Is there a CURRENT list of Region free DVD players [HARDWARE]

[SHiP]

I know of the older [and now really OBSOLETE] DVD region free units such as:

Pioneer 103S IDE (slot in),
Hitachi GD-2500,
Toshiba SDM-1212, and
Samsung SDR-606B

But these units either are almost impossible to attain now or have SERIOUS problems with windoze 2000 and higher drivers.

Does anyone have a new list of region free units such as these older ones that can be attained at the local CompUSA or computer trade show?

[joegib]

Since 2000 computer DVD drive manufacturers have been obliged to include region-protection. If they don't do this, they don't get a licence to use the necessary DVD decoding methods. Off-the-shelf region-free DVD drives haven't been manufactured since then.

[SHiP]

Then let me try me try my question this way

Is there a simple configuration that those of us on the PC could create with simple current off the shelf products such as "Creative PC-DVD Encore 12X w/ Dxr3 - IDE / EIDE" and a software override products such as "Remote Selector" that would be enough to permit a relatively modern system (say a Pentium 4 1.4 Gig with a wide enough bus) to decode, process and play Region2 DVDs easily -- WITHOUT fear of having the system revert to a R1 only system or triggering the countdown to a permanent switch over to whatever region is being used at the time that 5th change is engaged?

If this is NOT enough could you recommend a definite DVD subsystem for the PC that would be able to allow the relatively new machine to play and read Region2 DVD easily with no need to having go and get a secondary system.

I would rather NOT buy an entire new single unit DVD unit such as the Daewoo DVD-5900 or Sampo DVE-612.

Thanks again for your help!

[joegib]

There's a good FAQ covering the options on this very site:

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/region.html

Put briefly, most people flash their drives with patched firmware to overcome hardware region-protection. In addition you have to overcome region-protection in your software player (WinDVD or Power DVD) using a utility such as DVD Genie or Region Killer. This provides the basic ability to view all region DVDs on the computer. If your graphic card has TV output you should be able to view films on your TV set-up. However, you may need to overcome yet another level of region-protection in the graphic card. Can't help much with this as I've no direct experience.

In fact I use a system similar to the one you mention to drive my TV i.e. Hollywood+ (Sigma Designs) MPEG decoder PCI card via S-video cable to VCR input. I use a utility called Zone Selector to overcome region-protection in the Hollywood card (I believe the Creative card is a re-badged Hollywood card). But, for this to work you still need to flash patched firmware to the DVD drive first.

[SHiP]

But is firmware worth the risk of the drive?

>In addition you have to overcome region-protection in your software player
>(WinDVD or Power DVD) using a utility such as DVD Genie or Region Killer.
>This provides the basic ability to view all region DVDs on the computer.

AYE -- now there 'en lay the rub --

Too many horror stories have been produced on this very board about second rate software units (and that is all firmware REALLY is software that is directly applied to the mechanics rather than run secondarily through some sort of kernel based OS) that kills the drive. Many manufacturers -- in order to enforce the DVD region restrictions -- booby trap their DVD drives so that any attempt at upgrades produces terrible results, usually resulting in the actual destruction of the coding of the drive rending it literally unusable.

I'm trying to avoid that situation if possible with as simple a set up that I can gleen from the experience and comprehensions that people here have already gone through.

I mean for example the simple Creative DVD card that I mentioned is approximately US$150 STILL though this is NOT the latest DVD controlling system for the PC at this time and if the firmware device is NOT properly aligned with the system and many of the DVD drives themselves as well as their controlling cards can easily be rendered so much dead material if loaded with a code that the system is designed to reject no matter how well designed the firmware replacement is.

Thus is there a dedicated simple to construct system that one can recommend that would take MOST -- if not ALL -- of the risk out of such an investment for a good midrange PC system to be allowed to play mutliple regioned DVD easily?

[joegib]

A few points:

1. Flashing firmware to a drive isn't rocket science. If you've ever flashed a new BIOS version to a motherboard, you can flash firmware to a DVD drive so long as you follow the words and music. Most of the horror stories on these pages involve people who don't understand the basics and do stuff like running flash programs designed for DOS under Windows, killing their drives as a result. Still, I can understand that some people prefer a safer alternative.

2. If you're content to play films on your computer you don't even need an MPEG card or graphic card with TV output — a 1.4 Gig Intel plus software player is plenty fast enough for this purpose.

3. Looking at the Remote Selector site here:

http://www.remoteselector.com/download.htm

-- it seems that it will do what you want without flashing your drive. It's supposed to work with both hardware and software decoders. There's a demo version so why not give it a try.