Help? Laptop DVD regions

[onebigbadwulf]

I think I just screwed myself.

I spent my last laptop DVD region change to watch a copy of Fight Club which came from Britain.

Now, living in New Zealand, from America - I can't watch any DVDs whatsoever except those from Britain. This is ridiculous.

Anyone want to help me change the registry?

I've gotten this far:

Command prompt: regedit
Registry editor
My Computer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CONTROLSET001
ENUM
IDE
CdROM
5&########
Device Parameters

There I've found some default dvd stuff. Any ideas what to do now??

[brainshrub]

1. Here's how to fix it:

You'll need: A screw-driver & some electrical tape.

Step 1: Use the screw-driver to open the computer and take out the DVD player.

Step 2: Wrap the player up in the tape & replace.

Step 3: Go to the store and claim that when you bought the player, it was wrapped up in tape and can only play stuff from England.

Step 4: Thank Brainshrub.

[vivalarev]

2. Just make sure.....

that before you make any changes to your registry, you back it up first. messing with the registry is the single most dangerous thing you can do on your computer

[onebigbadwulf]

3. What about a total windows reinstall?

would that work?

[Liberal Veteran]

4. What is the type of DVD player?...there may be a region free hack.

Look in device manager and see what the id of the device is and I'll see what I can find for you.

[onebigbadwulf]

5. Here's the DVD player info

Off a Dell inspiron 1100


SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SN-324F


Thanks for the help!!

[Liberal Veteran]

8. I looked at some stuff, but the news isn't really good.

It looks like you could make your laptop a brick by trying to flash to firmware on that one (or make your drive non-functional). My understanding is that the region changes are made to the firmware so reinstalling Windows probably won't fix it.

I did find some software that MIGHT work to get around it, but I can't vouch for it.

Here's the link. They do have a downloadable trial, so you might test it out.


http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm

Wish I had better news than that.

[sir_captain]

10. that software works great

see my post below for information on VLC as well

[onebigbadwulf]

6. Update!! It says I have 2 changes left!!

This means the firmware isn't permanent yet!

Woo hoo. Thats what the properties in device manager say anyway.

This should help right??

[vivalarev]

7. update to what?

the reinstall would probably work though, but if you dont do it right, you could possibly lose your applications.

[sir_captain]

9. Not quite

the drive itself allows a few changes, as does the software. If either runs out (and they might not be the same number of changes) then you're sore out of luck.

Well, not exactly. There's a program here that allows you to bypass whatever you want: http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm

I've used it and it works very well. So that's one solution. Another is a freeware media player called VLC. It's a little buggy, but it allows you to watch DVDs from any region as well. Just search for it on google.

[onebigbadwulf]

11. thanx I'll look into it!

Much appreciated!