Is there any way to view a region2 DVD in my DVD player, or on my

[Mist]

computer? There's a made-for-TV movie made in the early 90s with Kevin Spacey playing Clarence Darrow, and, bizarrely, it's only available in region 2 format. I'd like to get it from Amazon if there's a way of watching it!

[gmoney]

1. If you have a Mac you can change the zone of the DVD Drive/Player

it defaults to zone 1, but if you put in another zone DVD, it will ask if you want to switch...

the CATCH is that you can only switch it a very limited number of times (5 I think), and the last switch is what you're stuck with. (1 > 2 > 1 >2 >1 for instance)

But if this is likely the only thing you'll watch on it, might be worth a go.

There might also be shareware that will "work around" this restriction on your computer.

[Deja Q]

2. Some DvD players have codes where you can change them to be region free

On your computer, get another DVD drive and use it SOLELY for region 2 discs -- as was said, when you change the region code on these, they can only be changed 5 times.

The UK has it good with DVD releases... they have titles we don't, or titles with many more extras and released in proper aspect ratio (e.g. "Death Becomes Her", R2, is loaded with goodies and is in anamorphic transfer with the proper aspect ratio... R1 has nothing and is cut to be in pan'n'scan ratio...)

[Mist]

3. You mean an external DVD drive? I just priced a few online and they seem

reasonable. Thanks! Don't know why I didn't think of that, but I'm not too swift with electronics.

[mwooldri]

5. there's software around the 5 times change problem...

see the other post on the thread by me.

[mwooldri]

4. For your computer I recommend breaking US law.

There's a company called Slysoft. They're not based in the USA. They distribute a piece of software called AnyDVD that disables DVD encryption (yes allowing you to copy your DVD movies)... plus it makes any computer DVD drive region-free (or any region you want to pick). Hacking the DVD encryption is totally against the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and is not legal in the United States. Therefore I can't advise you to visit slysoft.com and purchase their software (or somehow acquire it by other means).

As for other DVD players, what model DVD player do you have? I bought an el-cheapo Cyberhome branded DVD player a few years ago, and it turned out that with a few keypresses the region could be changed... change the region to '0' and it'll play any region. There's a good number of DVD players that can be "reprogrammed" this way so you can play any region DVDs.

Tell me the make and model number of your DVD player and I'll have a look up for you and see if I can find instructions.

and yes there's region free Blu-Ray - they have zones for Bluray too.

[Mist]

6. Thanks for your "for information only" post (;) I have a cheapie Magnavox dvd player, that

doesn't seem to have any programming options. I'll look into slysoft, again, for "information only"!

[rcrush]

7. Download VLC media player for your PC

That will play anything. www.videolan.org

[qb]

8. Get DVDFab and regions don't matter. nt