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

[ChiDragon]

http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/docs/BDRegionTray1.png http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/docs/BDRegionTray2.png http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/docs/BDRegionTray3.png

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)

http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/docs/BDRegionTray4.png

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:

PowerDVD 7.3.3516 and newer
PowerDVD below 7.3.3516
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.

http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/docs/BDRegionTray5.png
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 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1155731) 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:

Set the first region you want to test
Open the player
Select source drive and play
Note whether the disc hits a region lockout screen (sometimes this is AFTER the studio logos, and some discs use only black screens)
Set the next region you want to test
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)
Note whether the disc hits a region lockout screen
Continue from step 5 if you want to test the third possibility


http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/docs/BDRegionTray6.png
Keyboard shortcuts (global hotkeys)

Ctrl+Shift+1 = Region A
Ctrl+Shift+2 = Region B
Ctrl+Shift+3 = Region C


http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/docs/BDRegionTray7.png
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 (http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/release/v1.4/BDRegionTray.exe)
"Source code" (a simple AutoIt script) (http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/source/BDRegionTray-v1.4-src.zip)

[Maxiuca]

Great, I've been looking for such tool. Unfortunatelly it doesn't work. I'm only getting a message that it can't find BRF.dat

[A Pal]

Hello,

Here are some suggestions for the tool:

1. It could be possible that it doesn't find Maxiuca's BRF.dat file, because the language of his/her Windows is Polish and not English, so the path has another name and the tool doesn't find it. One could add the possibility to select the path where the file(s) to modify is (are) saved.

2. The tool should not work with the "priority method," it should be able to set Regions for each individual player, so, if you have 2 players installed on your system, one could set one to Region A and the other to Region B (and what if you want to set the Region not of the "higher-priority," but of the "lower-priority" player?)

3. It could also support Nero Showtime and WinDVD.

According to Rathbone, NeroShowtime hides its BD Region setting in a file, just like TMT.

C:\Windows\Cursors\arrow_n.cur:NEDTA.DAT

Rathbone writes:

The BD region code is really linked with a file called arrow_n.cur in the Windows/Cursors folder. ADSLocator shows that there is an ADS stream in this file, but when I delete it with the MS Tool Streams.exe Showtime says that the BD settngs are screwed and you need to reinstall Showtime. So simply make a backup of arrow_n.cur when you have some changes left and replace the original with it when you need more changes.

Perhaps Blu-ray Region Tray could do something like it does for TMT.

There is also a hack for WinDVD provided by SuperGoof, but it sounds complex and I don't know whether it can be done by a software:

Guide: How to reset Blu-ray region counter in InterVideo WinDVD BD for VAIO Ver.8.0.08.100

1) Download a program called "Autoruns" from www.sysinternals.com.
2) Run autoruns.exe, go to "Drivers" tab and disable driver called "regi" (regi.sys). Just untick the checkbox next to it. Note: Do not delete it.
3) Restart Windows.
4) Delete file "ivireg.ivr" in "C:\Windows\System32\" folder.
5) Re-enable "regi" driver using Autoruns (tick the checkbox).
6) Restart Windows.File "ivireg.ivr" will be recreated with default settings and you can change BD region from WinDVD interface 5 more times before you have to repeat this procedure. Enjoy!
P.S.: If you have a dual boot system (say, XP and Vista), you can just boot to another OS and delete "ivireg.ivr" from there.

*

Using this information, Blu-ray Region Tray could become a Blu-ray equivalent of "DVD Region Killer" or "DVD Genie."
I hope you will find it interesting, ad there will be a new version soon.

Many greetings, :)

A Pal

[Lothlann]

This tool sound marvelous, but it did't work for me in TMT :-( I'm running Norwegian XP, default install DIR. Don't get any "error" messages, but I guess my folder names are the problem...

[hewwra]

I tried it with TMT and it works just fine in the standalone version but I use the Media Center version of TMT (uMCEDVDPlayer.exe) and that exe does not seem to care what region I set using this tool :(
Just to be clear, I don't launch uMCEDVDPlayer.exe directly, that exe is called from within 7MC.

Edit: uMCEDVDPlayer.exe stores it ini settings in another folder so I downloaded the source and replaced the original path with:
"%UserProfile%\Application Data\ArcSoft\ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3(Vista Media Center)\"
and recompiled the .exe and now it works as expected.

