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

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