| 
	
 | 
 Posted by Jukka Aho on 04/11/06 23:36 
Oldus Fartus wrote: 
 
>> What it doesn't help you with, though, is testing whether you player 
>> can play back Region 2 discs - which is yet another thing. Common 
>> consumer DVD-R media doesn't allow region coding, so regions can 
>> only be easily tested with a factory-pressed disc. 
 
> You can burn a Region 2 or any other region disc using DVD Shrink 
> (with Nero). The program allows you to make the burn region free or 
> for a specific region. 
 
Have you ever tried authoring and burning a region-restricted DVD-R  
yourself - from scratch? If so, did the region restrictions work as  
intended? (Ripped commercial DVDs should be left out of this discussion  
as they may have "enhanced" region checking schemes - implemented as DVD  
VM command sequences - which can muddle up things quite a bit.) 
 
My understanding is that the common "DVD-R for General Purpose" media  
(which is what the ordinary people use) simply doesn't support region  
coding - like it doesn't support most of the other DVD copying/viewing  
restriction mechanisms, either (such as Macrovision, CSS, or CPRM.) 
 
The more exotic "DVD-R for Authoring" media supports these features,  
save for CSS, but in order to use DVD-R(A) blanks you would need a  
special DVD-R(A) drive as the DVD-R(A) blanks are designed for a  
different laser wavelength. No ordinary people in their right mind will  
buy DVD-R(A) drives and special DVD-R(A) media because their price is  
higher, their availability is poorer and they don't really offer any  
advantages to ordinary people, anyway. 
 
See, for example: 
 
<http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/Files/DVDR_whitepaper.pdf> 
 
and 
 
<http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/267/pioneer-dvrao3.html> 
 
"In terms of media, the DVR-A03 offers support for DVD-R for general  
purpose rather than DVD-R for authoring, which is supported by the S201.  
The main difference, which will be of no real concern to the home user,  
is that with general-purpose media you can't write region encoding, CSS  
copy protection or Macrovision copy protection to the discs." 
 
or 
 
<http://www.digistor.com.au/content.php?s=5&p=95> 
 
"There are two types of DVD-R drives and media. DVD-R for Authoring is  
supported by the DVR-S201 and is appropriate for someone who wants to  
create a disc that can be used as a master at a duplication house. This  
is called the Cutting Master Format (aka CMF). It supports setting  
region codes and using copy protection. DVD-R for General is supported  
by the DVR-A05U and is appropriate for someone who only wants to create  
a few copies of a disc and doesn't need to send the disc to a  
duplication house or set region codes. The correct media must be used  
with the appropriate drive (i.e. DVD-R for Authoring discs with a DVD-R  
for Authoring compatible drive)." 
 
--  
znark
 
  
Navigation:
[Reply to this message] 
 |