Setting Region of DVD Drive

Introduction

In some situations, the DVD drive may refuse to play DVDs because of the region ID not set in drive. This also can affect the ripping of DVD disks on this drive.

Verification of currently set DVD region

To verify the settings of your DVD drive, you should use the dvd_region tool: by default it tries to open the drive /dev/dvd but in recent LinuxMCE installations, the different numbering schema is used, e.g. /dev/dvd1 , /dev/dvd2 , etc. Use the "-d" option to change the drive to query:

root@dcerouter:~# /usr/pluto/bin/dvd_region -d /dev/dvd1

If the region ID is set, you should see the similar output:

Drive region info:
Type: Drive region is set
4 vendor resets available
4 user controlled changes available
Region: 1 playable
RPC Scheme: The Logical Unit _shall_ adhere to the specification and all requirements of the CSS license agreement concerning RPC

Setting DVD region

If you see the message about not set region ID, you can set it using combination of options "-s" and "-r", for example, to set region to 1 (which corresponds to the US and Canada), you should run:

root@dcerouter:~# /usr/pluto/bin/dvd_region -s -r 1 -d /dev/dvd1

And press enter when you will be asked if you really want to set DVD region.

Extra information

There is an article in Wikipedia on DVD region code: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code

See also

   * RPC1.org for info about firmware to make your drive RPC1
   * DVD Infomatrix (a wealth of information about DVD PCs)
   * MPEGX (PC utilities for video and audio, more)
   * DVDSoft.net (PC utilities, more)
   * Doom9 (PC utilities for DVD backup)
   * Visual Domain <PC utilities, including Drive Info)
   * DVDCity (code-free DVD player FAQ)
   * Code Free DVD (region-free DVD players)
   * Code Free DVD Mart (region-free DVD players and information)
   * Region Free DVD (region workarounds for players and PCs)
   * RegionFreeDVDPlayers (region-free DVD players)
   * ZoneFreeDVD (region-free DVD players)
   * dvdkits.com (modification chips for DVD players)
   * DVD Upgrades (region-free DVD players and modification chips)
   * DVDoverseas (region-free DVD players)
   * Link Electronics (region-free DVD players and upgrades)
   * Techtronics (region-free DVD players and upgrades)
   * Upgrade Heaven (region-free DVD players)
   * Eric's DVD Information (tech info on early players)
   * Google Deja Usenet Archive (search the rec.video.dvd and alt.video.dvd newsgroups)

The above info is borrowed from DVD demystified