NOT CODEFREE DVD

[jayzh]

Hello,

Few days ago i've bought a VGN-SZ3XP. I'm very happy until I tried to run a japanese DVD on my preinstalled InterVideo WinDVD.
It's say following:"Playback prohibited by area limitations."

What can I do? I travel a lot (business)... I've always diffrent codes. Thats not real business like....

[robpaxton]

You could try this but if (as I suspect) you have a Matshita drive then there is really very little you can do. Sony now install optical drives that are very strict about obeying region coding - one of the hazards of buying from a computer manufacturer that has a big stake in film making . . . .

[jayzh]

Hi,

thank you very much for the quick reply.

I found out I have follwing DVD/CD-ROM-Drive:
MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-842S

I understand Sony is natrually big in movies. Don't you think there is work around?

[robpaxton]

I haven't heard of any way around this issue other than to use a different drive. You could try VLC Media Player but I'm pretty sure even that won't work with the Matshita 8XX drives. It's a versatile media player that will play a lot of media without any codec problems so at least you won't be wasting your time by installing it.

[kee-lo_]

DVD-RAM sucks for this very reason

[philfree]

You have only 2 options (there is NO firmare update possible with this drive to make it region-free):
1. Accept the region code change but you will have to change it again the next time you play a DVD from your region (and after 5 changes it gets stuck in the last region selected with no way of resetting so don't do it)
2. Download a DVD ripper software from the net (barely legal but as you own the DVD and use it for your personnal use, it's debatable) that's going to break the protection and render it region free, you will then (or directly if it's an option from the ripper) burn a DVD copy of the original that any DVD-reader will accept.

Rob, actually Sony drive have no problem with region-free firmware, it's Mashita that gone overboard with the rules and implemented in their drives more than what the guidelines asked for.

[Blencogo]

Matshita is the brand name for OEM drives made by Panasonic.

Only OEM drives are branded under this name and no firmware updates are (or ever will be) available except through the computer manufacturer. It is likely that the level of DRM in these drives is set by the computer manufacturer.

[philfree]

Just to make things straight, Panasonic is a brand name as well, the manufacturer is Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

[Zagster]

Hey jayzh,

There IS a way to change DVD region, but you can only do this for a limited number of times, so use it wisely...

Go to "My Computer", right click on your DVD drive and choose "Properties". Go to the "Hardware" tab, select the Matchita drive from the list and click on the "Properties" button. By clicking on the "DVD Region" tab you can select a new region for playback. You can also see how many changes you got left. On mine it gives four changes and to my knowlegde, this has always been the case for DVD players. Hope this helps.