About the T42 DVD Drive and its Region Protection

[edelrc]

At this moment there is not firmware that can disable the region codes for our drivers, that is, you can change DVD movies 4 changes and the last one you make, the DVD drive will ONLY read DVDs protected from that last change .

Other software as AnyDVD and DVD Region+CSS Free , the two major software to solve the region protection issue, are also unable to bypass this issue.
The following is the answer I found about this issue from AnyDVD and DVD Region+CSS Free:
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MMC standard requires, that a drive should not reveal a title key on a region mismatched CSS protected disc. (It should return "Illegal request - region code does not match"). Some drives are even less restrictive and even give you the title key on region mismatch.
But these types of software can usually reveal the title key with a brute force attack, as long as the drive allows you to read the scrambled sectors.
M a t s u s h i t a (Panasonic) drives do not! You CANNOT read the scrambled data, if the region code doesn't match.
No other drive behaves this way, only M a t s u s h i t a (Panasonic) drives do, as the standard does not require a drive to not reveal the protected data on region mismatch, but M a t s u s h i t a (Panasonic) drives are more restrictive as they need to be.
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In conclusion, at this moment there is nothing we can do to solve the problem of the Region Protected DVDs that does not involve to replace the DVD drive.

In the world there are only 3 DVD drives that has these limitation and those are:
- Matshita XX-8xxx. Sony is the main buyer of this drives and most probably (since Sony got into the film industry) required from M a t s u s h i t a this specific requirement. The bad news is that IBM, for one reason or another, decided for these drives too.
- Matshita SW-9xxx series
- Torisan DRD-Uxxx
All other DVD drives in thiis world does not have this problem. That is what is called tough luck !

[Elhabash]

Sounds bad. Now this would be a reason for a class-action lawsuit with a foundation! According to many experts, the whole region code issue is not compatible with international law. Intuitively one could argue that you paid for it, so you are supposed to be able to watch it, too.

I for myself trust on the international hacker community to bypass all such attempts to block usability and freedom. It just sucks when it doesn't work as in your case.

[edelrc]

I fully agree Elhabash.

The vast majority of multi DVD region use is by people like me that are few months here and few months there, (that is why I´d GOT a laptop!!!). Believe me, those who do contraband with DVDs back and forward DO NOT encounter the hassle that we do.

I own many legal American DVDs and some European ones, and now I wanted to adquire some other European ones more but if I do that my drive will get block.... And not just that... now that my drive is in European mode... I CAN NOT watch my US DVDs... and guess what... converting them to another format it is ILLEGAL too! Hum, congratulations Hollywood, you´d got one more customer migrated into DVD piracy ! Now DivX has became my only alternative, that or to spend €300+ in a drive for each region I travel!!!! The best thing of all, it is that I do not feel one bit guilty at all ...

[beeblebrox]

I got me another $20 DVD drive on ebay for the other region codes.
I know, it is plain stupid, but that's the only way how it works. The matshita drive has a small memory, that is programmed.

However, what you could do if you have a regular Ultrabay 2000 drive: keep the case, dump the IBM drive, buy a brandnew DVD +-RW (e.g. Toshiba or Panasonic) for $100 and put that drive into the old Ultrabay 2000 case. They are all 12.5mm industry standard.
Just check on ebay, there are so many of it.
It is really a matter of 10 minutes, swapping the drives. AND you get a powerful 8x DVD +- burner, not the crappy IBM multiburner for some astronomical fantasy price.

[edelrc]

Unfortunately, T42 uses a 9mm drive, not a 12.5mm . And many people here have said that Matshita is the only company that makes them. The only solution is an external drive. Not a nice solution for those that have a laptop... an external drive is almost like carrying a 2nd laptop. Ridiculous!

I am sorry for IBM, but if for business purposes I need to use different region DVDs, when my drive gets lock, I will ask IBM for a replacement based on the pretext that it is defective, because with Toshibas, Dells or eve others Thinkpad models I would not have gotten into this mess. Yes, I am that angry today!

[k3nnis]

Hi guys.

I have a t42 with a combo cdrw/dvd drive and i am using dvd region free+css, you can get it here:
http://www.dvdidle.com/

It works really good:)

Cheers.
Kenn.

[sugo]

edelrc meant the multi burner UJ-812B

yup the combo drives are much better in this regard

[edelrc]

Sorry, my fault.
Yes, the problem is for those who we have the UJ-812 drive.
You can check your model with this application: http://www.remoteselector.com/files/driveinfo22.exe (7kb, and don´t worry, it´s safe!)

