Was Astro This Naive?

[DrFrag]

As far as region unlocking goes, my DVD player can be unlocked by some weird button combination (something like press pause and enter the first six digits of pi). To unlock my DVD-ROM drive I need to run a firmware update followed by a Windows driver patch. Any DVD drive can physically read any DVD as long as the region code is bypassed. Generally, the cheaper the DVD-ROM/drive the easier it is to crack the region code restriction.

Viewing PAL/NTSC/SECAM differences is a different matter.

On a computer it doesn't matter because it's just a data stream running to the software and can be displayed on any resolution and frame rate.

On a TV it depends on your country and model of TV. In Australia, nearly all modern TVs (at least mid range and better) support the playing of NTSC in addition to the national PAL standard. In the USA there might be less options, because so much is released over there in NTSC format there isn't as much call for PAL support.
I don't know much about SECAM.

Buy yeah, the region locking isn't hardwired on any DVD.

[Haruka-chan]

Being in an Anime club and occasionally having to play DVDs of other region sometimes on a laptop instead of our multi-region DVD player i can say that PowerDVD is a (free i think) Windows software that will play any region of DVD ^_^

And yes region locking is definately not an aspect of a DVD-ROM at all hardware-wise. It's all in the software ^^

[jeffbert]

Hmm. The setup tab says that the region can be changed, but only 4 times. I figured that for this to have any real restrictive force, the thing would certainly be on the hardware.

[DrFrag]

Originally posted by jeffbert@Mar 26 2004, 07:34 AM
Hmm. The setup tab says that the region can be changed, but only 4 times. I figured that for this to have any real restrictive force, the thing would certainly be on the hardware.

Yes and no ... it's recorded on the firmware. So yes the region data is physically located on the hardware, but it's like a flash memory card or CMOS and can be changed via software. No soldering required.