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| Registered: December 10, 2007 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 3,004 |
| | Posted: | | | | I'm wondering if Blu-ray region settings are drive-level or computer level. Could I put 2 BD drives in a PC, and make one region A and one region B? |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 1,774 |
| | Posted: | | | | AFAIK the drives have no BD region restriction, but the software players (PowerDVD etc.) are restricted. Only 5 changes possible.
So you either need two different software players or some software that breaks the region coding. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 |  Posts: 2,692 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Ace_of_Sevens: Quote:
I'm wondering if Blu-ray region settings are drive-level or computer level. Could I put 2 BD drives in a PC, and make one region A and one region B? it would probably be cheaper to use AnyDVDHDAlthough I bought a lifetime licence for upgrades so am not limited to a year/2 years/etc. (just noticed you can still buy a lifetime licence..)  | | | | Paul | | | | Last edited: by pauls42 |
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| Registered: December 10, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 3,004 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting pauls42: Quote:
Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:
Quote:
I'm wondering if Blu-ray region settings are drive-level or computer level. Could I put 2 BD drives in a PC, and make one region A and one region B?
it would probably be cheaper to use AnyDVDHD
Although I bought a lifetime licence for upgrades so am not limited to a year/2 years/etc.
(just noticed you can still buy a lifetime licence..) Not if you needed two optical drives anyway and it was a matter of upgrading DVD-ROM to BD-ROM. AnyDVD HD is rather expensive and gets beaten by new copy protection now and then and takes a while to catch up. If I just need a second software player, it's even cheaper. | | | | Last edited: by Ace_of_Sevens |
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| Registered: March 18, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 2,550 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Ace_of_Sevens: Quote:
Quoting pauls42:
Quote:
Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:
Quote:
I'm wondering if Blu-ray region settings are drive-level or computer level. Could I put 2 BD drives in a PC, and make one region A and one region B?
it would probably be cheaper to use AnyDVDHD
Although I bought a lifetime licence for upgrades so am not limited to a year/2 years/etc.
(just noticed you can still buy a lifetime licence..)
Not if you needed two optical drives anyway and it was a matter of upgrading DVD-ROM to BD-ROM. AnyDVD HD is rather expensive and gets beaten by new copy protection now and then and takes a while to catch up. If I just need a second software player, it's even cheaper. Really? I've had it for a couple of years and get discs early and it has no problem decrypting any of them (note: I use it to get screen caps off of BDs). And when something new does come along, it doesn't take long for an update to appear. | | | | Last edited: by The Movieman |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 1,136 |
| | Posted: | | | | Rather famously AnyDVD once cracked a new BluRay key a week before it was to go live...
I know with DVD drives, I used to run two of them, one to be USA/Canada set, the other UK set (mainly because the one in the pc had region locked to USA)
Nice thing was, when I got AnyDVD, it worked on both, and since getting a BluRay drive'd PC, I am glad I shelled out for the HD version (lifetime updates, and cheaper then too) | | | Signature? We don't need no stinking... hang on, this has been done... blast [oooh now in Widescreen]
Ah... well you see.... I thought I'd say something more interesting... but cannot think of anything..... oh well
And to those of you who have disabled viewing of these signature files "hello" (or not) Registered: July 27, 2004 |
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| Registered: March 29, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 4,479 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting TheMovieman: Quote:
... I use it to get screen caps off of BDs. And when something new does come along, it doesn't take long for an update to appear. I too use AnyDVD to take screen caps of BD, and had quite no problem. In rare cases, I had to wait a few days for a new update, which are quite frequent. I had more problems with KMplayer and VLC: generally both work, but sometimes one of both does not work. The only problem I had was with "D.O.A." where none worked. I could read the movie with PowerDVD, which cannot take screen caps. The problem was solved with a KMplayer update. | | | | Images from movies |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 6,744 |
| | Posted: | | | | I use AnyDVDHD because otherwise it doesn't let me play Blu-rays on my computer because my LCD is not "HDMI-safe". | | | Karsten
DVD Collectors Online
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 1,136 |
| | Posted: | | | | Oh, and if you are feeling brave - and you reallllly want to watch that BluRay (or screen cap it) - check out the AnyDVD forums, as they often have beta versions available there. | | | Signature? We don't need no stinking... hang on, this has been done... blast [oooh now in Widescreen]
Ah... well you see.... I thought I'd say something more interesting... but cannot think of anything..... oh well
And to those of you who have disabled viewing of these signature files "hello" (or not) Registered: July 27, 2004 |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 3,197 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Ace_of_Sevens: Quote:
Not if you needed two optical drives anyway and it was a matter of upgrading DVD-ROM to BD-ROM. AnyDVD HD is rather expensive and gets beaten by new copy protection now and then and takes a while to catch up. If I just need a second software player, it's even cheaper. I paid $30 for a lifetime licence back in 2007.  So yeah, it has become more expensive, but I've never once had a blu-ray it wouldn't "crack". I don't use it to make copies though, but to beat the HDMI-DRM crap that prevents my monitor from displaying it... | | | | First registered: February 15, 2002 | | | | Last edited: by Nexus the Sixth |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 756 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting SpaceFreakMicha: Quote:
AFAIK the drives have no BD region restriction, but the software players (PowerDVD etc.) are restricted. Only 5 changes possible.
