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Blu-ray Region Tray Tool - one-click region hack for PowerDVD and TMT

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44K views 46 replies 13 participants last post by  RocShemp  
M
#1 ·

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Description

Blu-ray Region Tray Tool sits in your system tray, displaying the current region setting of your PC software Blu-ray Disc player and allowing you to change it on-the-fly with a single click or keyboard shortcut.


It uses the widely-known so-called region "hacks" for these players, applying them with the bare minimum of user effort. This makes your playback software essentially "region free" or more accurately "multi-region".

Compatibility

- All versions of Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 7, 8, 9, and 10

- ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre (tested 2.1, 3.0, and 5.0; other versions should also work)

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Notes

Upon opening, the tool will read the current region setting from your installed player program and update its icon. If you have more than one compatible player installed, the "lower priority" programs will be set to match the one with highest priority.


Priority is currently hardcoded as follows:
  1. PowerDVD 7.3.3516 and newer
  2. PowerDVD below 7.3.3516
  3. TotalMedia Theatre

Usage

Region switching can be done by keyboard shortcut or by clicking the icon with either left or right mouse button and selecting the desired region. There are also command line parameters that will set your specified region and then immediately close.


Whenever the tool sets a region, it also resets your "changes remaining" counter (5 changes for TotalMedia Theatre, PowerDVD 7.3.3516 and newer; 99999 changes for older PowerDVD versions).


For PowerDVD, the region change takes effect immediately. If you change region while playing a movie, PowerDVD may stop playback when you attempt to access a menu function/skip to next chapter/etc. This is because PowerDVD's region settings are greyed out during playback; it isn't designed to change regions in the middle of watching a movie. Simply hit the Stop button before swapping regions if this is a problem.


For TotalMedia Theatre, the region setting is only read back from the configuration file when the program is first started. If TMT is open when you change regions using the tool, it will be automatically closed and reopened. This may crash the player if you try it during playback.

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Usage to check actual region coding of a Blu-ray Disc

Simplifying this was the primary purpose for writing this tool. Because of the complexity of region code enforcement on Blu-rays, AnyDVD's automatic region code checking is often inaccurate or incomplete. Likewise for cover art and disc labels. The only guaranteed way to see what regions a disc is coded for is to use a player set to each region and find out what happens when you play it back.


Despite common conceptions, there are more region code possibilities besides just "Region Locked" and "Region Free". All seven combinations can be set: Region A, Region B, Region C, Region AB, Region BC, Region AC, Region ABC. Discs have already been released using the less common two-region codings without noting them on their packaging (see Unofficial Blu-ray Audio and Video Specifications Thread on AVS Forum).


So to confirm the real region coding of a Blu-ray, play it back in all three regions and note which ones are locked out, if any. (In reality, only two regions need to be checked since a disc will never be locked out of the region in which it is released, but I like to be absolutely certain that there isn't some playback error.)

Steps are simply:
  1. Set the first region you want to test
  2. Open the player
  3. Select source drive and play
  4. Note whether the disc hits a region lockout screen (sometimes this is AFTER the studio logos, and some discs use only black screens)
  5. Set the next region you want to test
  6. Select source drive and play (you may be asked whether you want to resume or not; I don't think it matters because it should play from the start and tell you that it failed to resume due to a region switch)
  7. Note whether the disc hits a region lockout screen
  8. Continue from step 5 if you want to test the third possibility

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Keyboard shortcuts (global hotkeys)
  • Ctrl+Shift+1 = Region A
  • Ctrl+Shift+2 = Region B
  • Ctrl+Shift+3 = Region C

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Command line parameters (with or without quotes, case insensitive)

If you create shortcuts and include the command line parameters, you can match the icon to each and set your own "shortcut keys". With these you may use a remote that doesn't let you assign the regular hotkeys to buttons.
  • "A" or "1" = Region A
  • "B" or "2" = Region B
  • "C" or "3" = Region C
  • "PDVD1:" = PowerDVD Method 1 (below 7.3.3516)
  • "PDVD2:" = PowerDVD Method 2 (7.3.3516 and newer)
  • "TMT:" = TotalMedia Theatre

- Example: "%USERPROFILE%\\Desktop\\BDRegionTray.exe" 3 (sets all compatible players to Region C)

- Example: "%USERPROFILE%\\Desktop\\BDRegionTray.exe" PDVD2: A TMT: B (sets PowerDVD 8 to Region A and TMT to Region B)

Installation

None required. Just run it. Nothing is written to the registry or hard drive except the changes to PowerDVD and TMT registry keys/files.

