You can try installing third-party firmware on your laptop's DVD drive that disables its region locking. Lastly, there is a nuclear option of sorts. And while this solution has its advantages (chief among them is that watching movies off your hard drive uses far less battery life than reading them from an optical disc), it puts you in a legal gray area–ironic, considering such actions are necessitated by the studios' attempts to crack down on criminals. Of course, if this sounds complicated, and you don't want to deal with it (and really, why would you?), there are plenty of programs for both Macs and PCs that allow you to rip DVD movies onto your hard drive. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if it will work on your system until you try. The DVD drives on different computers (including various Macs) come from diverse manufacturers, and VLC plays out-of-region discs on some, but not all of them. I recommend downloading VLC, an open-source media player that sometimes circumvents region encoding. Windows users have the most options, the best of which is probably Remote Selector-a free software utility that interacts with your DVD-playing program, allowing it to play DVDs from any region. Fortunately, some clever programmers have created software solutions that circumvent disc regions entirely, turning your notebook into a portable multiregion DVD player. Watching that one Jet Li movie just burned up two of your five switches-and not even reinstalling your operating system will get you more. Try switching this setting more than a fixed number of times (typically five over the entire life span of the computer), and the setting will be locked forever.įor example, if you switch from Region 1 (the United States and Canada) to Region 3 (parts of Asia) to watch a kung-fu flick you picked up on a trip to Hong Kong, you'll have to switch back to Region 1 before playing any movies you purchased at your local Best Buy. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playĪlthough laptop DVD drives are technologically capable of playing any DVD, they typically force you to switch among region settings to play imported discs. That's why the most frustrating part of region codes is the way they affect laptop DVD players. And if you are the jet-setting type who is likely to pick up foreign flicks in the first place, you probably want to watch them on the go using your laptop. They are perfectly legal, but they tend to be pricey and rare. There are some multiregion DVD players out there. However, because pirates rarely resell legitimate copies of movies (they are pirates, after all), this system's primary effect is to prevent movie collectors and frequent travelers from enjoying legally purchased films once they get home. Basically, it helps them release the same movie in different parts of the world-at different times and for different prices. If you believe the movie studios, this encryption is a necessary tool in the ongoing war against piracy. Is there any way around this?Ī: Most commercial DVDs use encryption that keeps them locked to one or more "region codes," meaning the discs you pick up in other continents usually won't play on an American DVD player. However, my laptop DVD player only allows me to switch "regions" a fixed number of times. Q: I have a large collection of imported DVDs.
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