Hacking DVDs

[kimpossible]

Anyone ever hack a DVD to play Zone 3 DVDs? I know the other alternatives: buy a regular DVD player in Taiwan or track down and buy an all zone DVD player. Neither is impossible but it's cheaper and faster if I can hack the one I have.

[ism]

Can't hack a DVD itself. You need to either decode and reencode it, or hack the player.

Options:

Play it on your computer's DVD drive and use a hack to change the region (these drives can change the region a limited number of times and the hack will stop the counter from incrementing).

Decode the DVD (rip it) and reencode it to S/X/VCDs which most DVD players will play.

Hack your DVD player, but depends on your DVD player. Which one do you have?

And yes, zones suck. Wish you could fast forward/skip that crap at the beginning too. Thank the MPAA.

[kimpossible]

Sorry, I meant the player. Wrote it wrong. I have a Panasonic.

[mr. x]

whats zones

[kimpossible]

The Panasonic is USA zone. I bought some Zone 3 DVDs. I stuck 'em in my PS2 also for the heck of it but of course that didn't work either. Feel free to use techie terms since hubby is going to be the one doing the actual hacking.

[moschikat]

zones.

asdflkjalskjdf?!? ack?!

and the worst thing is - they don't have VCD's here in the US. well, they don't work . . . :P

[iris]

I just bought an all-regional one in HK to play the DC-9 DVDs I bought. I don't know if you're still in Taiwan or the Asia region, but mine only cost $60 bucks and it plays DVD/VCDs/MVDs/MP3s/Karoake. It's easier just to buy a new one.

If you're back in the US by now, re-encoding the DVD player is going to be hard especially if it's a Panasonic - a Japanese model. Those are specifically tailored to resist DC zone DVDs. You'd have to rip all the ones you have and re-code them which takes forever.

[ism]

Which Panasonic? Need the exact model to see if it's hackable. Although it's highly doubtful it can be hacked easily. =(

[himura-dono]

apex used to be the easiest. considering they were lazy and usually just disabled the all region coding, but you could hack it with button sequences alone and reenable the all region. as far as firmware hacks for dvd-roms, some are successful, others aren't. if you want it to play on your computer, you can get a decoder card for about $15 or less usually. or if you REALLY have to have it play on your dvd player, you might want to try googling dvd player hacks and cross reference your model panasonic dvd player.

[MellowDrama]

Originally posted by himura-dono@Feb 9 2003, 01:03 AM
apex used to be the easiest. considering they were lazy and usually just disabled the all region coding, but you could hack it with button sequences alone and reenable the all region. as far as firmware hacks for dvd-roms, some are successful, others aren't. if you want it to play on your computer, you can get a decoder card for about $15 or less usually. or if you REALLY have to have it play on your dvd player, you might want to try googling dvd player hacks and cross reference your model panasonic dvd player.
APEX rocks the house.

At my parent's home we have an AD-600 and an AD-660. I got an AD-660 in my apartment. I don't think they make those models anymore (defintely not the AD-600), but if you can score it on Ebay or some online shop, it's definitely worth it. The AD-660, though, requires a firmware update. I found it online pretty easily, though. I know there is a panasonic all region out there. I think it is one of those small portable ones. Regardless, if you watch a lot of region 2 and 3 disks (virtually all my discs are R2 and R3), an all region is worth it.

[himura-dono]

i had hacked a dvd-rom's firmware...but i needed cash and sold it for $40.

[MellowDrama]

Hey, they have some AD-1500 models on Ebay selling for about $100. The 1500 is kinda basic, but it gets the job done for what you wanna do. My brother's gf has one and it runs through all the regions w/o problem.

[himura-dono]

i have an ad-1000...i never bothered to check if it was regionless or hackable tho... but it has pal options and what not... 100 for that is nuts... i got mine for 34 at walmart a a year and change ago.

[YuheiCarreau]

Zoning may not be the only problem; if the DVDs you bought are PAL instead of NTSC, you'll definitely need either an external PAL-NTSC converter or just a new DVD player that comes with one inside.

[thaite]

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdhacks

[kimpossible]

Hmm. I may be a screwed pooch here. Maybe I should just buy a Zone 3 player.

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by tazadar@Feb 10 2003, 05:06 PM
Kim,

Why don't you get a region free DVD player instead? This DVD region stuff sucks. Argh! Makes me angry thinking about it.
Don't you gotta find one of those bad boys in a market somewhere? Last I heard they were all bought up.