Greetings from Australia. I am ready to purchase my first DVD writer and have just learned that the DVD writer (Sony DRU510AK) 'supports DVD region coding on playback'. Australia is 'Region 4' but I have quite a few 'Region 2' and 'Region 1' DVD's that I would like to backup as well. I have DVD X Copy Platinum software(v3.2.1). I don't really mind if I can't play these DVD's in the DVD writer, but will I be able to rip them into useable files that can then be written to DVD-R. I guess what I am asking is, can you rip a 'Region 2' DVD if the DVD Rom/writer is set to 'Region 4'? Sorry for asking what is probably a dumb question first up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Ben
Hi Ben, All you have to make sure is that the drive you read with is able to read the disc. Thus you need a region free batch for that drive. You can use DVD Region Free or an appropriate firmware for that. See this list if you find the DVD-ROM drive you have http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php Then when you do the backups, you can use DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter and simply select region free. Your backups will then be region free. Hope this helps.
Lokenoch I think Ketale is right. I am also from OZ and i dont have trouble with other region DVD's. this site is great
Hey, mate. I'm from OZ as well and I have a Sony 510a too. Just wanted to tell you the 510a is a great drive, but DON'T patch (upgrade) the firmware, there's a few probs with some of the unoffical flashes. And if your drive has 1.0c firmware on it, don't upgrade it untill you have a probelm with it, as some of the offical sony firmware updates are problematic too. dvd region free is a great way to region free you're drive without patching the firmware, but it's not free. So you could try DVD43 which does pretty much the same thing and is freeware. I personally use AnyDVD which works great with the 510a. If you want to patch your firmware, I'm currently working on a safe region free firmware flash myself, so I can pm you when I'm finshed it (although it'll be a while) so you can get a copy. Cheers
Thank you, Damon1. I appreciate the advice. Please let me know when your firmware flash is available. Regards Ben