Requirements

- Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 operating system

- Blu-ray BD-ROM drive

- Compatible software player

Version history
2010-12-22: Version 1.4

- Fixed support for TMT 5 MCE (Media Center versions must be reopened manually to accept the change)
2010-12-19: Version 1.3

- Added support for the Media Center version of TMT (may not work for XP MCE)
2010-12-18: Version 1.2

- Added support for TMT 5 and hopefully future versions

- Changed the TMT auto-close function to be more "gentle"

- Now reopens TMT with the auto-detected program executable instead of the hardcoded launcher name
2010-06-25: Version 1.1

- Added the ability to specify per-program region settings via command line parameters
2010-06-21: Version 1.0

- Now resets TMT's "changes remaining" value

- Now detects TMT's path so that it can be auto-reopened regardless of where it was installed

- Added support for PowerDVD below 7.3.3516 on Windows Vista and 7

- Added command line parameters to set region code and then exit

- Several minor UI tweaks
2010-05-13: Version 0.2

- Added support for PowerDVD Ultra 10

- Now works with non-English Windows versions

- Confirmed support for Windows 7
2009-08-17: Version 0.1

- Initial release

Download Blu-ray Region Tray Tool v1.4
Executable
"Source code" (a simple AutoIt script)
 
E
#2 ·
Great tool!!!
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What about make it possible to change Region from the MCE remote control? I think it would be a good help for people who have Media-Center and using the remote control.


I have tried to use HIP (Human Interface Programmer) software so I could change Region from my MCE Remote control but it doesnt work. I know how to use HIP. Isnt possible?


Others who have/had the same problem? Anyone who know how to make buttons of Ctrl+Shift+1, Ctrl+Shift+2 and Ctrl+Shift+3 to MCE remote control buttons?


Hoping for help


Thx
 
V
#7 ·
thanks very much for the trouble. it seems the original is up, though I very much appreciate you posting another link (redundancy is always a good thing
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luckily I was able to figure out where the region code is stored after doing some sleuthing in the registry. it was awesome when I finally figured it out :p


if anyone's interested it's in (for vista) C:\\Users\\User\\AppData\\Roaming\\ArcSoft\\ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3\\3.0\\dvdplay.ini


you simply change the bdregion number to 1 for region A, 2 for region B, and 4 for region C (why they chose 4, I'm not sure)


the app is more convenient though, as it's in the tray to I don't have to edit files every time, it's a simple click away. hats off to the programmer, top notch stuff. simple yet effective.
 
M
#8 ·
Hi folks, the tool has been updated to v0.2 in order to support PowerDVD Ultra 10.


I also made a small change to ensure that the same "INACTIVE" message is reported under Windows 7 as it is with Windows Vista for PowerDVD below 7.3.3516.


Tested using English Windows 7 (64-bit) and English Windows XP (32-bit). I was only able to test TMT under Windows XP so if someone using BRTT v0.1 with TMT+Vista or TMT+Win7 could make sure I didn't break anything with v0.2 I'd appreciate it.
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I have also made some changes to attempt support of non-English Windows so hopefully someone can test that as well.
 
M
#11 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce73 /forum/post/18734445


Just wondering if anyone has tested the current version with Vista + TMT3 (160). And, to confirm, it's absolutely, positively certain that it will still work if TMT3 is down to 0 changes left? Don't want to get trapped. ;-)
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay. I was finally able to test with TMT3 under Windows 7 (64-bit) and all functions work perfectly, so Vista is no problem.


And yes, I also double-checked that it still swaps the region even when TMT says you have 0 changes left. There isn't any risk of getting "trapped" by using the tool, since TMT doesn't decrement the counter when regions are changed using it.
 
M
#12 ·
The tool has been updated and I jumped the version all the way up to v1.0, because it finally does everything that I had initially planned (namely, full support of all PowerDVD versions and TMT).


The full list of changes is in the first post, but the thing that I'm happiest about is that I figured out how to reset the number of changes remaining in TMT. It's quite sneaky because it requires a misleadingly-named INI setting and registry key to be set to the same seemingly arbitrary value.
 
M
#15 ·
Please delete or trim your quote of the entire first post.


