Posted by Oldus Fartus on 04/12/06 01:40

Jukka Aho wrote:
> 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.)
>

Yes, I have burned DVDs with region coding, both for my own use, to see
whether a DVD player I have considered buying is region free, or can be
made region free, or to send to friends overseas who want to check the
same thing before I send them our region discs. Yes, they do work as
intended.

Generally speaking I obviously burn region free.

> 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)."
>

Interesting articles, but obviously either out of date or ill informed.
To check for yourself download DVD Shrink, and load in a previously
authored DVD. When clicking on Backup, you will find a tab marked DVD
Region which allows you to "Select the regions in which you want your
backup to play, or select 'Region Free' to make a disc which will play
in all regions".

--
Cheers
Oldus Fartus

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