New DVDFab Passkey User Question

[Scoop]

Hi, new here. I'm using the trial version of Passkey for playback on my PC. All's working great.

I'm about ready to purchase the Passkey program with the DVDFab "Copy" program.

I have a couple of questions about how these 2 programs will copy a Region-coded pressed disc to a DVD-R:

1) Does DVDCopy give you the option of copying a region-locked pressed DVD into "region-free" (or all-regions enabled) DVD-R? I was on the phone with a friend that just copied his first DVD-R using these 2 programs and it appears that this is the case; DVDCopy writes the DVD-R as a region-free/all enabled disc. He checked his new DVD-R copied disc and "Passkey" reported that it's enabled for all regions, 1 thru 8.

2) Does DVDCopy have an option to convert a pressed PAL disc to an NTSC format DVD-R copy?

[Complication]

First off, you would not use Passkey and DVDFab DVD Copy together. They do similar but different things.

Yes, DVDFab can (and does by default) remove the DVD region coding.

No, DVDFab does not convert PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL. You would need to purchase a DVD player that plays both.

[Scoop]

First off, you would not use Passkey and DVDFab DVD Copy together. They do similar but different things.

Yes, DVDFab can (and does by default) remove the DVD region coding.

No, DVDFab does not convert PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL. You would need to purchase a DVD player that plays both.

Thanks for the info.

I guess I'm a little confused though. I thought that Passkey and DVDCopy work in conjunction to first: remove all protection encoding and region restrictions, then DVDCopy is the program required to copy the pressed Region protected disc to a blank DVD-R.

Does DVDCopy do both, ie, remove all Region coding and also provide a "copy" utility for copying to DVD-R's?

I think I see what the idea is here, correct me if I have this inaccurate:

Passkey's main forte is to render studio pressed movie & TV/DVD's viewable on any PC Drive.

DVDCopy duplicates Passkey's ability to remove all disc protection's for preparation to copy the pressed disc to a blank DVD-R (as well as copy and DVD-R to another DVD-R).

[CBR929]

Thanks for the info.

I guess I'm a little confused though. I thought that Passkey and DVDCopy work in conjunction to first: remove all protection encoding and region restrictions, then DVDCopy is the program required to copy the pressed Region protected disc to a blank DVD-R.

Does DVDCopy do both, ie, remove all Region coding and also provide a "copy" utility for copying to DVD-R's?

I think I see what the idea is here, correct me if I have this inaccurate:

Passkey's main forte is to render studio pressed movie & TV/DVD's viewable on any PC Drive.

DVDCopy duplicates Passkey's ability to remove all disc protection's for preparation to copy the pressed disc to a blank DVD-R (as well as copy and DVD-R to another DVD-R).

Hi Scoop
DVD Copy will remove region coding, compress the file to fit on DVD of your choice, and also burn to disc.

Passkey is an on the fly decrypter which can remove all the DVD copy protections and also region codes.
Passkey will not compress or burn to disc.

Functions of DVD Copy
Functions of Passkey


If you are looking to back up your DVD movies on to disc, then DVD Copy is what you want.
Hope this helps
CBR929

[Scoop]

Hi Scoop
DVD Copy will remove region coding, compress the file to fit on DVD of your choice, and also burn to disc.

Passkey is an on the fly decrypter which can remove all the DVD copy protections and also region codes.
Passkey will not compress or burn to disc.

Functions of DVD Copy
Functions of Passkey


If you are looking to back up your DVD movies on to disc, then DVD Copy is what you want.
Hope this helps
CBR929

CBR929,

Thanks for the info

I think where I'm a little fuzzy about these 2 programs is this part:

If I'm wanting to view a DVD from any region on a region-locked DVD Drive, will DVCopy do that for me? In other words, if I'm not interested in copying discs at present (but I will be in the future), I only want to have the capability to view a studio pressed disc from any region on my region-locked DVD Drive, will DVDCopy do that?