[somy]

Hi ChiDragon,

Thanks for the excellent tool.
I recently upgrade PowerDVD 9 to PowerDVD 10, and it seems the tool doesn't support PowerDVD 10. Will you make a new release in the future for powerDVD 10?
Thanks!

[deliol]

Thank you for this excellent tool (I'm using TMT 3.0.161)!!!:thanks:

[ChiDragon]

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 with 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. :)


Thank you all for your comments.

I have made some changes to attempt support of non-English Windows. I believe it should now work with any language so long as the text used by PowerDVD and TMT themselves remains in English. Are they usually translated as well? I hope not...

So please test and report back.

Regarding post #3, I don't think support of Nero Showtime is possible, as I don't know any way to deal with Alternate Data Streams by scripting. Support of WinDVD is definitely impossible since that requires unprotecting things and rebooting. As far as your point #2, what you suggest (keeping different programs set to different regions) can be done without even using any separate tool so there isn't really a reason to work on adding it. It would just make things more complex since then the icon in the taskbar wouldn't have full relevance to the set region.

@hewwra, if you want I can try to support both versions using the regular tool but I would need you to test since I don't have Media Center.

[ChiDragon]

I was able to test with Dutch Windows XP and confirmed that v0.2 works, at least with PowerDVD.

Unless someone says otherwise, I'll assume that the issue with non-English Windows is fixed.

[A Pal]

Hello,

I think my point #2 (two different players set to two different Regions) does make sense:

Players can also have different features, i.e. the one has a feature the other does not have. So you want to play BDs with both players, depending on what feature you want to use. But both players allow only 5 Region changes each. As long as the tool uses the priority method, it will reset only the one player, while the other player will be region-locked after the 5th change. Therefore, it is better to have the possibility to reset the Regions of the players individually.

Many greetings, :)

A Pal

[ChiDragon]

Thanks for the feedback. I understand what you mean now. I thought your intention was to keep one set to A and one set to B and not constantly change them both.

But actually, the tool already does reset the region counter on all players that it is able to (i.e. PowerDVD versions) whenever a change is made using it. You'll have to close it and change the lower priority player to the region you want after that manually, but at least you won't be locked down.

I still can't think of a way to do what you want that makes sense with the current region display method. The icon wouldn't be able to say that one player is one region and another is different.

In other news, I did confirm that TMT+Win7 works with v0.2 still, so Vista is fine too.

I have been able to edit the alternate data stream of CLDShowX.ini for PowerDVD below 7.3.3516 manually to swap regions and change the region counter to arbitrary values (I prefer 99999 since it fits into the box). But it appears that the majority of the 2.50KB stream is install-specific and I'm not sure how I could actually edit the file instead of my current methodology with later PowerDVD of just overwriting the BRF.dat completely. I suppose I could read it into RAM temporarily then overwrite with the edits.

I think I'm the only one still playing with the old PowerDVD versions anyway though. :)

I was going to try to work with Nero Showtime but it appears that it no longer exists!

[ChiDragon]

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.

[A Pal]

Hello, ChiDragon,

Just out of curiosity: In what .INI file and where and in what Registry key is the BD Region of information of TMT hidden? Is there a way to get more than 5 changes every reset (PowerDVD 7.3 allows 99999 changes in XP)?

I still think the tool should offer the possibility to reset the players individually and not use the "priority method." Yes, in that case, the taskbar icon cannot show the Regions of different players, but for example the icon menu or the main window could do this.

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

How do you use this? The programs comes without documentation. And, if two or moreplayers are installed, how do you make sure that the right one will be reset?

Many greetings, :)

A Pal

[ChiDragon]

Just out of curiosity: In what .INI file and where and in what Registry key is the BD Region of information of TMT hidden? Is there a way to get more than 5 changes every reset (PowerDVD 7.3 allows 99999 changes in XP)?

It is in the same PlayDVD.ini file as the region setting itself, under the parameter name "DefaultLang". This value must match* the value "DefLang" under registry key [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 3\DefaultLang].

5 changes = 0xD3A535FB
4 changes = 0xDCAB1F36
3 changes = 0xF0CC1274
2 changes = 0xAF01CEC2
1 changes = 0xBC110012
0 changes = 0

* For some reason the value normally written into the INI file is a negative 32-bit integer, even though in the registry a REG_DWORD is unsigned. For 5 changes it is -744147461, which is 0xD3A535FB. This matches the registry DWORD value and TMT is perfectly happy to accept 0xD3A535FB as the value in the INI file too, so I write it to the file for consistency.

