hi folks,
I bought my Dell XPS 410 back in mid-2006 with a 16x DVD ROM and a 16x DVD+/- RW. I don’t know the manufacturer of the DVD drives.
Anyone have an idea what model drives my XPS is likely to have and whether they will play region free DVDs? Is there a hack available to make my drives region free?
I know I may have to go inside the tower to try and id the drives’ make/model, but before I make the effort, I figure some of you guys might know if it’s a lost cause or not.
thanks.
Download and run Nero InfoTool. It will tell you a lot about the drives.
Free to use.
It may be possible to get a region free firmware. Once you know the model, look here: http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php Or come back and tell us what you have.
thanks, cool tool.
I have a Philips DVD ROM DROM6316 and a TSSTCorp DVD RW TS-H553A
I don’t see either of those on the list you referred me to. I’ve seen some info that my TSSTCorp drive is Dell’s version of the Samsung SH-W163A, is that correct? The closest model on that list is the Samsung SH-D162D - SB01.
Nero info tool also says:
-Region Control: RPC ll (both drives)
-Region Code 2: Philips
-Region Code “none”: TSSTCorp
not sure what this all means 
I poked around a bit and did not find a region free firmware for your burner, and found a post that said there definitely wasn’t one for your dvd-rom.
These guys were my best shot at finding one for your burner, but it wasn’t there.
http://codeguys.rpc1.org/firmwares_samsung.html
You can run software in the background to make the drive appear to be region free. DVD43 should work for this: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/DVD43 It is free to download and use.
But I have to admit I don’t use this particular program. I use AnyDVD HD as a decryption program and it is not compatible with DVD43.
Perhaps someone else will chip in with a solution for you.
does this mean they’re both region 2? what does the region code “none” mean on the TSST? It also says “Changes left: 5” - not sure what that means.
You can manually change the region code of the drive. But you can only do that 5 times.
None means no region selected I believe, but don’t take that as gospel. I’m sort of a generalist around here…there are many, many others around here with more knowledge of firmware than me. 
Can anyone tell me how to manually change the code?
Right click on the drive in My Computer. Hit Properties. Then click on the Hardware tab. Highlight the drive you want by clicking on it in this window, then hit Properties again. Click on the DVD Region tab, select the country you are living in and hit OK.
This will set the drive to your region, but be aware that you can only do this a limited number of times, and then it is permanently set to whatever the last region was.
[QUOTE=like2watch00;2197643]hi folks,
I bought my Dell XPS 410 back in mid-2006 with a 16x DVD ROM and a 16x DVD+/- RW. I don’t know the manufacturer of the DVD drives.
[B]Anyone have an idea what model drives my XPS is likely to have and whether they will play region free DVDs? [/B] Is there a hack available to make my drives region free?
I know I may have to go inside the tower to try and id the drives’ make/model, but before I make the effort, I figure some of you guys might know if it’s a lost cause or not.
thanks.[/QUOTE]
Region free DVDs will play in virtually any player or burner. Many DVDs from Hong Kong are region free (or code 0). With players there could be PAL/NTSC issues though.
sure enough, the DVDs play fine! I was holding off on trying them because it was one of those “once you open the DVD you can’t return it” deals.
so after all that fuss, they played o.k., but now I have another problem:
I use AOA DVD Ripper. The DVDs look fine when I play them in any player on my PC. The problem is when I view ripped clips, horizontal lines appear whenever there’s any motion in the objects in the scene (they disappear quickly when motion stops). When the objects in the scene are not moving, the image looks fine.
For what it’s worth, when watching certain programs on my plasma HDTV, I sometimes see the same type of horizontal lines when objects are moving. The lines in the ripped clips are much more noticeable though.
This is the first time I used the DVD Ripper on region free DVDs, so I’m guessing this has something to do with the problem. Does this have to do with interlacing?
Can anyone recommend a solution for this, or can someone recommend better ripper software that wouldn’t have this problem?
A better dvd decryption/ripping program would be the free section of DVDFab, called DVDFab HD Decrypter. It will continue to work even after the trial expires for the main section of the program. Found here: http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm
tks again Kerry. I’ll give it a try.
I think ALL DVD ROM drives will play a region free DVD. No need to flash it and chance a mistake.
RM
ANY DVD drive can play “region free DVDs”.