Btw, I was curious about the 'on the fly' concept with these region-free software programs that are available. I read a site of a well-known R-free software program and that particular software didn't appear to use the 'on the fly' approach. It seemed to rely on "talking" to the DVD Drive itself, ie, modifying the firmware? I'm a novice here and am probably not using the correct technical terminology but that particular software seemed to be a less efficient approach vs Passkey. I also noticed that this software site had a disclaimer that stated it wouldn't work with "Toshiba Satellite" DVD Drives. I own a Toshiba Satellite laptop so a friend recommended DVDFab.

Passkey is working great on both PC's, my Toshiba laptop and the desktop PC.

To summarize, will DVDCopy in effect do what Passkey does, in addition to being a 'copy' program?

[signals]

If you just want to watch the out-of-region movie on your PC, then Passkey would be the choice. If you want to make a region-free backup copy of the disc, use DVDFab. This procedure will NOT work with Matshita drives with DVDFab, Passkey or anything else AFAIK. The firmware on Matshita drives can't be changed, for many others you can get hacked firmware that either ignores the region code of the disc or allows you infinite resets.

If you have a Matshita drive (or one made by them sold under another name) you will get a region mismatch error popup when you try to read the disc with Passkey or any on-the-fly decrypter or any program like DVDFab. My HP laptop has a Matshita drive drive so I bought a slimline USB drive for $39 that lets me make backups of imports and other out-of-region discs. The slimline drives are not really good for burning but are pretty good readers, which is all they need to be to get around this problem.

Note that if the out-of-region disc is a different video standard than your home region (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) you will need to convert the video to watch it on most TVs (but not PCs).

[Scoop]

If you just want to watch the out-of-region movie on your PC, then Passkey would be the choice. If you want to make a region-free backup copy of the disc, use DVDFab. This procedure will NOT work with Matshita drives with DVDFab, Passkey or anything else AFAIK. The firmware on Matshita drives can't be changed, for many others you can get hacked firmware that either ignores the region code of the disc or allows you infinite resets.

If you have a Matshita drive (or one made by them sold under another name) you will get a region mismatch error popup when you try to read the disc with Passkey or any on-the-fly decrypter or any program like DVDFab.

Thanks,

So I guess, to view other-region dvd's, I need Passkey and not DVDCopy.

That's interesting info about the Matshita drives, thanks. I have the following drives in my 2 pc's:

Desktop: TSSTCORP SH-S223C (Samsung)
Tosiba Satt Laptop Model L655-S5168 : HL-DT-ST GT30N (Hitachi)

I guess I was lucky to avoid any Matshita drives this time.

Do you guys think that someone will find a way to make R-free work with Matshita drives at some point? If not, I guess I'll need to verify any future laptop's drive before buying one.... a headache....wow, I had thought that over the years, we'd heard the last about any std DVD drive Region-locking problems.

I was looking at [other software] for a while but they listed Toshiba Satt drives as not working with their software. It also appeared that their software was not an 'on the fly' type of decryption.

How many r-free software programs generally speaking that's available, are 'on the fly' software decryption types? Is that generally the best way to go with this r-free software approach?

[Complication]

DVDFab forums would not be the correct place to discuss software other than DVDFab.

[Scoop]

DVDFab forums would not be the correct place to discuss software other than DVDFab.

Sorry for the error, my fault.

I'm "sold" on DVDFab, will be buying both software downloads today.

I was curious what you all thought about the overall DVD decryption schemes and how they compare ('on the fly' vs some other methods).

Without understanding the technical aspects of it, the 'on the fly' concept would seem to be the best approach for decryptions.

[signals]

On-the-fly are best for viewing. They do not compress the content or allow you to re-author the DVD, removing the extras and unwanted audio or subpicture streams etc. They (O-T-F) are designed for working with other software. DVDFab Copy and Ripper options have it all built into one interface, more suitable for copying/converting.

[Scoop]

On-the-fly are best for viewing. They do not compress the content or allow you to re-author the DVD, removing the extras and unwanted audio or subpicture streams etc. They (O-T-F) are designed for working with other software. DVDFab Copy and Ripper options have it all built into one interface, more suitable for copying/converting.

Thanks for the info

I purchased both DVDFab "copy" and Passkey yesterday.

Can we install our registered programs on a 2nd PC? My programs are loaded onto my Desktop PC and I'd like to load them onto my Laptop.