Can I copy a DVD and remove region?

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by Japanese Elvis, Mar 22, 2006.

  1. Japanese Elvis

    Japanese Elvis Nibble Poster

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    I'm new to the whole DVD writer thing and have a query...

    I have family in the USA and would like to send them DVD's of some TV shows aired here - stuff that just isn't distributed in the USA.

    I've tried discussing hacking their DVD player but I'm afraid they're techonphobes and it just isn't happening.

    Now, I don't want to get into the in's and out's of piracy - that's not really what I'm about - I just want to know if I can use the PC to make a region free copy of a DVD???

    Any ideas?
     
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  2. Baba O'Riley

    Baba O'Riley Gigabyte Poster

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    I'm not sure if DVDs made with PCs are not already region free. All DVD writers are region free for the first x number of uses so they must write region free discs as well.

    Does it have to be a proper DVD rather than an mpeg video file that would not cause these problems?
     
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  3. Luddym

    Luddym Megabyte Poster

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    I'm with Baba on this one.

    As far as I know, any DVD you actually create yourself, is automatically region free.

    The problem with Region coding comes when you back up DVD's that are shop bought.

    If you are going to back up a DVD that is shop bought, or have bought a foreign DVD Disk that you want to play on your home DVD player that only supports Region 2, then something called DVD shrink helps.

    I bought a lot of Asian Region 3 disks a while back, but the DVD player connected to my TV is Region 2 only, and unhackable, so I backed up the DVD's using DVD shrink. DVD shrink Rips out the Region coding, and makes the disk playable in any DVD player in any country. As a happy by product, it can also reduce the size of DVD-9s to DVD5. So you can fit a film that was originally 7gig, onto a 4.7 gig disk.

    All in all, a great think when you are afriad the kids will snap your original disks in half, just before you want to watch them.

    :D
     
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  4. Japanese Elvis

    Japanese Elvis Nibble Poster

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    I'm not sure if their player will play MPEGs, but this DVD shrink sounds worth a look, I'll just nip over to Google...
     
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  5. Luddym

    Luddym Megabyte Poster

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    By the way, DVD shrink is a software product you run on your PC. And . . .as Baba said, the DVD drive inside a computer will only allow you to change the region it will read something like 5 times, before refusing to change again. (There are ways round this though, though using a product called Region Free.)

    So always be careful.
     
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  6. Japanese Elvis

    Japanese Elvis Nibble Poster

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    Ok, I think we're making progress here - thanks.

    I've done a quick search on DVD shrink and it looks good (and free!).

    I'll have to look into this region free thing for the writer, as I said I'm new to the DVD writer thing - only installed it last week after making do with a CD writer for years.

    Bear with me...
     
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  7. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Another thing you must consider is the TV format. If the DVD was bought here it would be PAL. USA uses NTSC. While many PAL TVs will make an attempt to show NTSC after some fashion the same cannot be said for NTSC TVs.

    You may find that you will have to standards convert the show.

    Harry.
     
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  8. Japanese Elvis

    Japanese Elvis Nibble Poster

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    Ok Harry, you've thrown a spanner in the works there.

    Excuse my ignorance, I undersrtand there is a difference in TV standards and that that was an issue with VHS - but do commercial DVDs not just play globally with the only issue being regional coding??

    To clarify, I wish to copy a commercialy produced DVD for the UK market into a format that will work on a DVD player from Wal-Mart :eek:

    After a small amount of reading, I guess that making the DVD writer region free is a less pressing issue as I only intend to play UK sourced discs on it anyway (in fact, I don't intend to play any apart from these ones I want to copy).
     
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  9. Luddym

    Luddym Megabyte Poster

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    Hey Elvis,

    Theres always a way. I only used DVD shrink when there was copy protection. You see, I always used Nero before, as it can convert from NTSC to PAL, and Vice nersa.

    So . . . one way of doing things (One way in Many) would be:

    DVD shrink the DVD to rip out the copy protection.

    Run the image through something Like Nero, to convert the video to NTSC

    Burn.




    I know it sounds like a lot to do, but once you have set DVD shrink to copy, all you do is sit back and relax. Same goes for the conversion of NTSC to PAL with NERO. Although i'm sure theres a free product out there that does the same.

    I didn't know NTSC systems had a problem with PAL though. We must be lucky in the UK, as pretty much all our systems today run PAL and NTSC. And even if they don't, a simple little dummy scart box sorts that out. :)
     
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  10. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    This is because the rest of the world is very well aware of the USA, but the USA isn't sure that the rest of the world exists!

    <ducks>

    The only way to be sure, unfortunately, is to test it.

    Harry.
     
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  11. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Wal-Mart where? If in the USA then it can be fun. If from somewhere else say where!

    Harry.
     
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  12. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    For avi/mpeg, mpgs or whatever, you dvd santa, just a extreme basic file converter to dvd format, lets you add chapter points and thats it, but you have the option to convert to PAL or NTFS / wide screen normal screen / low, meduim, high quality, and if you have the sub info, you can add them to it aswell, wlthough the subs will always be displayed...
     
  13. d-Faktor
    Honorary Member

    d-Faktor R.I.P - gone but never forgotten.

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    be careful that this thread does not evolve into a dvd ripping manual. best to avoid legally mirky waters.
     
  14. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    You beat me to it d-Fakor I was just thinking that.

    Will you please remember that copying copyright material is illegal, so please refrain from using CF for this.

    At a risk of sounding two faced there is a legal web site that gives you advice in all matters PAL, NTSC, DVD formats etc. I suggest you check out www.videohelp.com for more advice.

    Thanks guys
     
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  15. Mr.Cheeks

    Mr.Cheeks 1st ever Gold Member! Gold Member

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    sorry... :soz
     
  16. Japanese Elvis

    Japanese Elvis Nibble Poster

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    Sorry for starting this one off....

    I was wary of even asking as I didn't want to encourage any unscrupulous activities!

    I think I have gleaned enough to help me with the task in hand.

    All this just so my sister can 'enjoy' some dubious regional comedy shows which will never make it to the USA :oops:

    Thanks folks.
     
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  17. _omni_

    _omni_ Megabyte Poster

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    the region information is contained in the ifo files. without talking about ripping dvds, just use ifoedit to make a dvd (on your hdd) region free. takes about 2 seconds.
     
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  18. jodsclass

    jodsclass Byte Poster

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    I personally do this on a regular basis. I capture shows such as the Formula 1 on ITV using my pc. I then use Nero Vision, part of the Nero 7 suite to convert my video files (normally avi) onto a dvd. It is an all in one solution as it will convert your files, guide you through creating a menu, convert the format ntsc - pal or vice versa and then burn your dvd. The dvd compliance is excellent and all dvd's created using nero vision are region free (as they consist of your own material so no need to region code them for copyright purposes).

    Definately a fool proof way of authoring your own dvd's. nero is worth every penny.

    Hope that helps

    jodsclass
     
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