(1) from --- Jason Vance [log in to unmask] It is not necessarily a hack, but software to tell the dvd drive switch to a different region. If you use a program called DVD Region Killer, then you won't have to worry about the warranty. Jason Vance, Supervisor Language Learning Center Thomas Nelson Community College PO BOX 9407 Hampton, Virginia 23670 757-825-2819(Office) 757-825-3807(fax) (2) from --- Edith Paillat [log in to unmask] Hi Francesco, We have a range of DELL PCs with CD-rw/DVD combo drive that also are RCP2 (region coded). Dell claims that they will not provide support if we used a firmware patch to allow RCP1 (region free) our DVD drives even if we are located in NZ, so we decided we decided not to follow that PC, since flashing/hacking a drive is risky business, especially if you are not sure of the outcome and how to solve it.. You will find some recommendations and answers with the right jargon here http://faq.inmatrix.com/. You can also post your own questions as well to the forum. Check the FAQ and terminology under the information button. The region coding happens on two levels one is the hardware and the second the player used to watch the DVDs (Power DVD for e.g.). Generally you get 5 chances to select your region then it becomes locked. 3 ways to go about RCP1/2 (what we have done and have considered) : 1/ if your, say, 25 PCs are self-access and you assume that 25 students are not going to all simultaneously watch 25 zone 1 DVD you can select which PC gets which region and you direct the students with their DVD in hand to the corresponding PC. If your lab is a classroom then it is more complicated, and I have always wondered whether the notice at the beginning of each video/DVD(group viewing) was applicable to educational purposes, in which case my potential suggestion of using a data projector connected to a PC would be useless + they don't get the the chance of watiching the movie at their own pace. 2/ the second is to use a (open source/freeware) player called VideoLan, originally designed by l'Ecole des Mines and further developed by other people. Since we can legally use RCP1 dvd player here in New Zealand, we have indulged to that precious software both on our PCs (XP)and Macs (OSX Panther) and it works well but it is not that easy to use at first. This will not hack the DVD hardware/firmware but go past the player region coding. It is an open source so there might be bugs here and there so check out for updates regulary. We haven't had any problem with our versions. http://www.videolan.org/ 3/ If you still want to keep your original player, the way to go is to DVD idle pro which starts up with any common player (window Media Player) simply as soon as you open a video and will also go past the region coding of your PC (only - no mac version) http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-idle-pro.htm Well I hope this will be of help, Kind regards **************************** Edith Paillat Language Technology Specialist Language Learning Centre Victoria University of Wellington P.O.Box 600, Wellington New Zealand +64 4 463 5792 http://www.vuw.ac.nz/llc/about/projects.aspx (3) from Alvaro Cano [log in to unmask] A long time ago I was looking for something similar and I cane across this website: http://www.dvdidle.com/ (4) from --Laura Atkinson [log in to unmask] What we've done is to designate certain computers in the lab for each region - mostly Region 1 and 2 but we have at least two workstations for each of the 6 regions. I locked each drive down by switching the region code 5 times. This is tricky, because you really need to start with the region you want it to get locked to. We figured it was best that we lock them to a region rather than users locking them at random to a particular region. We have a diagram posted on the lab wall to show users where they can view a particular region DVD. The problem with this though is that you need to have a DVD on hand that is from the region you want to set (as well as at least one that is from a different region). I never got my hands on a region 5 or region 6 DVD. The upside of that though is that no one's ever needed to play one of those regions, and as soon as someone asks to, I can borrow their disc for a minute and set the drives. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Laura Atkinson Instructional Technology Lab Specialist Center for Instructional Technology / Foreign Language Instructional Technology Support Duke University [log in to unmask] ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*