Setting the number to greater than 5 would require figuring out the correlation between the numbers above, if there even is any, and then hoping that the program actually accepts your new value instead of reverting to 0 changes like it does with all invalid numbers. The hex values look completely arbitrary to me. A graph of them in decimal form is all over the place.

BTW, the old PowerDVD 7.3 versions can also be set to 99999 in Vista/7 with the newest version of the tool.

I still think the tool should offer the possibility to reset the players individually and not use the "priority method." Yes, in that case, the taskbar icon cannot show the Regions of different players, but for example the icon menu or the main window could do this.

Now you can use DVDFab Region Reset for this purpose. ;)

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

How do you use this? The programs comes without documentation. And, if two or moreplayers are installed, how do you make sure that the right one will be reset?

I consider the first post to be the documentation. The parameters are listed there, but should I add an example usage under the "Command line parameters" heading?

Let's say BDRegionTray.exe is located on my Desktop and I want to set Region C from the command line. I could simply run:
"%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BDRegionTray.exe" C

Currently these command line options execute precisely the same functions as the hotkeys, except that the program exits afterward instead of sticking around in the tray. Therefore the change applies to all compatible players.

I think it would be fairly simple to extend the command line parameters so that you may specify which program to set, if this would be useful for you. Would you want to set more than one program from the same command line, like "P1=A T=B"? Would you prefer a different formatting instead, like "PDVD1:A TMT:B"?

[A Pal]

Hello, ChiDragon,

1. BD Region reset: Yes, it would be better to reset the players individually. But not only parameters, also the interface of the program should allow that.

Examples of formatting:

a) Only one player is reset:

"%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BDRegionTray.exe" PDVD: C
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BDRegionTray.exe" TMT: C

b) Two players are set to the same BD Region:

%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BDRegionTray.exe" PDVD: C TMT: C

c) Two players are set to different Regions (PowerDVD: Region C, TMT: Region B):
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BDRegionTray.exe" PDVD: C TMT: B


2. PDVD 7.3 BD Region Reset in Vista/Windows 7: Again, out of curiosity: What values must be changed to get 99999 changes, and where are they hidden? The normal hack was to destroy the file, and PDVD recreated it with 5 new changes.

3. DVD Regions: Another thing: Can you think of adding a program part that can bypass DVD Regions on the fly? Surely, you may say now "DVDFab Passkey" is a freeware that can do this, but it is only free during its beta stage, and it is still unknown whether there will be a free light version as "DVDFab HD Decrypter" is for "DVDFab."
I think it would be great to have a free tool that can bypass BOTH BD Regions AND DVD Regions ON THE FLY (even with REGION-LOCKED drives). It would be the successor of "DVD Region Killer" and "DVD Genie."

Many greetings, :)

A Pal

[ChiDragon]

1. BD Region reset: Yes, it would be better to reset the players individually. But not only parameters, also the interface of the program should allow that.

Sorry but I really don't want to add extra options to the interface. My aim is still to keep it as simple and quick to access as possible.

Let me know if you still want me to add the command line parameters even without interface options. If so there needs to be a distinction between PowerDVD "Method 1" and "Method 2" so that they could be set separately too if someone wanted. That's why my examples were with "PDVD1".

2. PDVD 7.3 BD Region Reset in Vista/Windows 7: Again, out of curiosity: What values must be changed to get 99999 changes, and where are they hidden? The normal hack was to destroy the file, and PDVD recreated it with 5 new changes.

It isn't something that can be done manually without separate programs to extract and rewrite the alternate data stream, but it's part of "CLDShowX.ini:Update.CL". Two specific offsets have to be edited, one for the region and one for the number of changes.

3. DVD Regions: Another thing: Can you think of adding a program part that can bypass DVD Regions on the fly? Surely, you may say now "DVDFab Passkey" is a freeware that can do this, but it is only free during its beta stage, and it is still unknown whether there will be a free light version as "DVDFab HD Decrypter" is for "DVDFab."
I think it would be great to have a free tool that can bypass BOTH BD Regions AND DVD Regions ON THE FLY (even with REGION-LOCKED drives). It would be the successor of "DVD Region Killer" and "DVD Genie."

Yikes! That's way out of the realm of scripting.

