Any way to play a DVD that is "Regionally Coded" in a DVD player?

[Southtown]

I've started to collect some 80s rock DVDs and my new arrival appears to be regionally coded.

It only works on two of the four DVD players in my condo. Its plays fine on a JVC VCR/DVD combo and on my $25 junk Colby DVD player.

It won't however play in the Sony DVD or in my PS2. Both of these are in the living room that is why I want them to play in these machines. The Sony DVD says "Can not read disk" and the PS2 says "Out of region" and will not play.

Any trick to get around this? Cross some wires? Install a flux capacitor? Or am I out of luck?

[The Evil Genius]

Well, this is slightly under the table...but there is a link (I will have to look for it) that has all the major DVD players and they hacks that you need to use to play all DVD's (no matter the region).

The hacks usually consist of pressing a few buttons in progression.

Will look for the link.

[Southtown]

Thanks Evil Genius!

[The Evil Genius]

Try this...

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?select=

[ntotoro]

Another thing is to try and score one of those Apex DVD players from like 5-6 years ago. They were cheap as far as DVD players went at the time($180 or so at the time), but you coud disable Macrovision & regional encoding in the CMOS.

Nick

[SoCalSkins]

If you have a burner, use dvdshrink ro remove the region coding and burn a new copy that will play on the player, unless of course the player isn't able to play recordable media.

[Leonard Washington]

Originally posted by SoCalSkins

If you have a burner, use dvdshrink ro remove the region coding and burn a new copy that will play on the player, unless of course the player isn't able to play recordable media.

i've wondered about this "ability" to play burned media. i have a early 1990s cd player that plays burned cdrs and rws perfectly. also my home dvd player doesn't say anything about being able to play dvd+r/-r but it does with ease. i think its a hoax by the man.

[Larry]

I get junk mail all the time from people selling DVD players with "No Regional Coding".

One way to find them might be to google for japanese anime. (Note, you'll get thousands of hits, and a lot of them will be porn sites that will try to bury you in popups.)

But, since many anime titles are regionally coded for Japan, people who want to watch anime often need a player that isn't locked into "US-only" mode.

One other thing you might try, if all your "problem " DVDs are from one region:

As I understand it, the regional coding simply consists of a flag on the disc that says "This disc is for region X". (And, I think, there only are 10 regions). Many players don't know which region the customer lives in. The way many DVD players work is, they assume that whichever DVD you play first is the region you live in. (And from there on out, it objects to any discs that're different from the first one.)

Seems to me (haven't tried it, or even read about it) if all the DVDs you want to watch are, say, from Japan, you could just buy another player, and only play Japanese DVDs on it. (And the player will think it's in Japan.)