I just received a Pete Seeger/Peter Kennedy film of John Doherty from Folktrax and popped it into the drive and came up with nothing. Wrong format! Does anyone know a good U.S.-based (or even Chicago-area) service to transfer to U.S. format?
I use free software at dvdshrink.org so now I buy DVD from the UK and Ireland and strip off the regional coding - that is what prevents you from seeing your DVD. You need a DVD burner to do this. You're effectively making a region-free backup of your original DVD.
You might be able to play it on your PC if you copy the files to the hard drive and execute from there. I've done that with an out-of-region DVD. It's the actual DVD drive that refuses to cooperate, so I bypassed it.
Thanks! My DVD drive can find the disk at all, so I guess I'll try the dvdshrink software. It's nice that freeware is out there to get round this sort of artificial barrier....
The DVD format is a propriatary standard. It is the same all over the world, like the Philips CD format.
It is owned by the DVD Consortium, i.e. Hollywood.
What you are running into is called "region coding." There is a code on the DVD that tells the DVD player what region of the world you are allowed to view it in, and a chip in the player that will look at the code and refuse to play it if you happen to live in the wrong place.
It's purely a trade manipulation thingy, so they can do things like charge $5 for the disc in Calcutta, but $20 in Detroit, or outright forbid the viewing of a disc in England if it hasn't been officially released there yet, but is available in Australia.
I've heard that nice technicians in local video repair shops have been known to do magic things to the dvd player that will enable it to ignore region codings. I've also heard that video players at the lower end of the market (i.e. not the big names) are more amenable to this magic.
Another alternative, especially if you want to view dvds from Europe on a regular basis, is to get a second dvd player and have it permanently set to the regional code for Europe. And then you don't have to have any magic spells intoned.
Note that with dvd players incorporated in pcs you can change the regional code in the pc, but only a limited number of times, and then it's permanent at the last change. On my Windows XP system I'd be allowed only 4 changes before I'd be stuck with the last change.
Trevor
DVD Genie only works with computer software based players running on pre-2000 DVD drives. The limitation on the number of times you can change the region coding is now built into the firmware of the drive, not the OS or software DVD player.
You need something like DVD-Region (the program recommended by DVD Genie) which is not freeware. It's fourty bucks, or about the price of an el cheapo DVD player.
And, of course, only works on a computer, not a stand alone DVD player for your TV, so you might just as well buy a second player with the proper region code if you want to go the TV route.
Ian's suggestion is the best all around solution though, if you have or are willing to acquire a DVD burner. That not only lets you play your backup DVD on any player, but lets you store the original, risking damage only to the copy you actually handle.
It's freeware, but needs Nero to do the burning, which is not.
Turns out I don't have a DVD burner, so DVD Genie and DVD-REgion are out. I was thinking about the CDROM drive switch thing Trevor and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't tried the DVD on the Mac laptop. Turns out Apple automatically asks if you to switch Regional codes any time you insert a disc from a different region. Yay Apple! But you only get 5 switches. I've decided to make that 4 & leave the mac in Region 2. So the mac is copying the DVD to the desktop as we speak (turns out drive speed wasn't fast enough to view the disc without skipping) and I should be watching the DVD in about 20 minutes, PG.
But all that may not have been necessary, as Bob suggested, because the Mac drive actually recogonized the disc in the first place so I probably could have just copied the files and played it from there. Won't know now I guess until I put in a Region 1 disc and try to copy and play.
& KGF, I guess Armageddon _would_ be redundant in Detroit....
Spoke too soon. the mac can't seem to play the dvd at all without so much skipping it's pointless. and it gave me an error when I tried to copy the disc to the desktop. No film today, methinks. Bah.
With many recent dvds it's difficult, or even impossible, to copy the files from the dvd to the computer's hard drive because of copy-protection. There are ways of breaking the protection ("ripping" it's called) so that you can back up your dvds onto the more secure medium of a hard drive, but you usually have to ferret around in cyberspace to find the software to do the trick. There used to be commercially available software that would do it, as part of a package to enable an individual to backup dvds for private use,but in the last year or two most of this has been crippled by the manufacturers (presumably under the ultimate pressure of Hollywood and its legal injunctions) so as to work only with dvds that are not copy-protected - i.e. in practice dvds that have been authored from personal videos or the like.
Unfortunately, the backing up of many commercial dvds is likely to become even more difficult - I've heard that Macromedia are coming out with a copy-protection system that none of the current ripping software will be be able to touch (which is not to say that some genius won't eventually come up with a way of getting round it).
Of course, you can always make some sort of a copy of a dvd for your private use by filming it from a decent screen with a video camera ... hmmm, I think you'd have to be fairly serious/desperate to do that.
