Region 2 DVDs

The Non-Professional · Post by **The Non-Professional** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 1:16 pm

I think this topic should go here, Ive never posted here so I wouldnt know. Anywho Im going to buy a Region 2 DVD. I know those DVDs are only for europe japan and the middle east, well what I was wondering is if I could play that DVD on my DVD player. Is there anyway I could find out, and if it cant is there anyplace I could get ahold of a DVD player that can play it.

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 1:53 pm

Your regular set-top DVD player? Most likely not, if it's a standard one. Most all DVD players most people own are locked to play R1 DVDs only. You'll need either a R2 player or a player capable (either out-of-the-box or with a firmware upgrade) of playing R2 discs (i.e., 'region free').

You -should- be able to get it to play/rip on your computer though somewhat more easily- I think most drives these days can be updated to allow multi-region access.

FurryCurry · Post by **FurryCurry** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 2:05 pm

Most typical off the shelf DVD players sold in the US will NOT play R2 DVD's without having their firmware or hardware hacked. The only one I know of is the Apex AD600A from about 3 years ago, and they got in trouble for having a secret menu that could disable region coding & macrovision, and had to revise their model to get rid of that.

That said, there are firmware hacks and such for certain players, and it is also possible to buy already region free players from places like yesasia, like this.

If you just want to rip the DVDs for source, DVD decrypter will probably be able to use brute force cracking to extract the vobs.

I had an old 6x samsung drive lying around, and didn't mind officially changing it's code, so I use that for R2 DVD's, and have the option of region freeing them with DVD decrypter, allowing me to burn a region free DVDR in my main drive, and play the discs on my non-region-free standalone player.

You might also investigate DVDRhelp (formerly VCDhelp) to learn more about all this.

The Non-Professional · Post by **The Non-Professional** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:16 pm

Im not so much interested in ripping it (Altho I probably would if I had a DVD Rom) as is I want to watch it. But I guess my only hope is ripping it right?

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:26 pm

Not necessarily, if you've got a bit of money. Check out the site FC mentioned (DVDRHelp)- most of the cheap Apex players can be firmware updated. Mine was like $60 at Wal-Mart.

AtomicWeezleman · Post by **AtomicWeezleman** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:13 pm

u can always inport a multi region dvd player from england, god knows theres enought of them, alternately, if you have a dvd-rom, you can get hack of the web to allow you to change the region code as many times as you want(throught experience, they generaly only allow you to change region 5 times)

AtomicWeezleman · Post by **AtomicWeezleman** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:15 pm

thats without the hack by the way, not with it (unlimited region change with it) but out of interest why, most region 2 dvds are released as region 1 first, then as region 2, (unless you count the anime released in japan but hey, you dont have to wait that long for it to get released as region 10

The Non-Professional · Post by **The Non-Professional** » Sun Mar 23, 2003 12:25 am

The reason Im asking is because Im probably going to order

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=CRBP-10004

That soon and I wanted to know how I could play it.

Ashton · Post by **Ashton** » Mon Mar 24, 2003 12:50 am

Well, with the R2 DVDs I own I can play them, but only on my computer after cracking the firmware and then using DVD genie on my software. Plus the cracked firmware reduced compatability for some wierd reason. The funny thing I found was, if you just use DVD Decryptor on normal firware without any DVD genie business with an R2 DVD, it rips with only a very small bit of hassle. How strange.

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Mon Mar 24, 2003 12:58 am

FurryCurry wrote:Most typical off the shelf DVD players sold in the US will NOT play R2 DVD's without having their firmware or hardware hacked. The only one I know of is the Apex AD600A from about 3 years ago, and they got in trouble for having a secret menu that could disable region coding & macrovision, and had to revise their model to get rid of that.

That said, there are firmware hacks and such for certain players, and it is also possible to buy already region free players from places like yesasia, like this.

If you just want to rip the DVDs for source, DVD decrypter will probably be able to use brute force cracking to extract the vobs.

I had an old 6x samsung drive lying around, and didn't mind officially changing it's code, so I use that for R2 DVD's, and have the option of region freeing them with DVD decrypter, allowing me to burn a region free DVDR in my main drive, and play the discs on my non-region-free standalone player.

You might also investigate DVDRhelp (formerly VCDhelp) to learn more about all this.

I have that apex.

*watches R2 memories dvd* 8)