So you either need two different software players or some software that breaks the region coding. So it seems to be the exact opposite to DVD drives, which have always had the "5 region changes then locked" constraint? (Unless one gets a "hacked" firmware for the drive) And if BDs have software coding, why do we need a hardware mod to decode "other region" BDs? | | | | Chris |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 6,744 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Mole: Quote:
So it seems to be the exact opposite to DVD drives, which have always had the "5 region changes then locked" constraint? (Unless one gets a "hacked" firmware for the drive)
And if BDs have software coding, why do we need a hardware mod to decode "other region" BDs? It is opposite. With a DVD the player asks the disc what region it is and then decides whether to play it. That's the reason "all region" players were so quickly available (at least in Europe). They simple didn't ask the disc. To prevent this "debacle" for Blu-rays they did it the other way around. Now the software on the disc asks the player which code it has and it either answers correctly or not. In order to circumvent that you need a player that answers with the right region "on request". But that is prevented by the License you need to build a BR player. Hence the mod chip. | | | Karsten
DVD Collectors Online
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 756 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting DJ Doena: Quote:
Quoting Mole:
Quote:
So it seems to be the exact opposite to DVD drives, which have always had the "5 region changes then locked" constraint? (Unless one gets a "hacked" firmware for the drive)
And if BDs have software coding, why do we need a hardware mod to decode "other region" BDs?
It is opposite. With a DVD the player asks the disc what region it is and then decides whether to play it. That's the reason "all region" players were so quickly available (at least in Europe). They simple didn't ask the disc.
To prevent this "debacle" for Blu-rays they did it the other way around. Now the software on the disc asks the player which code it has and it either answers correctly or not.
In order to circumvent that you need a player that answers with the right region "on request". But that is prevented by the License you need to build a BR player. Hence the mod chip. Most interesting, Karsten, thanks So, if I understand correctly, that must mean that the region is hard-coded in the BD Player, otherwise you "would be able" to patch the BD soft-coded firmware. Am I thinking on the right lines, or have I missed something  | | | | Chris | | | | Last edited: by Mole |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 6,744 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Mole: Quote:
So, if I understand correctly, that must mean that the region is hard-coded in the BD Player, otherwise you "would be able" to patch the BD soft-coded firmware. I don't know exactly how it's done. It could be in a ROM (read-only memory) area of the firmware. | | | Karsten
DVD Collectors Online
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 756 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting DJ Doena: Quote:
Quoting Mole:
Quote:
So, if I understand correctly, that must mean that the region is hard-coded in the BD Player, otherwise you "would be able" to patch the BD soft-coded firmware.
I don't know exactly how it's done. It could be in a ROM (read-only memory) area of the firmware. Yes, could be hard-coded in ROM or even just by wire links on the PCB (coincidentally, I was today looking at the wiring diagrams of one of our spacecraft's hard-coded parameters. In this case it was done by short wire links in the Command/Telemetry harness). Interesting stuff! Cheers Chris | | | | Chris | | | | Last edited: by Mole |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 3,197 |
| | Posted: | | | | Modifying the Oppo is a piece of cake, just replace an internal wire with a new one that has a small PCB. I assume it is a small logic chip that monitors the remote control signals and sets the region accordingly.  | | | | First registered: February 15, 2002 | | | | Last edited: by Nexus the Sixth |
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