The only drives in the world with this issue are:
- Matshita XX-8xxx series
- Matshita SW-9xxx series
- Torisan DRD-Uxxx

[Elhabash]

Hum, congratulations Hollywood, you´d got one more customer migrated into DVD piracy Surprised ! Now DivX has became my only alternative, that or to spend €300+ Evil or Very Mad in a drive for each region I travel!!!! The best thing of all, it is that I do not feel one bit guilty at all Twisted Evil ...

Actually, despite all the whining coming from Hollywood on how they are going to be broke in a few months due to piracy, 2004 seems to be another record year...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4120425.stm

Besides, one effect of the few downloaded movies I got (and, of course, the ones I watched with friends without paying) is that I go to the cinema more often, and buy more DVDs than before. I know this is not true with everyone, but as stated earlier, in such things repression just doesn't work, but other strategies do...

Down with them region codes!

[MadeInJapan]

Even though a 12.7mm drive (TP T30), I had the same problem with it...couldn't make it region free (UJ-811). But since then I have upgraded to Matshita UJ-815 (slot loading multi-burner) which is flash upgradable to region free. So, there are a few Panasonic/Matshita drives that can be altered, but not the UJ-812, like mentioned above. For full upgradability or other software to "fake out" the RPC settings, go to www.rpc1.com and click on "firmware" upgrade on the left panel, and search for your drive. I'd say that eventually someone will figure out the 812 as well, but not yet....appears that there are two eeproms in it....one ahead of the other that has the region coding, and keeps the main eeprom from being read. At least that's what I've heard....probably one reason for the expensive price too.

Even in home DVD players, the consumer pays more for the machines that employ sophisticated technologies to keep the region code and macrovision (copy protection) from being cracked. That's why most of the time, you're better off buying the cheap Chinese brands like Apex and CyberHome which are much more easily altered and lend themselves to having their region settings and macrovision defeated. This is just my opinion so take it for what it's worth.

[meditate2001]

Can you at least rip the dvd with a tools like dvddecryptor ?

[MadeInJapan]

meditate....yes, you can, as long as the region code is the same on disc as on your system I like DVD Decryptor too, but lately I've been using AnyDVD and DVD2One.....I use AnyDVD running in the background while DVD2One not only rips, but "shrinks" the files to fit on single layer DVD media....then I use a blank DVD to burn what I've got (ripped and shrank), so that I can use the recorded disc on my computer or stand-alone home deck.
DVD Decryptor will only rip the files, and not shrink them down to the acceptable size for burning. If you just want files on your computer to view movies saved on HDD (such as with PowerDVD), then all you need is DVD Decryptor, and it does a great job.

In summary: You can do anything with the UJ-812 that you can do with any Region Free muti-burner as long as the Region of the Disc you are trying to process or view and the Region setting of your machine match.

[edelrc]

DVD2one is a very good one but it is 40€ or so!
What I had used is to compress the two layers DVDs into a DVD of 1 layer is DVD Shrink http://www.dvdshrink.org/where.html. It is free (as DVD Decryptor) and works as good as DVD2one.

[lvlolvlo]

i just use DVDShrink....

it makes it half the size so I can store it on my HD in one step...later on I can "mount" it with 120 and play in whenever and whatever region it might be.

[MadeInJapan]

Use whatever software you want...everyone has their druthers...in my case, DVD2One and AnyDVD were gifts to me a few birthdays ago....so I'm used to using them and they work great for me.

[s0larian]

This doesn't help probably for the multiburner issue, but with my cdrw-combo drive and the VLC Player (www.videolan.org, freeware) I can play DVD's from all regions without additional software like dvdidle.

[MadeInJapan]

Yeah, you're right...with the UJ-812, even this software won't work....I've tried it....If this software would work, then AnyDVD, DVD Region Free, and other similar software would also work. But, in favor of the software, since it's stand-alone, it takes care of running several applications at one time, and it's not a resource hog....nice piece of software for the right application. However, I still prefere PowerDVD, even if something else is running in the background.

[ehd]

this only encourages people to buy bootleg dvds that are region free... idiots in hollywood

[MadeInJapan]

To the guy who posted who travels back and forth between Europe and the U.S.? Use an inexpensive desktop DVD burner and make a "back-up" of your DVD's in region free (This is not illegal if you own the original) and take the back-up copy with you when you travel. You will be able to view these discs on your UJ-812.