FW Blu Ray/DVD Burner; bloody region code!

I love everything about my new Sony FW21Z


Except one thing.
They HAD to use a Mata UJ230AS drive didn't they?

A laptop by its very design is to be used as a portable computer, yet due to the nonsensical region coding, it means that when I go to the USA on buisness or vacation, I cannot use the DVD player!
These Matsu drives are the ONLY ones which cannot be modified to play any region.
Its unethical.
I can legitamately buy a dvd in the USA, putting money into Sony pictures coffers, yet Sony won.t allow me to play it on their laptop! My property!

So, what do I do? download the film/DVd and burn as a PAL, Sony makes no money off that, Take the film home and make a copy in PAL.

When the warranty is out, I will remove the piece of Matsu and put in a different Blu ray unit which sony will make no money off.

It leaves a nasty feeling towards Sony for what reason?
I have many Region 1 films going back years and I certainly would not buy Region 2 because Sony won't allow me to use my own goods.

Sorry, rant over!

 

the legal purchase grants you an end-user license to view the content on authorised equipment. you don't own the content itself.

the wrong Sony coffer actually. Sony Europe, financially, is a separate entity from Sony USA (as an example).

Sony is the co-creator and license holder of any and all Blu-ray technology. as such, the company will make money off you regardless.

anyways, it's unfortunate that region-coding exists for Blu-ray media. note, however, that many of these discs that were pressed last year and before didn't really have region-coding enforced. also, the region codes on Blu-ray are more broad than DVD (only three regions for Blu-ray versus more than seven for DVD).

 

Or, you could use this:

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html

 

Yes I have it, but it does not work with the Matsu drives, no software go around does.

It needs a firmeware hack and as of yet no firmware hack hads been created for any matsu drive.

 

With anydvd running in the background, have you tried creating an ISO image of the DVD?

 

Can you change the region code a few times like dvd drives or is it permanently set at the factory?

 

Just another reason to just download the bluray rips if you cant buy and play them legaly. Maybe someday they will realise this and stop the crappy region stuff.

 

Don't you know that Sony is anal about protecting movie/music copyrights? They have a Music/Movie (Columbia...) company & this is probably the reason they chose M A T S U S H I T A drives.

 

the region code can be changed a few times after which the firmware will forever lock the DVD player to the most recent region code setting.

 

I have the same problem and I´m thinking about replacing the drive.

Is it difficult? Is there any how-to-make-it in any thread of this forum?

Thanks in advance

 

There is no other 9.5mm blueray dvd drive except Matsu on the market, so it'll be a little bit difficult to replace it.

 

You can change the BD region code up to 5 times within the same Windows installation. After that, you will need to reformat, reinstall the OS and the player to make another change.

It is possible to make your BD player to be able to play 2 regions at the same time. But you need to have 2 different software players to do that.

You can change the DVD region code up to 5 times. After that, the region code is locked and you can not change it anymore even after reformatting and reinstalling the OS.

 

slightly off topic, but this did make me laugh!

Obama gave our Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a present a DVD box set of 25 American Clssic movies.
When he got back to Downing Street he put a disc on to watch a film and it would not play as the region coding was wrong!!

 

Id just like to throw this trick out as a possible option if your looking to make your Bluray Drive effectively region free.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/04/25/windvd-blu-ray-bd-dvd-region-free-reset/

Its a trick that requires you use WinDVD, and it requires you to delete a single file that stores your number of Bluray drives region changes. So every time your about to reach your limit of region changes you can delete the file and its reset.

Id wager this also resets the DVD region changes in this file too.

Like I said, its an option worth trying, I noticed that everyone is saying that type of Bluray drive you have is hardcore when it comes to region changes, but im pretty sure this should work since WinDVD seems to manage the region changes separately to the drives firmware.

And incase you dont know what WinDVD is: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1189528458632

I know the price wont stop some people, since this trick works for me, and I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FW26G, which I believe has a Optiarc Bluray drive just for anyone curious.

 

Thanks for that. I will give it a go.
The web site also makes a link to reset Cyberlink Power DVd
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...powerdvd-blu-ray-region-code-to-free-locking/

I will try this as I have this already installed

 

I thought most European DVD players could play region 1 discs? That's why I see a lot of Europeans at J&R in Manhattan buying the latest releases. Maybe he didn't set up his player properly for region 1 discs.

 

OFFICIALY European DVd players are region 2 only, Can't have the PM who supports region coding etc having a multi region player can we??

 

Yes, it doesn't work, the DVD is encrypted so AnyDVD won't recognise that the dvd drive is ready :-(

 

Agh well, tried it, no go, still wants hardware change. Bloddy mats h i t a drive!!
Need a hero who can hack teh firmware, but thats not looking good :-(

 

Thats borderline retarded of SONY to use that drive and lock you out of it. Im sorry mate, Im all out of ideas.

 

Thanks anyway.
Well, I will chnage the drive when its out of warranty and until then I will download both dvd and HD movies which will cost them more i'm afarid.
This anti multi region drive is only making law abiding people download and convert copies of the dvd's you wanted us to buy.

 

Thanks Visioneer

So hendra, with 3 different BD players I am able to play BD from the three regions A, B or C anytime I want, but that doesn´t work with the DVDs?

Thanks in advance

 

No, the Matsu drive does not allow this.
I have three different blu ray player software programmes loaded and its the region coding on the drive which overlays them all :-(

 

It's been like this for years with Sony ... not sure why people are surprised.

 

Yes. Unlike DVD, Blu-ray Region Code is controlled by the Software Player, not the Firmware or some other permanent hard-coded hardware.

http://www.emedialive.com/articles/readarticle.aspx?articleid=11760

"Computers, on the other hand, function differently. Rather than the BD drive containing RPC information, the region code is managed in the playback software, is set manually by the user and, optionally, may be changed up to five times."

 

Sorry hendra, that is not so with the Matsu drive in the Sony. I can attest that even having different software set to different regions, (Power DVD 8 set to UK, Total media Extreme set to USA) it will NOT allow me to play a USA region Blu Ray or DVD Region 1 without a change to the Matsu region setting.
The disc runs up and immediatly it request that I change the region code for the Matsu as it will not play on the software.

 

Are you sure you are trying to play Blu-ray and not DVD? Blu-ray has different region code than DVD. DVD has 9 region codes. Blu-ray has 3 and they are named differently. There is no such thing as Blu-ray Region 1. There are Blu-ray Region A, B and C and DVD Region 0, 1, 2 to 9.

You can change DVD Region Code from Device Manager. But you can not change Blu-Ray Region Code the same way from the Device Manager. Device Manager doesn't control Blu-ray Region Code, only DVD. That's why you Blu-ray Region Code can only be changed by the Software Player.

 

Yes, I put DVD Region 1 in my original post, talking about DVD playback. The matsu stops both Blu Ray A,B,C and DVD R1, 2, 3, 4 being used without making changes to the Matsu drive.
When you try to play either a Blu ray or a DVd from a different region, the Matsu drive wont let you do this without a chnage to its setting regardless of software used. It won't let you play it.
I have tried all software options including Any DVD and DVD region free, Power DVD 8, Win DVD, Total media extreme and none allow the playing of region coded discs away from what is set by the Matsu drive at the time.
The Matsu drive runs before the software can be used and refuses to play outside the regions set.

 

Thank you very much hendra , with PowerDVD I had set region B, and now with Intervideo WinDVD I have just changed to region A and now I´m able to play either A or B Blu-Ray discs.

So aja58, it´s strange but this works for me. By the way mi laptop is FW11J.