DVDFab (UI/General) DVD region free only?

[murmel8]

Hi,
I was searching for a simple solution to view my (worldwide) bought DVD collection... Since I sold my DVD player to a student because of my brand new Laptop (including BD and DVD drive) I was not aware of the fact, that it's really hard to get RPC1 firmware for these drives.
So I found this awesome DVDFab Passkey software which seems to do all the crazy stuff (and much more which I don't understand) but unless I only like to have a region free player, I feel that it is a little bit overdone to have so much DVD and BD cracking tools too...
Because I also use my Labtop for business, it's not the smartest way to use this "illegal" stuff on it (yes, I am in a country where it is not allowed to crack copy protection).

I know that DVD region free is not illegal, so I would really appreciate a (free?) tool which is able to handle only the regions...

See also http://forum.dvdfab.com/showthread.php?t=6318

[murmel8]

no one interested in such little prog?

[mediafox]

Hello,

"DVDFab Passkey Lite" is free and, according to Fengtao, also the free version can bypass DVD Regions on the fly and with RPC-2 drives.

"DVD43" is also free, but does not let you select the Region (which is necessary in RCE DVDs).

Some people say the free player "VLC" ignores DVD Regions, some other say it does not.

Two (commerial) players specialized in the playback of Region DVDs are "DVD X Player" and "RioDVD Region Free."

You can try all these options and please let us know your experiences.

Many greetings,

Mediafox

[murmel8]

Thanks for the recommendations!
I've played with the DVD43 but it seems to be incompatible to Win7/64bit.
Since I have a BD drive (and I think that caused my "issue" here) I would like to play BDs as well! Both player you've mentioned are not free and have no capability to play BDs, so I have to pay for a DVD player solution in addition to my BluRay player software (PowerDVD)?? The "DVDFab Passkey Lite" is a great tool, but if a virus scan removes it because of "ilegal features" (see my first posting) it doesn't help...

[mediafox]

Unlike the DVD Region, the Blu-ray Region code is verified ONLY by the software, NOT by the drive or by Windows, so it should be enough to reset the Region counter of the player software (Region information is stored in a file and/or in the registry). DVDFab Passkey Lite can do that. DVDFab Region Reset is a free special tool for this, but since its feature was added to Passkey, I think it is no longer updated and does not support the latest versions of the players.
An antivirus program will NEVER remove a program, because it has "illegal features," but it thinks it can do harm to your computer. Of course, false alarms are possible, but this is why antivirus programs have an "exclude list" for folders and files you trust and you don't want to be examined. So if Passkey Lite works for you, use it, and if your antivirus program complains, add Passkey to its "exclude list."
I have read VLC and maybe some other free players can read video files from Blu-rays, but cannot cannot access the special features (such as menus). I have no Blu-ray equipment, so I cannot test it myself, so I can only advise you to Google for tips.
By the way, have you already tried to play Region DVDs with VLC, and if so, did it work?

Many greetings,

Mediafox

[signals]

Note that these tips and tricks will not work with DVDs in Matshita drives.

[murmel8]

VLC does the job... thanks a lot to everyone who was involved!