any special software or anything (sorry, I’m very non computer savvy)?
If it’s not possible, is there any way that I can make my current player multiregion?
Thanks[/quote]
It is entirely possible that your player can be made multi-region, but we need to know the make/model (of the player, not your laptop). Let me know if you don’t know where to find out that information.
Irishstu. Thank you for your offer of help. I don’t know what model my dvd player is. My computer is a thinkpad R51, about two years old. Does that help?
Thanks
Did you already try to watch DVDs from diffrent regions with you laptop?
Yes I have tried, and sometimes it asks me to switch the region. I have three switches left I think. I have three programs to play media with (Windows media player, Intervideo WinDVD and Real Player). I bought the computer in Australia.
[quote=“gcat”]Irishstu. Thank you for your offer of help. I don’t know what model my dvd player is. My computer is a thinkpad R51, about two years old. Does that help?
Thanks[/quote]
Hey gcat, can you do the following?
Right-click on the “My Computer” icon on your desktop and choose “Properties”.
Now go to the “Hardware” section (look for the tab at the top), then click on “Device Manager”.
You will see a list of devices, Click on the “+” beside “DVD/CD-Rom Drives” and you will see the make/model of your player. Can you post it here?
Thanks,
Stu
If you download and run the small program on this site: remoteselector.com/driveinfo.htm
It will tell you about your DVD drive, and whether it’s region locked. You also might want to use this to test if the thing IrishStu is thinking of what I think he’s thinking of has worked.
Does anyone have any experience of these programs ? Remote Selector or Region Killer ? They haven’t been updated for a while.
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]If you download and run the small program on this site: remoteselector.com/driveinfo.htm
It will tell you about your DVD drive, and whether it’s region locked. You also might want to use this to test if the thing IrishStu is thinking of what I think he’s thinking of has worked.
Does anyone have any experience of these programs ? Remote Selector or Region Killer ? They haven’t been updated for a while.[/quote]
I still use Region Killer. Works fine for me, but it crashed my sister-in-law’s laptop every time. She now uses DVD Genie. Of course both of these require that your drive is already unlocked.
It says TEAC DW-225.
Unfortunately that one seems to be hard to break.
See here:
forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2000
RPC-2 means that it is region locked. Usually you can find an “RPC-1” version that someone has kindy made, but not in your drive’s case. So, don’t waste your time downloading that.
Sorry.
There is some software that can do the same job as DVD Region Kiler, EVEN for locked drives, but I’m not sure what’s currently available. Anyone?
I guess you could try the free trial of this:
dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm
If it works well for you, I guess you could pay the NT$1300 for the full version.
Would it actually be better just to buy a new DVD drive then? I’ve got some old flyers from Nova, that seem to say that a DVD drive (without burner) would cost about NT$600-800. With a burner they seem to range from NT$1200 to NT$8750!
If I were to buy a new one, how would I know if it is multiregion?
There are some that look like they are external DVD drives, are they ok?
[quote=“gcat”]Would it actually be better just to buy a new DVD drive then? I’ve got some old flyers from Nova, that seem to say that a DVD drive (without burner) would cost about NT$600-800. With a burner they seem to range from NT$1200 to NT$8750!
If I were to buy a new one, how would I know if it is multiregion?
There are some that look like they are external DVD drives, are they ok?[/quote]
No new DVD players/burners are region free.
Are there any that I could make region free? With your kind help, I’m afraid. 
Yes, some are easier than others.
Check out a few models, and then check on that site that I linked to about your player. If you see that there is an RPC-1 version of the firmware for that model, then you are in luck.
Irishstu. Thank you. I’ll go and have a look at Nova and the website, and see where that leaves me.
You’re welcome. Good luck, and feel free to ask more.
I’ve just tried remoteselector.com/ and had some sucess. When enabled, PowerDVD said the DVD was for all regions, when disabled, it said it was region 3 only. Then I popped in a region 1, no problem, and the region of my drive didn’t change. So it appeared to turn it in to a region free player.
You have to go to the “Control” tab and enable it, it doesn’t seem to be enabled when you start it
I have had a lot of success with Video Lan Client.
VLC’s method of playing DVDs is essentially one big hack which means it completely ignores region codes, etc. The cool thing about this is that you can skip through all the copyright messages and trailers at will (like things friggin well should be!) You will find certain DVDs (mainly the odd big blockbuster film) that will completely refuse to play but it deals happily with 90% of my discs.
[quote=“llary”]I have had a lot of success with Video Lan Client.
VLC’s method of playing DVDs is essentially one big hack which means it completely ignores region codes, etc. The cool thing about this is that you can skip through all the copyright messages and trailers at will (like things friggin well should be!) You will find certain DVDs (mainly the odd big blockbuster film) that will completely refuse to play but it deals happily with 90% of my discs.[/quote]I haven’t of that one before, but it seems to work
Another idea: If you’ve resigned yourself to getting an external drive anyway and if they’re cheap, don’t update the BIOS, just use it for playing region 1 DVDs on. You can change the region up to 5 times, so change it once to region 1 and leave it there. Use the internal one for region 3. You won’t really be region-free, just region 1 & 3.