Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite L500-19X, running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) If possible, I want to make my DVD drive region free, as I have a lot of DVD's from different regions. However, updating the firmware really scares me, as I don't want to kill the unit. So I would like to know if there is a piece of software I can use to do the job. Also, I'm not very good at working with new programs, so step-by-step instructions would help please. Any help much appreciated. Thanks
Updating the firmware officially won't necessarily, and most likely won't, make your drive region free. There are some drives for which region free firmware has been developed however. Firmware is essentially software, and you won't kill your drive as long as you do it correctly and follow a few basic pieces of advice. What model is your dvd drive?
I'm not sure, but I think I found it in System Properties - Device Manager. I think it might be a Hitachi HTS545050B9A300 I hope that sounds right. Thanks
I have that drive in my laptop too, and no I don't think there is any region free firmware available, but you might want to look in to a program called AnyDVD - it will run in the background and allow you to play/copy the DVD regardless of region code.
Are you sure Jack? .. I would have thought our nec/samsung hackers would have done us a region free firmware for that one by now. http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php I really can't be arsed looking. The other way is to just use up the 5 changes then reflash with stock firmware to get 5 more.. and on and on ad infinitum.
Yup. They don't have the 'C' drive listed in their files database (but they do have the alternate drive model listed, still no rpc1). Tbh the drive is crap anyway, I don't burn any DVDs with it. You should be careful about flashing stock firmware in this instance, manufacturers tend to release their own specific firmwares (i.e this drive is found in a lot of laptops) and there are a LOT of random firmwares floating around - I can't comment specifically on what flashing an OEM firmware for a different manufacturer would necessarily do. Edit: According to VideoHelp, the SN-S083C is the same physical drive, and the stock firmware for this is readily available. So, if one extracts the .bin from the .exe file and opens it up in MediaSpeedCodeEdit then I'm reasonably confident that applying the rpc1 patch and then re-flashing the modified version would work but I really can't be arsed to try. Feel free to give this a go if you like OP.