Both DVDFab Passkey and AnyDVD have to use a filter driver to intercept and communicate calls to the DVD drive. There's a reason they charge for that.. it's very complex.

[A Pal]

Hello, ChiDragon,

1. Yes, please add the command line parameters even without interface options. Please don't forget the parameters for TMT.
2. Could you give more specific information about the reset of PDVD 7.3 in Vista/Windows 7? What exactly does your tool do to reset it to 99999 changes?
3. Perhaps, Fengtao could add the DVD-Region-killing part of DVDFab Passkey to DVDFab Region Reset. Then, we would have a free DVD-and-BD Region tool.

Many greetings, :)

A Pal

[ChiDragon]

1. Yes, please add the command line parameters even without interface options. Please don't forget the parameters for TMT.

EDIT: Version 1.1 tested and added to first post.

2. Could you give more specific information about the reset of PDVD 7.3 in Vista/Windows 7? What exactly does your tool do to reset it to 99999 changes?

Well, the script used to build the EXE is plaintext that you can read. :cool:

Here is the relevant section:
$CLDBin = BinOpen ($CLD, 0)

; Often the relevant values are shifted forward by 0x40 (64) bytes; this test byte is (so far) always '00' when this is not the case and '0F' when it is
If BinaryMid ($CLDBin, 0x807, 0x01) = 0 Then ; Chunk1 + Region code + Chunk2 + Changes remaining (99999/0x9F860100) + Chunk3
$UpdateCL = BinaryMid ($CLDBin, 0x01, 0x800) & Binary (DecSwitch ($Letter)) & BinaryMid ($CLDBin, 0x802, 0x3C) & Binary (99999) & BinaryMid ($CLDBin, 0x845)
Else
$UpdateCL = BinaryMid ($CLDBin, 0x01, 0x840) & Binary (DecSwitch ($Letter)) & BinaryMid ($CLDBin, 0x842, 0x3C) & Binary (99999) & BinaryMid ($CLDBin, 0x885)
EndIf

BinOpen ($CLD, 2, $UpdateCL) ; Write binary data to CLDShowX.ini stream

It opens the file, reads the binary contents to a variable, closes it, replaces two values, then overwrites the file with the contents of the variable.

[JK1974]

Hi,

I just managed to get two systems out of order - and I don´t know the exact reason for this. On both systems, the latest PowerDVD 10 version (Build 2113) was installed as well as AnyDVD. After enabling AnyDVD and inserting Ice Age 3 3D (it might be a coincidence that it happened with this BD), the region changes were set from 5 to 0. Trying to reset it, does not work, neither with your nor the DVDFab Region Reset tool.
As a result, when inserting a BD even with disabled AnyDVD, I first get the message, that PowerDVD is unable to access the device. Then, the region code dialog pops up twice (showing that 0 available changes are left), before an internal error pops up with code 80040154 - no further description.
Uninstalling and reinstalling PowerDVD 10 did not help (of course).

Any ideas? Any registry keys that might help you finding out what went wrong?

[EDIT] Sorry, problem solved: On both systems, an outdated AnyDVD version caused the strange problems. Seems like Cyberlink tried to block them.

[JK1974]

Hi,

once again: It did not seem to work on the second PC. Any ideas?

[leperlord]

Hi

I read below you have upgraded the program to a

version 2 , but I cant see a link for it here

Where can I download the newest version ?

Cheers


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 with 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. :)


Thank you all for your comments.

I have made some changes to attempt support of non-English Windows. I believe it should now work with any language so long as the text used by PowerDVD and TMT themselves remains in English. Are they usually translated as well? I hope not...

So please test and report back.

Regarding post #3, I don't think support of Nero Showtime is possible, as I don't know any way to deal with Alternate Data Streams by scripting. Support of WinDVD is definitely impossible since that requires unprotecting things and rebooting. As far as your point #2, what you suggest (keeping different programs set to different regions) can be done without even using any separate tool so there isn't really a reason to work on adding it. It would just make things more complex since then the icon in the taskbar wouldn't have full relevance to the set region.

@hewwra, if you want I can try to support both versions using the regular tool but I would need you to test since I don't have Media Center.

[livache]

That's a very old post and it doesn't say v2 but v0.2.

