Making a La Cie DVD +/- RW regionfree

I posted this 6 months ago and after some 300 views, there still seemed nobody to know the answer. I deleted the original post and put it back to bump it up. So even if I get an answer now that would make a 0.3% chance to get a reply. Strange.

I have a LaCie external DVD +/- RW DVDRW8651. I want to make it region free.
However I can't find any information on Google on how to make this one region free. The first time I inserted a DVD it asked me to set a region; which I denied. So the region is not set yet. I can only change region settings 5 times before it is set final.
I'm not sure which brand is used either in this LaCie. Some say it is a NEC, but DVDRW8651 cannot be found among NEC writers.

Screenshot

http://www.keepmyfile.com/image/6e62ff428341

I rumaged through the manuals on the LaCie website. I found this in the manual for the * LaCie DVD±RW Internal Drive · E-IDE, with Double Layer

SECTION 5.4


hope that helps.

This is just to switch the region. From the manual I do not think you can make it region free. You are allowed to change the RPC a total of 5 times it says.

Dangles

Well anyway thanks for the quick reply.

It doesn'r solve my problems however. Allow me to explain: maybe 95% of all movies or serials appear first in the USA. Of course we poor people in Europe are aware of this and want to watch them on DVD before the official DVD is released over here. That's why the film industry invented this region coding. America has region code 1 and Europe a region code 2 etc. There are more regions codes. Someone living in America is rarely interested in viewing a DVD movie with a region code 2 of Europe because usually the same DVD movie is already available in America with the 1 coding. The rare exeptions are the European movies that appear first in Europe with the 2 coding.

A DVD player sold in the US has the possibility to view only region 1 DVD's. The same with the DVD players sold over here can only view DVD's with the region code 2

There are exeptions of course from manufacturers that don't care and make multiregion players.

Now the hardware and filmindustry allows 5 changes of this region settings: usually 3 times by the user and 2 times by the technicians. After this the region is finally "set"; and can't be changed. This is called changing or updating or flashing the firmware. The link to the official LaCie website tells you how to change the firmware. But I don't need that (see below)

The firmware can also be changed to a multiregion RPC or no region setting (hacking); but that's in fact not supported by the manufacturers . So gone the warranty.

But I still would like to try it. I mean in the meantime I found out that it can be done instead of hardwarebased; software based. But I'm afraid that it still would tweak my region setting. That way I would be left with only 4 changes before it's permanently set. (remember 3 changes by user and 2 changes by technician)

If I, at this moment put a DVD in the player, it asks me to confirm the region setting: be it 1 for an American DVD or 2 for an European DVD. At that time if I cobfirm; I know I have only 4 changes left. I don't want to use that countdown.

if your in europe why would u care to have it region free? why not just region 2?

American DVD's are released before European DVD's.

Well that's just what I explained: America has region 1 and Europe has region 2. All DVD players here have region 2. If they were regionfree over here I could watch imported American movie DVD's (reg 1) months before the same movies are available over here in the DVD region 2. You want an example ? The new movie Basic Instinct: it will prob be only by the end of the year that it would be available over here in the videorent stores; maybe 2 months later for sale too. But not only that: some movies will never be available in the region 2 coding. I have some region 1 DVD's, and I'm planning to keep importing some from the US from time to time.

Exactly that's what I ment. And the difference is sometimes 5 to 6 months.

simple go on ebay and get region 1 hardware

Ye nice, two DVD players: one for region 1, and another for region 2. What would that cost me ? Only 150 $.....
Most hardware DVD external players can be updated firmwarewise to a DVD region freeversion.
The LaCie I own probabily too. It's just that I can't find it on the internet.
Maybe I should put it in a French forum, since the LaCie DVD is French.

Ok, I looked into this a little more.

Try these links

I found them using Google, so I have no experience with them(use at your own risk)

http://forum.rpc1.org/

http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm

Dangles

Now that's already better.
I'll check the links out.
Thanks.

Get a region free player. Or, set your DVD region to whatever it is over there in Europe and just use DVD decryptor whenever you want to play a different region. You could just rip to ISO and watch using daemon tools.

DVD X player, I think, is regionfree.

http://www.dvd-x-player.com/

Hope this helps.