Alright, I have an ATAPI 16x DVD ROM. I recently received a DVD from London. Of course, I knew that I would have to convert it from PAL to NTSC, but I wanted to try and play it on my computer to see what would happen. Well I did and of course it did not work. The picture was weird and scrambled or something. Then I tried to play a DVD from the US- Pleasantville- and it said something like- Your system is set to Region 2 (London). Please change your Region to play this DVD. So I changed it back to Region 1. Then, the DVD player STILL did not work. It won't play the DVDs from the US. I tried restarting it after I reset it to Region 1. I checked to make sure I had reset again and it was set on Region 1. There is nothing wrong with the DVDs I put in. They work in other DVD players. It will play The Sims 2, which is a game that's usually on CD. I got the DVD version, though. Someone... please help me! I've already had to take this computer to the store a few times for DVD problems and I do not want to take it there if I don't have to and there is a simple answer. Other info- just in case it's needed: System has Windows XP. 376 MB of RAM. About a 30 gig hard drive. AMD Athlon processor (1700+, I believe). Someone please help me! Thanks
What software do you use to play DVDs? You might have to enter a password to allow you to set it back to the US region.
Well, I used Windows Media Player and basically when I changed the region back to 1, I just right-clicked on the DVD ROM under My Computer and went to Properties, then the tab Hardware, then highlighted the drive and the clicked on the properties button under that. Then, a box came up and then clicked on the tab saying DVD region. Then after that didn't work, I installed PC Friendly off of my Pleasantville DVD. I don't know why it's on there. But it's bundled in the DVD, I guess. So I don't know if that's it. Any other suggestions?
I also have Nero ShowTime, which says it is supports NTSC and PAL. The movie from London is in PAL. So... shouldn't it work? I haven't actually tried to play a DVD since it was last fixed, just The Sims 2 game. I am so confused. Could it be just the actual drive? If so, what could I do?
im not sure but i think you need to remove pc friendly . i think that software creates problems when trying to burn dvd's . also anydvd from slysoft.com can take care of your region problems . the software can be tried before you buy for 21 days . hope this helps
Just recently found out that someone tried a DVD before I put in the one from London and it worked perfectly. Just to update this. Thanks for the advice. I will try that.
Windows Media Player is not the best choice for viewing movies and I also have heard of PC Friendly causing problems.I would go with Nero Showtime or PowerDVD as a player.You can get a free trial here http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_main.jsp?ProdId=28 A word of caution most DVD drives will become [bold]Locked after 5 Region changes[/bold]
Yes DVD shrink supports episodic DVD's and thats unrelated to this thread, it probably should have been posted in a new thread.
... and in the DVD Shrink section as well. Maybe someday everyone will learn; leave the player set to the home region and let programs such as AnyDVD or Region Free handle any regional variations on discs. With one of those and Showtime on the PC, there shouldn't have been a problem of viewing or using a recording app to backup the movie.
I never changed the region from home to anything. It did that on its own. I've tried AnyWay DVD and that didn't work. I've tried downloading new software and it didn't work. I used Nero ShowTime and it doesn't work. I even went to CompUSA and asked a guy there, he told me to redownload Windows Media Player 10 and that will fix it the region problem. So I did that, and when I put in a DVD from the US, it said, 'Your region is set to region 1. Change the region to 1 to play this DVD.' It didn't even say that it was set to a different region. It just said it was on region 1, please change it to region 1. So when the box came up to change it to region 1, it said the region was not selected. So I changed it to 1 and tried it. It still did not work. Thanks for your help, though. Any other ideas?
Call Geeks on Wheels or someone to check out the PC for you; or take it to a reputable shop. You did nothing to the PC and from your statements, the PC either went bad or changed the drive settings on its own. With mysterious happenings such as these, it appears your PC needs professional attention. Good luck and let us know what happens. Sounds like something may have happened to the windows OS if it's not the drive.
