DVD software... Region 1 vs 2

I have a number of DVD's I like very much from when I was living in Europe, so they are region 2. But living here in the US most of my DVD's are Region 1.

For the moment I am watching them with a friend on her laptop, a Samsung she bought when living in Germany. Her software, I think it is called Powerplay..but I am not sure...only allows her to switch regions 3 times. Currently it's set to play Region 1. It also often does not play DVD's we rent (or ones that I have bought recently and we were playing for the first time.)

So she often turns on Windows Media Player to play the DVD's that don't play with the software provided by Samsung. I don't quite understand this (neither does she). The Samsung software will recognize the DVD, open it, run through all the warnings (like the FBI warnings) go to the start screen and play whatever scenes for the setup the manufacturers of the DVD decide to put there. But when she presses "play movie" (or whatever) she gets a message (in German so I am not sure quite what it says and she is Armenian so the translation is not precise) that says something like it can't read the DVD...which it obviously already has up to that point.

So apart from that mystery, when she goes to play the DVD with Windows media player..it also gives an option of switiching between regions a limited number of times.

So I was wondering....I am assuming the region 1 vs 2 thing is only software and nothing to do with the functioning of the hardware. Is it possible to have one software to set for Region 1 and another set for region 2 and both play DVD's from their respective region?

Windows Media Player is not as good a player as the Power Play or whatever the software that comes with the Samsung is called. The picture does not seem as sharp. Frankly, I was not able to observe this too well, but she says that Windows Media Player is not as good a sthe other software and she only uses it when the other software won't play a DVD, whihc seems to be 1 out of every 2 times or maybe even more often...at least in my experience. But I have only watched a half a dozen DVD's on her player.

So what do people think?

1. Can we set one software for Region 1 and another for Region 2 and not worry about some conflict or automatic switching back and forth for both software when we chnage the region foe one of them?

2. Do people have another software to recommend for watching DVD's on a laptop DVD player? since these two both seem ot have their drawbacks?

3. Does anybody have a clue as to why the one software won't play and actual movie on the DVD half the time, when Windows Media Player will?

 

this should work

 

On some dvd drives, Windows will allow you to change the region, but only like 4 times, and then it locks it in for good (until you reinstall Windows, I think, but there might be a registry hack for this, not sure...), so do not change it this way. The best software I have seen (and used) is DVD Region-Free, which just runs in the background allows you to use whatever DVD software you want with whatever DVD region you need. It also lets you skip all the annoying warnings and previews and just go straight to the menu. Of course, not all drives will allow this (apparently Matsu****as like mine won't...), so you'll have to check on compatibility.

 

The region code is set on the drive and not in Windows. AnyDVD works as well.

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

 

Best site in the world (for comparing DVDs between regions )

If you are serious about your films, it pays to do this. Typically each region gets different sound and picture as well as extras. Also there may be different cuts, due to the differing censorship. See why I own both Kill Bill 1 (UK) and Kill Bill 1 (Jap)

Edit: old thread. Found it whilst searching, but thought I'd give a shameless bump to a great site that has helped me in many a purchase and which also answers the thread

 

www.dvdidle.com

This gets past all region coding, after that the choice of software to use is really upto you.

Sounds like Powerplay or whatever it's called might not be the best, I quite like Nero for a "simple" interface, or use Zoom Player for my main stuff (highly customizable, perhaps too much so)

 

Yup. That's what I use also.

 

I use this to bypass any DVD Region...it's free...