Posted by Niall Leonard on 09/07/05 12:21

On 7 Sep 2005 04:10:34 -0700, turbo.bitz@gmail.com wrote:

>I've tried to play UK bought DVDs (Region 2) on my works laptop (An IBM
>T41 running XP) using the XP-supplied windows media player.
>
>Nothing, absolutely no-go! All that happens is that it tells me that
>the DVD cannot be played due to issues with the copyright protection.
>Of course, pirated DVDs play perfectly on my laptop, (So I'm told) so I
>guess it must be the copyright protection.
>
>So I've bought a pukka UK DVD and it won't play on my works laptop -
>does anyone know why or what I need to do/load in order to play them?
>
>Many thanks
>
>Artie


You need to do two things: flash the DVD drive firmware so that it
becomes region-free, and install a program like Region Killer that
will fool XP's region-enforcing software.

for firmware you could try:

http://www.firmware.fr.st/

This page also carries details of a program you can buy that will sort
all yor problems for $30. I have never used it, preferring freeware,
as I resent the fact that Win 98 used to play DVDs without making us
jump through these stupid hoops to please Sony and TimeWarner.

For region killing software you could try DVD Genie or DVD Region
Killer. I use the latter.

Oh and I suppose I should mention that you can play an R2 DVD without
this extra software and firmware. If you click on the Properties of
the DVD drive it will allow you to change the region four times. But
after that you're stuck with whichever region you chose last.


nl

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