With audio you can always make an analog copy of a "copy-protected" audio cd by routing the line-out (or even the 'phone socket) from the cd into your computer, a md recorder, or a tape recorder. Ok, the analog copy may not be quite as good as the digital original, and you may have to fiddle around with impedances, esp if you're copying from the 'phone socket, but with good equipment you can get results that are eminently satisfactory for all but the perfectionist with the legendary golden ears and 25K's worth (£ or $) of audio playback equipment.
Yes, I've made use of the line-out-to-mp3-recorder-to hard-drive-to CD rigamarole to put cassettes & internet realplayer files on the computer or disc for more convenient listening--but even though it is easy enough, it does take time & a bit of fiddling, or rather, not fiddling. Nevertheless it is still worth the effort sometimes, when it is the only way I can get hard-to-find recordings on a cd or the hard drive so I can listen to them or slow them down. The quality is certainly good enough for my purposes.
The site Videohelp.com has a lot of info on this sort of thing. As well as info on copying DVDs to different formats, they have a database of info on different DVD players, including region-free hacks where applicable. A lot of the time this is done by punching a code into the remote. Aside from the region issue though, there's also the fact that North American video uses a different standard than that used in Europe (NTSC vs PAL respectively). Some equipment contains special hardware to make the conversion, but I think most players don't.
just search the net for your type of DVD player. Most likely you'll find a trick to make your player all-region, (mostly involves entering a code sequence with your remote) and you can play all DVD's you want.
"DVD hacks" is the term you should search for on Google. You should be able to find if your model DVD player can be set to multi-region. Almost all cheap ones can, but some of the big brand names are not so easy. Especially those that also(ny) own entertainment publishing.
Where the DVD industry profits by making it impossible (without hacking my player) for me to play DVDs of films I bought in Australia because they weren't even released in the UK, and never will be, I will never know.
However music films & documentaries are not usually region-coded.
DVD conversion help
DVD conversion help
Hello,
I just received a Pete Seeger/Peter Kennedy film of John Doherty from Folktrax and popped it into the drive and came up with nothing. Wrong format! Does anyone know a good U.S.-based (or even Chicago-area) service to transfer to U.S. format?
Thanks.
# Posted on April 8th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: DVD conversion help
I use free software at dvdshrink.org so now I buy DVD from the UK and Ireland and strip off the regional coding - that is what prevents you from seeing your DVD. You need a DVD burner to do this. You're effectively making a region-free backup of your original DVD.
# Posted on April 8th 2005 by ian clark
Re: DVD conversion help
You might be able to play it on your PC if you copy the files to the hard drive and execute from there. I've done that with an out-of-region DVD. It's the actual DVD drive that refuses to cooperate, so I bypassed it.
# Posted on April 8th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: DVD conversion help
Thanks! My DVD drive can find the disk at all, so I guess I'll try the dvdshrink software. It's nice that freeware is out there to get round this sort of artificial barrier....
# Posted on April 8th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: DVD conversion help
The DVD format is a propriatary standard. It is the same all over the world, like the Philips CD format.
It is owned by the DVD Consortium, i.e. Hollywood.
What you are running into is called "region coding." There is a code on the DVD that tells the DVD player what region of the world you are allowed to view it in, and a chip in the player that will look at the code and refuse to play it if you happen to live in the wrong place.
It's purely a trade manipulation thingy, so they can do things like charge $5 for the disc in Calcutta, but $20 in Detroit, or outright forbid the viewing of a disc in England if it hasn't been officially released there yet, but is available in Australia.
KFG
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by KFG
Re: DVD conversion help
I've heard that nice technicians in local video repair shops have been known to do magic things to the dvd player that will enable it to ignore region codings. I've also heard that video players at the lower end of the market (i.e. not the big names) are more amenable to this magic.
Another alternative, especially if you want to view dvds from Europe on a regular basis, is to get a second dvd player and have it permanently set to the regional code for Europe. And then you don't have to have any magic spells intoned.
Note that with dvd players incorporated in pcs you can change the regional code in the pc, but only a limited number of times, and then it's permanent at the last change. On my Windows XP system I'd be allowed only 4 changes before I'd be stuck with the last change.
Trevor
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by Trevor Jennings
Re: DVD conversion help
yeah but there's a small bit of freeware that resets the counter - I think it's called dvd genie or something like that
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by Kelpie
Re: DVD conversion help
Thanks again all. I'll check out DVD genie too & get it figured out this weekend. I'm very much looking forward to watching the film!
The regional code thing sure is annoying though.
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: DVD conversion help
DVD Genie only works with computer software based players running on pre-2000 DVD drives. The limitation on the number of times you can change the region coding is now built into the firmware of the drive, not the OS or software DVD player.
You need something like DVD-Region (the program recommended by DVD Genie) which is not freeware. It's fourty bucks, or about the price of an el cheapo DVD player.
And, of course, only works on a computer, not a stand alone DVD player for your TV, so you might just as well buy a second player with the proper region code if you want to go the TV route.
