Windows 7: DVD Region 2

I just received a movie DVD, which I purchased at eBay, and was surprised that it was marked region 2, since the ad said nothing to state or imply that this was true. Yet, it does play okay on my computer, and my optical drives are all region 1.

I also thought that movies for Europe would all be PAL, instead of NTSC, which even if the movie ran, would cause it not to do so properly, since PAL is produced at a slower frame rate than NTSC.

I suppose that the fact that it does seem to run properly should be sufficient, but I am confused and curious as to how all of this actually works?

When you buy a new DVD drive, the region code is not set in the drive. After installing the OS, when you play your first region-coded DVD, the drive gets set to that region. This is also communicated to the OS.

When you play a DVD of a different region, the drive gets automaticaly
set to that specific region. The fifth time it sets to a different region that becomes final. Therafter you can play only DVDs of that region.

The following screenshot may perhaps be easier to grasp.



The first time I had played a Region 3 DVD. The drive had set itself to Region 3 and four more region changes are permissible. You can manually set the Region code of the drive through the OS - which we seldom do.

Check the properties of your drive and you will know how many more changes are permissible. Be aware that it is the counter in the drive that gets set and that is why even if you reinstall the OS what is set in the drive will not change. The OS will still show what is set in the drive and how many more are permissible.

Thanks for the explanation, what you said makes sense, but I just checked the region on the drive that I played the movie on, and it is still set at region 1, with 4 changes remaining...something still is haywire.

EDIT: Actually, I didn't really play the entire movie from the DVD, only a small portion to see if it would play. However, I did encode the entire movie, and watched it that way. This makes me wonder how quickly that a out of region DVD resets the drive...does it have to complete the DVD or ?

All what I have said will be true only if you are not defeating the region code in some way or the DVD is pirated. Sometimes what is marked in the Disc/wrapper may also be not correct, especially when pirated DVDs are common. The pirates could have made it regionfree but copied the wrapper/print material ditto.

If you are using PowerDVD to play the DVD, you can check the region Code of the disk in its configuration.

If I defeated the code, it was not knowingly. Recording a movie via an encoder would be equal to playing it directly...wouldn't it?

Not if you use DVD Fab, which defeats the region code. Also see my edited post above.

Anyway nothing serious. Be happy.

I don't think that the DVD is pirated, however it is a Korean release, so that may be equal to pirated...don't know. I did use DVDFAB to encode it, and I have always understood that the output from it was region free, but I didn't know that it would prevent a reset of the region within the drive also. I'm happy, as long as the movie didn't foul something up. Chances are, that I will never play the movie directly from the DVD, so all of this is somewhat moot, except in terms of increasing my understanding...which you have done. Thanks.

EDIT: When I said that it was a Korean release, I was wrong. I got it confused with another movie that came today which was. As far as I can tell, it has the appearance of being a legitimate release, but for another region.

If you are still curious, have the time and inclination, just play the disc with Power DVD. Even if you don't want to, some more for your understanding.

If the disc is an all region disc (pirated and rebottled), it will play without any fuss.

If it is really region 2 (quite possible as you believe it to be), you will get a message akin to this: (Here I am trying to play a region 4 DVD with my region 3-set DVD drive). If I say OK and am within no.5 the region will be reset to 4 and the disc will play. If I say cancel, it will spit "sorry, I can't play"