Hello, Please help me. My laptop dvd drive which is Matshita UJ - 840D is locked to Region 1, i tried all sorts of programs, even AnyDvd, ... and nothing unlocks the damn Region 1. its just stuck. Any ideas what i could do? Thanks a lot!! Vicky
Think you are gonna struggle as I don't think there are any region free firmware flashes and the Matshita UJ - 840D ( panasonic ) drives will only work with AnyDVD if it matches the drives set region and this cannot be changed, checked around and found a guy who had to bought a usb drive to get around the problem. Not good news Maybe someonelse knows
nemo101 is right. With that drive there isn't any region free firmware and no software can unlock the region. Unfortunately you're stuck. Only choice is a different drive.
i just took the laptop to the place where i bough it, cos it seems there is really no other help, than to either change the drive or get a new external one. Why is this matshita drive such a pain in the neck?? and why arn't there any firmwares out yet ? Vicky
I suspect none of the hackers consider it worth the effort. As for the drive being stuck in region 1, what's the problem there if you have AnyDVD? AnyDVD doesn't change the drive region, but it makes the files appear region free. As long as the DVD plays in the right format (NTSC, PAL or whatever), the region code shouldn't be an issue. If you live in region 1, then most of the discs you'll be seeing are region 1. I suspect you're probably in region 1 or the dealer shouldn't have been selling drives that are set to region 1. I'm not familiar with Matshita, but most drives have the ability to set the region 4 times by the user and 4 by the vendor. I don't recommend changing the region codes for a single disc though, that's what AnyDVD is all about.
@brobear Unfortunately, those Matshita drives are one of the rare drives that AnyDVD (or any other software) can't handle. You can check out what one of the Slysoft developers said about it here, it's kind of interesting: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=101267
The Matshita is partially supported, the AnyDVD handles the encryption with the drive, just won't handle discs with a region code different from the one the drive is set to. Being an isolated situation, with an unpopular drive, I'd not heard of that one before. Just so the readers can see what was actually said, here is a copy of what was said by someone claiming to be a Slysoft team member. There shouldn't be a problem. Out of hundreds of discs I've encountered from different sources, not a one has been from a different region. Unless one is in a locale where there is a lot of international commerce with used DVDs, there shouldn't be a problem. If you ever run into the rare disc outside your region code, just do the backup on another PC. Other than that, change the drive or get an external that will handle the AnyDVD software.
Thanks Brobear, but I gotta give the credit to another AD member, sytyguy, who brought up that link in another thread a few months back. Someone else on the forum, also with a Matsushita drive, had similar problems and I was suggesting AnyDVD, DVD43 etc, until sytyguy uncovered the peculiar region limitations with that drive. A real nuisance of drive!
The Matshita is a drive of questionable quality, but with things the way they are, it doesn't make a lot of difference on the region settings. Most people in a particular region have rarely encountered a disc from another region. I know there's the exception, but I've got hundreds of backups and never needed AnyDVD for helping with a disc from another region. It just doesn't happen that often. I think I'd worry about some of the other problems inherent to that drive. A lot of people complain about it being terribly slow as well as having problems with compatibility with different media.
See this is my problem, my matshita was doing damn good, without any problems - burning cd's, dvd's, playin them - any thing - and very quick i cant complaing about that. I know now its my fault that i changed the regions and didnt install anydvd or region killer, before that, i just didnt know. I hope this vendor changes that are 4 left can do any thing. Vicky xoxo
Did DVDInfoPro or another app show how many changes you actually have? I wasn't aware you had changed your region setting, that's never a good idea, always have it set to region free if possible or to the region one lives in and let the software handle the rest. You had no way of knowing though till someone told you. They don't put that info in the user manual. Good luck with getting it reset. BTW, what region do you live in? We never got that info, I was assuming you were in the North American Region 1.
Good evening, i got a call from the dealer, that they cant do anything at the moment, but they contacted the panasonic matshita dealer, and they will get back to me in a few days hopefully with a tool that will fix this region problem. I live in Slovenia, thats region 2. so no much films around here with region 1 Thanks a lot for your help. By the way i got that Dvdinfo program, it says the same. User changes 0 Vendor changes 4... hope for the best... Vicky