Ian's suggestion is the best all around solution though, if you have or are willing to acquire a DVD burner. That not only lets you play your backup DVD on any player, but lets you store the original, risking damage only to the copy you actually handle.
It's freeware, but needs Nero to do the burning, which is not.
KFG
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by KFG
Re: DVD conversion help
...but if you've got a DVD drive, you probably got Nero in the package.
And, again, if you want to watch an out-of-region DVD on your PC, just copy the files to the hard drive and play them from there.
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by Bob himself
Re: DVD conversion help
Turns out I don't have a DVD burner, so DVD Genie and DVD-REgion are out. I was thinking about the CDROM drive switch thing Trevor and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't tried the DVD on the Mac laptop. Turns out Apple automatically asks if you to switch Regional codes any time you insert a disc from a different region. Yay Apple! But you only get 5 switches. I've decided to make that 4 & leave the mac in Region 2. So the mac is copying the DVD to the desktop as we speak (turns out drive speed wasn't fast enough to view the disc without skipping) and I should be watching the DVD in about 20 minutes, PG.
But all that may not have been necessary, as Bob suggested, because the Mac drive actually recogonized the disc in the first place so I probably could have just copied the files and played it from there. Won't know now I guess until I put in a Region 1 disc and try to copy and play.
& KGF, I guess Armageddon _would_ be redundant in Detroit....
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: DVD conversion help
Spoke too soon. the mac can't seem to play the dvd at all without so much skipping it's pointless. and it gave me an error when I tried to copy the disc to the desktop. No film today, methinks. Bah.
# Posted on April 9th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: DVD conversion help
With many recent dvds it's difficult, or even impossible, to copy the files from the dvd to the computer's hard drive because of copy-protection. There are ways of breaking the protection ("ripping" it's called) so that you can back up your dvds onto the more secure medium of a hard drive, but you usually have to ferret around in cyberspace to find the software to do the trick. There used to be commercially available software that would do it, as part of a package to enable an individual to backup dvds for private use,but in the last year or two most of this has been crippled by the manufacturers (presumably under the ultimate pressure of Hollywood and its legal injunctions) so as to work only with dvds that are not copy-protected - i.e. in practice dvds that have been authored from personal videos or the like.
Unfortunately, the backing up of many commercial dvds is likely to become even more difficult - I've heard that Macromedia are coming out with a copy-protection system that none of the current ripping software will be be able to touch (which is not to say that some genius won't eventually come up with a way of getting round it).
Of course, you can always make some sort of a copy of a dvd for your private use by filming it from a decent screen with a video camera ... hmmm, I think you'd have to be fairly serious/desperate to do that.
With audio you can always make an analog copy of a "copy-protected" audio cd by routing the line-out (or even the 'phone socket) from the cd into your computer, a md recorder, or a tape recorder. Ok, the analog copy may not be quite as good as the digital original, and you may have to fiddle around with impedances, esp if you're copying from the 'phone socket, but with good equipment you can get results that are eminently satisfactory for all but the perfectionist with the legendary golden ears and 25K's worth (£ or $) of audio playback equipment.
Trevor
# Posted on April 10th 2005 by Trevor Jennings
Re: DVD conversion help
I meant "phono", not "phone", of course.
Trevor
# Posted on April 10th 2005 by Trevor Jennings
Re: DVD conversion help
Yes, I've made use of the line-out-to-mp3-recorder-to hard-drive-to CD rigamarole to put cassettes & internet realplayer files on the computer or disc for more convenient listening--but even though it is easy enough, it does take time & a bit of fiddling, or rather, not fiddling. Nevertheless it is still worth the effort sometimes, when it is the only way I can get hard-to-find recordings on a cd or the hard drive so I can listen to them or slow them down. The quality is certainly good enough for my purposes.
# Posted on April 10th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: DVD conversion help
The site Videohelp.com has a lot of info on this sort of thing. As well as info on copying DVDs to different formats, they have a database of info on different DVD players, including region-free hacks where applicable. A lot of the time this is done by punching a code into the remote. Aside from the region issue though, there's also the fact that North American video uses a different standard than that used in Europe (NTSC vs PAL respectively). Some equipment contains special hardware to make the conversion, but I think most players don't.
# Posted on April 11th 2005 by Pat McGee
Re: DVD conversion help
just search the net for your type of DVD player. Most likely you'll find a trick to make your player all-region, (mostly involves entering a code sequence with your remote) and you can play all DVD's you want.
# Posted on April 12th 2005 by petercnm
Re: DVD conversion help
"DVD hacks" is the term you should search for on Google. You should be able to find if your model DVD player can be set to multi-region. Almost all cheap ones can, but some of the big brand names are not so easy. Especially those that also(ny) own entertainment publishing.
Where the DVD industry profits by making it impossible (without hacking my player) for me to play DVDs of films I bought in Australia because they weren't even released in the UK, and never will be, I will never know.
However music films & documentaries are not usually region-coded.
# Posted on April 12th 2005 by Bren