If it's really displaying it as a threat and not just stopping it because it's unsigned, it's a hilarious false positive.


Here are two multiple-scanner results for the file downloaded from the link given (to be sure something didn't happen on the way to the server):
http://virusscan.jotti.org/en/scanre...8c4b70f38db86b
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/a...b66-1277592582


You can also upload it to these services yourself to confirm.


As you can see the only result there is "F-Secure 9.0.15370.0 2010.06.26 Suspicious:W32/Malware!Gemini" which is another false positive.


"Suspicious:W32/Malware!Gemini is a proactive Heuristic Detection, which may be triggered by a file that behaves in a suspicious manner indicative of malware infection."


Malware heuristics aren't really known for their accuracy.
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For what it's worth, Norton Antivirus is one of the engines used by the second site and it shows nothing there. I would be curious to know what message it is giving you.


I have now submitted the file to F-Secure's Sample Analysis System as a false positive to do with what they will...
 
R
#16 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan /forum/post/18829882


Please delete or trim your quote of the entire first post.


If it's really displaying it as a threat and not just stopping it because it's unsigned, it's a hilarious false positive.


Here are two multiple-scanner results for the file downloaded from the link given (to be sure something didn't happen on the way to the server):
http://virusscan.jotti.org/en/scanre...8c4b70f38db86b
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/a...b66-1277592582


You can also upload it to these services yourself to confirm.


As you can see the only result there is "F-Secure 9.0.15370.0 2010.06.26 Suspicious:W32/Malware!Gemini" which is another false positive.


"Suspicious:W32/Malware!Gemini is a proactive Heuristic Detection, which may be triggered by a file that behaves in a suspicious manner indicative of malware infection."


Malware heuristics aren't really known for their accuracy.
Image



For what it's worth, Norton Antivirus is one of the engines used by the second site and it shows nothing there. I would be curious to know what message it is giving you.


I have now submitted the file to F-Secure's Sample Analysis System as a false positive to do with what they will...
Click to expand...

Thanks. I really wanna try this out but Norton isn't letting me.


Norton says "This Insight Network Threat has been removed." Under the details it simply says "Very Few Users, Risk Medium." When I click more, I get a repete of it being a medium risk, it say "fewer than 10 users in the Norton Community have used this file", and at the bottom it says "there are many indications that this file is untrustworthy and therefore not safe" but not much else.


Yet it tells me that the source of the file is safe. http://safeweb.norton.com/report/sho...RegionTray.exe
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M
#17 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by RocShemp /forum/post/18829928


Thanks. I really wanna try this out but Norton isn't letting me.
Click to expand...

I think this may be your issue?

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norto...on/td-p/232155


My recommendation would be to temporarily disable this Insight Protection to try the tool out. Norton seems to think this is malware simply because few of their subscribers have used it.
 
M
#19 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rathbone /forum/post/18831219


Can you add WinDVD to the tool?
Click to expand...
DVDFab Region Reset works with WinDVD but still requires you to reboot into Safe Mode so it can disable the driver.


It doesn't appear to be possible to add proper WinDVD switching functionality.
 
R
#20 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan /forum/post/18830168


I think this may be your issue?

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norto...on/td-p/232155


My recommendation would be to temporarily disable this Insight Protection to try the tool out. Norton seems to think this is malware simply because few of their subscribers have used it.
Click to expand...

Finally got it to install. Thanks. BTW, does this also affect DVD region coding or just BD region coding?
 
M
#24 ·
v1.2 is up with support for TMT 5; many thanks to JaLe for testing. They didn't change the region storage method but their new UI required me to alter a few things for autoclosing/reopening to work again.
 
M
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan /forum/post/19670046


v1.2 is up with support for TMT 5; many thanks to JaLe for testing. They didn't change the region storage method but their new UI required me to alter a few things for autoclosing/reopening to work again.
Click to expand...

Hi all, the new version works in the standard TMT5 but unfortunately doesn't seem to have an affect on the MCE version. I had installed the TMT5 trial alongside my registered TMT3 Platimum to test. When region switching didn't work in the 10' interface, I uninstalled both and reinstalled just the TMT5 trial. Now that's reporting 0 changes left (was 4 before I uninstalled) and I can't change it with the try tool, however the standard Windows version still works and I can still change the regions via the tray tool.


UPDATE: This version of the tool doesn't update the region coding in the MCE version of TMT3 either.
 
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