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A short guide to using DVD Genie |
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DVDs were designed with two concurrent content protection systems. The first is an encryption algorithm known as Content Scrambling System or CSS. CSS was designed to make it impossible for a non-approved device to read, copy, or play the data from a protected DVD in any device other than an industry-approved player as a means of copyright protection by the movie industry. The second is the DVD Region Code scheme. After agreeing on a standard for the DVD format, the DVD Forum devised a system of 6 geographical regions throughout the globe, plus a couple of rarely used special regions. The scheme works such that any copy-protected DVD is encoded with one or more Region numbers. To be able to play the disk back, a DVD player or drive must have the matching Region number. This allows the digital entertainment content industry to restrict the flow of DVDs between the different economies of the world, with the intention of preventing, for example, a flood of cheap DVDs from China hitting the American markets for a fraction of the price charged in domestic US market. In practice, both the encryption scheme of CSS and the Region Code system have been circumvented by a number of different methods.
Gradually, the market began to see increasing numbers of Region-Free DVD players, as well as DVD burners that were not protected with any Region-encoding. Technically, these devices were encoded with every region, and thus could play a disk from any Region. The content industry tries to restrict the numbers of these devices as best it can, and places stringent requirements on all of the CSS licensees who manufacture DVD players and software DVD players.
Most PC DVD drives made since 2000 are encoded for one region by default, however, allow users to change which region their drive is set to up to five times. After that, the drive can be returned to the manufacturer, allowing an additional four Region changes. As the Region coding is set at the firmware level, reinstalling the drive, Operating System, or software will not affect the number of changes a drive has remaining. Some drives, however, are not encoded with Region protection, or are encoded with every Region. As well as introducing a slightly adapted Region system called RCE, which was intended to foil Region-free DVD players – and failed quite miserably, incidentally – the industry requires that all software DVD players enforce Region code protection if the hardware does not.
Software DVD players will check the hardware to see if it enforces Region coding. If it does not, the software will enforce it instead, keeping track of how many region changes you've made. DVD Genie allows you to poll your DVD drive for its region information, and from there, check whether it has firmware level Region coding (RPC2). If it does, you can check which region it is currently set to, and how many changes it has remaining. If DVD Genie shows that your device does not enforce Region encoding, it will allow you to change your Region coding at the software level, reset (or disable) your number of Region changes remaining, and search the Web for 3rd-Party firmware updates for your DVD drive.
Note: DVD Genie CANNOT modify the Region coding of your DVD drive if it is enforced at the firmware level. It will provide you with useful information about your drive, and may point you to a permanent solution. Warning! One of the possible suggestions offered by DVD Genie involves a user-performed firmware update of your DVD Drive. The instructions and firmware for this process are different for every drive, and are not covered by this guide. If you decide to flash your DVD drive we strongly recommend that you properly research this process first, as it is specifically excluded from manufacturer warranties. Should you make a mistake or use incompatible firmware, it is possible to permanently damage your DVD drive! Changing your DVD Region Download DVD Genie and install it on your computer using the default installation options. Once installed, insert any Region encoded DVD movie into your computer's DVD drive, run the application, and switch to the RPC tab, and click RPC check. (If Windows tries to play the DVD or opens an explorer window, you should close it.) If you get an ASPI error message, or something similar upon clicking RPC Check, you are missing a required Windows application extension called wnaspi.dll. If using an older Operating System (Win9x, ME), you may be able to find it by searching the CAB files on your Windows installation disk. Copy this file to your \%System Root%\System\ (probably C:\Windows\System\) directory. If you are using Windows NT 4, 2000, XP, or Server 2003, download the required DLL and extract it to your \%System Root%\system32\ directory (probably C:\Windows\System32\ or C:\WinNT\System32\). Once the RPC Check runs, the table will show whether your drive is RPC1 - Region-Free, or RPC2 - Region Locked. RPC1 - Region Free If DVD Genie shows that your DVD drive is RPC1 (Region-free), you are fortunate, and can take full advantage of its features. Looking across the top, you can see that there are tabs for a number of different players. These include CineMaster, PowerDVD, WinDVD, ATI player and G400, Zoom Player, and Windows' own Region setting. Note that the Other tab also includes a few additional players. It is likely that (at the very least, a shareware version, if not a full OEM edition) of one of these software DVD players was included when you purchased your drive. Using DVD Genie is really quite easy. Simply click on the tab that applies to your player, select the desired region, and click Apply. There are simply too many to run through them all, and as DVD Genie is still under development, they change often, but the image below showing the PowerDVD tab selected is a good example of some of the extra options available. The settings are slightly different for each of the DVD players listed, and some offer more features than others.  If you don't see your software DVD player among the choices there, try experimenting with some of the other player Region settings: Many software DVD players share the same engine, and will be affected by the same settings. If your player is listed there, and you've checked to make sure it is an RPC1 (Region-free DVD player), but the DVD Genie Region setting does not seem to work, some of the players have workaround options. In the example above, the checking the “Alternate Region Setting” box will sometimes force PowerDVD to obey the forced Region setting if it is otherwise refusing. DVD hardware and software can be cantankerous and frustrating to work with, particularly when you're trying to use it in a way the manufacturer intended you not to . All of the advanced settings in DVD Genie have pop-up text that give you an indication of what they do, so if something isn't working and you think it ought to, try the advanced settings that apply to your software player, or try googling the make and model number of your DVD drive. You might also try running your player first, then DVD Genie, or vice-versa. RPC2 – Region Locked If DVD Genie shows that your drive is RPC2 (Region Locked), you cannot change this at the software level. You can make up to five Region changes before the Region locks on what it is set to permanently. If this has already happened to you, do not despair, as there are still several options open to you. Region Codes only affect the behaviour of DVD players, not the hardware itself. This means that you can still use DVD ripping software such as DVD Decrypter to rip the files to your hard drive, or free DVD burning software like DVD Shrink to make a Region-free copy of a DVD movie. Finally, you may want to consider applying a firmware patch to your DVD Drive to either reset the number of Region changes remaining, or where available, make your drive permanently Region free. This last option is best pursued only with ample supplies of caution and research, as it is possible to render your driver permanently inoperable if you make a mistake. The Firmware Page maintains the most comprehensive collection of DVD burner firmware on the web. If DVD Genie shows your drive is RPC2, click the RPC Information button on the RPC tab, and investigate whether there is any additional information on your drive. Unfortunately, you will be unable to do much more with DVD Genie if your drive is RPC2. |
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