Anyway, ChiDragon, is it possible for TMT5 support to be added please? :-D

[MirceaForce]

The new version of Arcsoft Total media theater 5 is out...and we need a new version of Bluray Region Tray Tool

http://www.softexia.com/multimedia/players/533-arcsoft-totalmedia-theatre.html

Can you help us???

Thank you

[ChiDragon]

Sorry for the delayed response. You can try a test version <removed>. I don't have TMT5 so I can't try it, but this should work if they didn't change the way the region is stored. Let me know...

[ChiDragon]

v1.2 is up with support for TMT 5; thanks to JaLe on AVS Forum for testing. If you downloaded the test version please get the final v1.2 as there are a few little changes.

[ChiDragon]

v1.3 is up and should support the MCE version of TMT. You can check if the MCE version is detected using the tool's About window. One nice thing about using the Media Center version is that it doesn't need to be restarted to accept the region change.

Is anyone using XP MCE? I need to know the folder name where PlayDVD.ini is stored for that version.

The region and number of changes remaining is stored independently from the regular version, but for consistency the tool will force them to use the same region whenever it's running. You will likely get a popup notifying you of this when you first open it.

[ChiDragon]

v1.3 didn't work with TMT5 MCE. I've just uploaded v1.4 which should resolve this.

[A Pal]

Out of curiosity: How and where does TMT 5 BD-Region and BD-Region-counter information store?

[setarip_old]

@ChiDragon

Hi!

If you are (As I and others are) scrupulous in making certain that your standalone Blu-ray player and/or PS3 is NOT connected to the Internet and will not be subjected to any firmware updates (Some of which may prove to be undesirable and irreversible), then you are already aware of the following:

If you use some programs to do a FULL DISC backup of a recent Blu-ray disc that contains "BD+" , upon playback, you'll be confronted with a red and yellow notification stating that you MUST update your firmware in order to proceed - and if you don't do that, you're at a dead end.

Does your program circumvent this? (I've been told that this message is controlled simply by two flags [bytes] in one of the files in the "BDJO" directory.)

[ChiDragon]

Out of curiosity: How and where does TMT 5 BD-Region and BD-Region-counter information store?

Same way as the previous versions, just with the path numbers incremented.

The MCEs are more annoying as they changed the paths a bit more.

TMT3:
"%AppData%\ArcSoft\ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3(Vista Media Center)\PlayDVD.ini"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 3\DefaultLang1

TMT5:
"%AppData%\ArcSoft\ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5(Media Center)\MCEPlayDVD.ini"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5(MCE)\DefaultLang

If you use some programs to do a FULL DISC backup of a recent Blu-ray disc that contains "BD+" , upon playback, you'll be confronted with a red and yellow notification stating that you MUST update your firmware in order to proceed - and if you don't do that, you're at a dead end.

Does your program circumvent this? (I've been told that this message is controlled simply by two flags [bytes] in one of the files in the "BDJO" directory.)

Sorry, I haven't heard of this, and my program doesn't modify discs; it modifies the PC software players' settings. This seems like something the disc rippers should remove.

[A Pal]

Thank you for the answer :) .
By the way, I heard of the existence of another BD player software named "Roxio CinePlayer BD." Does anyone know how it stores its BD Region information and how to reset its BD Region counter?

[setarip_old]

@ChiDragon

Thank you...

[A Pal]

Hi,

On the DVDFab Forum, I found instructions to reset CinePlayer BD's Blu-ray Region:

When opening BD settings the program will create a file with drive letter of drive in c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\sonic.
Just delete that file and voilà, it is "Not Set".

Not Set:
Only 0

Region A:
First byte 01

Region B:
First byte 02

Region C:
First byte 04

[crl2007]

Hi,

When you have TMT 3 and 5 installed, the software only recognizes TMT 5 and for TMT 3 does not work.

[ChiDragon]

Yes. There is a reason the About window says "versions" for PowerDVD and only "version" for TMT. Supporting 'n' versions would be more complex and there was no reason to do so previously. Why are you wanting to run both?

[chinafree]

I can't download the newest version. I got a message:Forbidden
You do not have permission to access this document. why?

