Re: [tlug] DVD Region Issues

[Kalin KOZHUHAROV <me.kalin@example.com>]

On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 2:38 PM, Darren Cook <darren@example.com> wrote:
>> You can read the data directly and avoid using the DVD player software.
>> That's my experience.
>
> The drive *firmware* prevents the *hardware* reading a disk that has a
> region code that does not match what the drive has been set to. DVDs
> with no region code always read fine, of course.
>
Yes, firmware does that. These days firmware resides on flash memory...

>>>> +1, even if you buy a DVD media, rip it to your drive and forget about
>>>> all the noise of the spinning disk.
>>>
>>> How can I do that if the disk refuses to read because of the region
>>> code? :-)
>>>
>>> In the DVD drives I've seen the past few years the region locking is at
>>> the drive firmware level and you can change the region 3 times then it
>>> is stuck forever. That is what I'd like to avoid.
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/dvd.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS

Hmm, a random check of two of my DVD drives...
/usr/sbin/regionset /dev/sr0
regionset version 0.1 -- reads/sets region code on DVD drives
Current Region Code settings:
RPC Phase: II
type: NONE
vendor resets available: 4
user controlled changes resets available: 5
drive plays discs from region(s):, mask=0xFF

regionset /dev/sr0
regionset version 0.1 -- reads/sets region code on DVD drives
Current Region Code settings:
RPC Phase: II
type: SET
vendor resets available: 4
user controlled changes resets available: 4
drive plays discs from region(s): 2, mask=0xFD

Have to dig those old SCSI cards and try the SCSI drives if they are
not rusted...

Kalin.