Can a DVD be made regionless?

[ParanoiaDragon]

I was wondering, if I rip a dvd, & then reburn it, is there a way to change the region?  I'm getting some Transformer DVD's that are never coming out in the US, & they are region 2, but, my dvd player is region 1, so, I'd like to watch them on my tv.  Anybody know of a program that can do that?  I've never burned a dvd before, so, I know nothing about those programs.

[nat]

I have a DVD like that too, so I'd be interested to hear if there is a way.

[SuperDeadite]

Google for DVD Decrypter.  Very easy to use freeware DVD ripping software.  It will automatically make any image region free.
It can also burn the image back to a new disc very easily with great results.

[Black Tiger]

Most $20 - $30 dvd players can be region switched with secret codes.

Thats how I watch my japanese Tengai Makyo dvds.

[ParanoiaDragon]

DVD Decrypter!  Looks like I already have it!  Cool.  I have it since I was at one time, ripping PS2 games, to put on my PS2HDD.  As for secret codes??

[termis]

Yeah, there are certainly ways of doing such things, even with freeware tools.  I've also burned some region 2 & region 3 movies and changed them into "region free" setting on the new DVDR.

I haven't done it in awhile, but I either/both DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter programs allow such changes. 

As for region changing your physical stand-alone players, yeah, the cheapo players usually have some button combinations on the remote control that allows you to access a menu to change the region of the player itself.  Mine is set to "free", so that it can play all DVDs  (Well, I hear there are some DVDs out there that refuse to be played in players that are set to free region, but I haven't come across one yet).

Google can be your friend on this one.

[Joe Redifer]

Black Tiger's method would be the best, period.  That way you don't have to burn and recompress, which really does bad things to the video which already is in bad shape to begin with since it lives in the shitty MPEG2 format which is an evil interframe codec.

[nat]

Black Tiger's method would be the best, period. 

Unless there are no known codes for your DVD player.

I searched for mine (an Emerson) and it's one of the ones (few?) without any known code. The story of my life!

[ParanoiaDragon]

I haven't been able to find any codes yet.  Mines a KLH 8350, gone thru different forums & what not...nothing so far

[Joe Redifer]

I think part of Black Tiger's suggestion was to pick up a new $30 player.

[SignOfZeta]

Are they region 2 PAL (UK) or region 2 NTSC (Japan)? This matters because you'll have to make sure that part is right too.

Also, as far as I know there is no way to copy the DVD with any software unless your DVD drive is also set to the same region as the DVD you want to copy. You can usually change the region of your DVD drive, but only a set number of times and then it stays in that region forever.

By the way, this sort of bullshit is just part of why I hate DVD. LD forever!

[Black Tiger]

I think part of Black Tiger's suggestion was to pick up a new $30 player.

If there is a local store or two that carries budget players, just make a note of the model numbers and then look them up online. If you have an HDTV that supports PAL, you might want to buy one that will play either format.

If you really want to make some inferior recompressed discs, I believe that "dvd shrink" is free and user friendly.

[termis]

Also, as far as I know there is no way to copy the DVD with any software unless your DVD drive is also set to the same region as the DVD you want to copy. You can usually change the region of your DVD drive, but only a set number of times and then it stays in that region forever.

Ah yeah.  This is true.  However, there are ways around this. 

There are 2 layers of region protection on DVD drives on your computer.  Hardware & software.  Older DVD-ROM drives don't have hardware protection (thus only relies on software protection), but it's unlikely your dvd player is this old.  Hardware protection can be defeated with flashing your DVD drive with a correct firmware to get rid of the region protection -- Once again, google is your friend.  Once that's done, you can proceed to defeat the software protection by using a nifty freeware program called DVD Genie.  I've changed my DVD region code multiple times on the computer and the counter never goes below the whole "You have 5 times to change your DVD region".

If you really want to make some inferior recompressed discs, I believe that "dvd shrink" is free and user friendly.

True again, but you don't have to recompress them -- this is only an option if you want to compress DVD9 discs on a standard single layer 4.7 gig DVDR.

If you're going to put it on a DVDR and don't mind not having an exact 1-to-1 copy, it's nice to take out all the annoying intros/trailers, etc.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ok, so, I just ripped a dvd out of curiosity(region 1) with DVD Decrypter.  Does anyone know how I can change the region, or make it regionless?  It seems like I need a file of some kind.  Possibly a region patch?  Oh, & btw, out of curiosity, I popped in the only foreign dvd I could think of that I have at the moment, & it worked in my DVD player!  It's the Ys 6 Movie Collection.  I assume it would be region 2, but, I suppose there's the possibility that it would be regionless?  Anyone know about this?

[rag-time4]

Paranoia, do you still have the DVD case for the Ys 6 movie collection? If so, does it have a region logo?