drive region changed by DVD Decrypter

[Randa]

While working with DVD DECRYPTER yesterday a window appeared stating that possible region protection was detected. It asked me to select the region which was listed on the dvd cover. At the bottom it stated that this would not effect my drive region settings. It only gave me an OK button so with that supplied information I ensured that region 1 was selected and clicked OK. IT LIED!!! After working with DVD DECRYPTER I checked and sure enough the drive which I was using was changed from 0 (not set) to Region 1. I realize that I still have 4 more changes to this drive allowed but I am concerned that in the future changes will be made to my drive with this program without my knowledge.
What happens if I am working with a DVD that has more than one region selection, but is not region free, will this once again change my drive region setting?
As this drive is only about 6 months old, how do I reset the drive after all of the 5 changes are made, and no further changes will be allowed?
I appreciate your assistance in this matter. It is true that To my knowledge I will only be working with Region 1 or Region Free discs, but I am concerned non the less.
Rdavid

[Shakey_Jake33]

What drive do you have? It might be possible to install an RPC1 or RPC2 Auto-Reset firmware. imo the best free solution is to use an RPC1 firmware in conjunction with DVDGenie. Alternatively RPC2 Auto-Reset firmwares reset the region on reboot, up to you really.

All is not lost even if you use the 5 changes, as DVDRegionFree and AnyDVD support region free for all drives, including locked ones, but they are not free.

[Randa]

Thanks for the quick responce. I was shocked that DVD Encrypter mislead me. I will probably only be working with Region 1 Discs so I am hoping that this prevents me from any further changes. The drive in question is an LG 54N. It did come with firmware software which I have no idea what that is for, maybe it would reset my drive if or when I reach the 5 change maximum. Thanks again.
Randa

[HyperHacker]

I doubt the software would reset it, but look for an RPC1 hack for that drive. In my experience they're pretty easy to find; all my drives have them, even my laptop. Then if you use Windows, get something like DVD Region Killer to prevent Windows activating its own implementation of RPC2, and there you go. You might also get some bonuses like disabling other "protections" (to allow for faster ripping, bitsetting, etc).

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Whatever you might think, my old program DID NOT do this.

Player software will set the region without you knowing if you attempt to play a disc from a drive that doesn't have it's region set. I believe the same is true if you boot up the PC with a region coded disc in the 'region - none set' drive.

[Metro]

I've used DVDDecrypter for years without it ever doing anything unexpected to my hardware. Even though I now use AnyDVD I still like DVDDecrypter in file mode as a no-nonsense configurable ripper.

...It might be possible to install an RPC1 or RPC2 Auto-Reset firmware ....
... DVDRegionFree and AnyDVD support region free for all drives, including locked ones, but they are not free.

Just a word of caution here, certain Matshita/Panasonic drives implement hardware checking and cannot be circumvented by DVDRegionFree or AnyDVD. Quote from James at Slysoft (Link HERE) (http://club.cdfreaks.com/637240-post2.html):

"MMC standard requires, that a drive should not reveal a title key on a region mismatched CSS protected disc. (It should return "Illegal request - region code does not match"). Some drives are even less restrictive and even give you the title key on region mismatch.
But AnyDVD can usually reveal the title key with a brute force attack, as long as the drive allows you to read the scrambled sectors.
Matsushita (Panasonic) drives do not! You CANNOT read the scrambled data, if the region code doesn't match.
No other drive behaves this way, only Matsushita (Panasonic) drives do, as the standard does not require a drive to not reveal the protected data on region mismatch, but Matsushita (Panasonic) drives are more restrictive as they need to be.

There is nothing AnyDVD, DVDDecrypter, or any other software can do about this. Sorry."

Also, don't count on RPC1 firmware being available for newer drives. Many drives produced over the last two years have no patched firmware available.

[giudia]

Whatever you might think, my old program DID NOT do this.

Player software will set the region without you knowing if you attempt to play a disc from a drive that doesn't have it's region set. I believe the same is true if you boot up the PC with a region coded disc in the 'region - none set' drive.

Glad to see you again here. Tx a lot for all

[Randa]

Thanks to all for your assistance. I also thank you for the assurance that the issue was not with DVD Decrypter. I as a very novice user have found DVD Decrypter to be very straight forward, easy to use and very helpful. Thanks for the info on players changing the drive region code, I did not know this.

[Wombler]

Thanks for the quick responce. I was shocked that DVD Encrypter mislead me. I will probably only be working with Region 1 Discs so I am hoping that this prevents me from any further changes. The drive in question is an LG 54N. It did come with firmware software which I have no idea what that is for, maybe it would reset my drive if or when I reach the 5 change maximum. Thanks again.
Randa

It would seem that you can produce your own region free firmware for this drive using the latest version of MediaCodeSpeedEdit (http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/mediacodespeededit-tool-dvd-writers-114269/).

MediaCodeSpeedEdit is a firmware patching tool which among a great many other things can also patch for region free status on specified drives.

HTH.


Wombler

[Randa]

As I mentioned before, I truly appreciate your assistance. I do have one last question regarding the player software which you mentioned. Do you know which player software changes the Drive Region Code? I have not had a problem with this issue until my original post, but now that I think about it the drive region changed after installing "Interactual" player. When I placed the DVD Nativity Story into the drive the Interactual Player activated and installed itself. This may have been the culprit in changing the drive region setting. To my knowledge I have not had a problem with Power DVD doing it to date. Thanks
Randa