This is download link http://chidragon.thedessie.com/bdregiontray/release/v1.4/BDRegionTray.exe

[ekonhest]

Download link still doesnt work

[HogMan]

Yes. There is a reason the About window says "versions" for PowerDVD and only "version" for TMT. Supporting 'n' versions would be more complex and there was no reason to do so previously. Why are you wanting to run both?(a) TMT3 still plays HD DVDs; TMT5 doesn't.
(b) ReClock works just fine with TMT3, and in fact is necessary to avoid audio glitches in some cases; but it causes playback issues with TMT5.
(c) And what if you want to set TMT3 & TMT5 to different regions, like in the OP where you set PDVD & TMT to different regions in a command-line example?

[spanznet]

In an Active Directory environment where users do not have local admin rights, I came across the error for cannot find C:/ProgramData/Cyberlink/BDNAV/BRF.DAT and in my case was able to fix this by changing permissions on the BDNAV folder so 'Everyone' has 'Full Control'.

This only happened on Win7 machines, XP machines were already working ok.

[ChiDragon]

(a) TMT3 still plays HD DVDs; TMT5 doesn't.
(b) ReClock works just fine with TMT3, and in fact is necessary to avoid audio glitches in some cases; but it causes playback issues with TMT5.
(c) And what if you want to set TMT3 & TMT5 to different regions, like in the OP where you set PDVD & TMT to different regions in a command-line example?

Not to be argumentative, but the first two points just sound like reasons not to use TMT5 in the first place.

In an Active Directory environment where users do not have local admin rights, I came across the error for cannot find C:/ProgramData/Cyberlink/BDNAV/BRF.DAT and in my case was able to fix this by changing permissions on the BDNAV folder so 'Everyone' has 'Full Control'.

Interesting. I'm not sure if I can do anything about that in the program as it just uses a function called FileExists. I could understand if it was giving an error trying to delete/create the file but don't know why just checking for its existence would fail.

[HogMan]

Not to be argumentative, but the first two points just sound like reasons not to use TMT5 in the first place.That to me sounds more like an argument for not fixing the program. Just because TMT5 has its problems is *not* a valid reason to suggest I uninstall it just to be able to change TMT3 regions with your program.

As it stands right now, if someone has multiple versions of PDVD installed, your program can change the region coding of *all* of them; though they can only be changed separately if one is Method 1 and the other is Method 2 (and then only with command-line parameters), that's a Cyberlink constraint that can't be avoided. However, if you have multiple versions of TMT installed, only the *newest* TMT version can be changed; all other versions are ignored.

IMO, that favors Cyberlink over ArcSoft when it *should* be the other way around. I hung onto PDVD 7.3 for a long time for HD DVD support, until it got to where HD DVDs were always out-of-sync whether ReClock was active or not; that's when I switched to TMT3, which is MUCH better. TMT5 just happened to come out shortly thereafter, so I got it just in case they stopped supporting TMT3, as well as to verify whether or not HD DVD remained (though TMT3 still supported it, ArcSoft didn't officially note it as a feature). It's unfair to say that just because I also have TMT5 installed, I can't use your program to change TMT3's region as well...

(Edit: Just to be clear, I do *NOT* suggest changing the *default* behavior, either without parameters or with the current "TMT:" parameter, except if possible to detect & change *all* installed TMT versions instead of just the latest one, just like PDVD. My primary suggestion is that you add command-line parameters for specific TMT versions, i.e., "TMT2:", "TMT3:", "TMT5:", etc. Note that there is *NO* TMT4; ArcSoft skipped from 3 to 5.)

[nijiko]

This tool does not support PowerDVD11, any fix for it?

[ChiDragon]

Sadly no, they've completely changed how the region settings are stored and I couldn't determine where they are now. The files they use now may even be encrypted.

@HogMan, I have made a couple attempts to support multiple TMT versions but as it is now there are several parts based on whether TMT is running, etc. that assume you're only using one version and I'm not sure how I'd want to alter those.

[nijiko]

Sadly to hear that. Hope that it can be hacked asap.

[A Pal]

Hello,

On the DVDFab forum, I found a tip from a moderator named Blazkowicz:

Create a backup of:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyberlink\Common]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\Common]
Application Data\CyberLink
Application Data\PDVD

Use the attached script for resetting the BD Region counter to 5 changes.

*

I have no Blu-ray equipment, so I cannot test it myself, but perhaps this information helps you write a new version of your tool. As far as I know, DVDFab Passkey currently does not work with PowerDVD 11 either.

Many greetings, :)

A Pal

[A Pal]

According to dvdfab.com, DVDFab Passkey 8.0.3.7 can now reset the Blu-ray region counter of PowerDVD 11.