[Psych1]

I just got a Compaq 3320 Laptop with wide screen. The manual says that you can only change the region settings 5 times. The last change seems to lock in the settings. This seems totally crazy to me. Why would they do such a thing? Does anyone here know a way around this?

 

[Justin Peer]

Yes it's true, you can only change the region 5 times. This is because Hollywood studios want to sell different discs around the world. The world is split into 6 different regions, and a player is only supposed to play discs from the region it's registered in.


There are ways around it. It takes two forms.


1. You will have to hack the firmware on the dvd drive itself.

2. You will have to have the correct software to tell the player software what region the disc is.


I've done this on all my computers, including a couple of works compaq laptops.


Here's some links to get you going.


Disclaimer: You can kill your nice new drive doing this, it is very much a 'use at your own risk' operation. Having said that, lots of people do it.


J.

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/region.html this will tell you all about it, how to do it, what software you need, risks etc.
http://www.firmware.fr.st/ this is where you'll find the firmware for your drive