BENQ DW1620A Region Change Issue

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers BenQ / Philips Writer
#1

I have a bit of a mystery.

Yesterday my drive had no region specificed and 5 user changes left. Today it is set to region1 and has 4 changes left. So what changed it to region1 ? It is especially strange as I have no region1 DVDs, they are all region4, region 2/4 or all regions. I have only had the drive for 2 weeks and have only stared to look at DVD copying and playing in the last two days - yes I am a DVD newbie!

I noticed the change of region status after flashing the firmware from B7M9 to B7P9. Could the region change have been precipitated by the firmware upgrade? I know it is highly unlikely but you never know. Unfortunately I did not check the region info directly before the flash.

The only other thing I have done in the period when the region changed was copy a region 4 DVD using CloneDVD2 and playback part of the video on both Cyberlink PowerDVD and Windoze Media Player. I have DVD Region+CSS Free 5.58 installed and running in the background.

One thing I did not notice till later was that when I installed DVD Region+CSS Free it setup to region1 as the Default Region. At no time did I get a warning message about region changing from any software. Could PowerDVD or Windoze Media Player have changed the region without asking or warning?

I don’t know how DVD Region+CSS free gets around the region issue but could either of these players have set the region to 1 based on the default region setting in DVD Region+CSS Free?

I am a bit concerned that these changes have taken place without my knowledge and I would like to track down how it occurred to stop it from occurring again.

I have been to RPC1.org and had a look around and as far as I can tell there are no region free firmwares available for the BENQ nor are there are tools available to reset the change counter in the drive such as those available fro Liteon drives. Is my understanding correct?

Finally, has anyone ever heard of a service where a vendor will do a vendor change to drive whithout it costing more than what the drive is worth?

Thanks for any help,
Bob

#2

Mine flashed with B7P9 and still 5 user change left.

#3

You could try turning DVD Region Free off, it could be interfering with how the system reports the regioned state. That’s how these things work, the drive is set to one thing, and the system is convinced it’s another.

There are RPC1 versions, still in the testing phase, but worked on Cyber (Home) Drives.

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?p=142980#142980

Brother Vlad

#4

I turned DVD Region and CSS free off and ensured that all its processes were terminated, both Device Manager and Nero Info tool still show region1 and 4 changes left.

I even powered down and repowered - no change. It looks like the drive’s internal region setting has been changed - still a mystery.

Ah, region free firmware, it is good to see movement on this front, I may need it someday. I will wait to see how it tests out.

Once the method to defeat RPCII has been finalised and proven, will it be easy to region free future firmwares?

In any case, thanks for the help.

Regards,
Bob

#5

Ok so its not firmware flashing related.

Thanks for the info

Regards,
Bob

#6

You may use the software, AnyDVD, to override the region code limit when rpc1 firmware is not available.

A trial version is free to download :
http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html