Mal-content. Help me watch "Firefly", please.
March 15, 2015 1:10 AM Subscribe
I bought a used region 1 copy of Firefly and can play it successfully on an old-ish Windows 7 machine using VLC. However, on my Windows 8 machines, it won’t play at all, not on VLC, Media Player Classic, or Potplayer. I’m in region 2, and I would like to be able to watch it on one of the Windows 8 computers.
Question 1: How come it’ll play on VLC on one machine, but not the others?
Question 2: Any ideas on how I can watch it on W8 machines without changing the settings for regions in Windows Media Player?
Question 1: How come it’ll play on VLC on one machine, but not the others?
Question 2: Any ideas on how I can watch it on W8 machines without changing the settings for regions in Windows Media Player?
Best answer: It could be the drive itself that's causing the problem. Some of them are region-locked to a specific area. There are ways round that, though.
posted by Solomon at 1:49 AM on March 15, 2015
posted by Solomon at 1:49 AM on March 15, 2015
Response by poster: MP Classic gives "Region 1: Region Error" or something. All other players' cases the disc just spins for a while and then stops.
posted by Prof Iterole at 1:49 AM on March 15, 2015
posted by Prof Iterole at 1:49 AM on March 15, 2015
Best answer: It's difficult to say for sure, but it sounds to me like the drive is locked. If you post the model of the drive, we can see if there's a firmware available that will make it region free.
posted by Solomon at 2:06 AM on March 15, 2015
posted by Solomon at 2:06 AM on March 15, 2015
Best answer: AnyDVD-HD is a program which bypasses all region locking and encryption on optical disks. (It doesn't require you to mess with the drive firmware.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:00 AM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:00 AM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: From VLC's FAQ:
Does VLC support DVDs from all regions?
This mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses libdvdcss and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with those drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that do allow raw access, it might take VLC a long time to crack the key. So just pop the disc in your drive and try it out, while you get a coffee. RPC1 drives should 'always' work regardless of the regioncode.
posted by Gridlock Joe at 7:06 AM on March 15, 2015
Does VLC support DVDs from all regions?
This mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses libdvdcss and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with those drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that do allow raw access, it might take VLC a long time to crack the key. So just pop the disc in your drive and try it out, while you get a coffee. RPC1 drives should 'always' work regardless of the regioncode.
posted by Gridlock Joe at 7:06 AM on March 15, 2015
Best answer: Were it me, I'd dispense with mucking about trying to get the drives on the newer machines to read it and just make a backup copy with Handbrake. It's a quick and dirty solution, but you do actually own the original, so there's a decent legal footing for it.
posted by fifthrider at 1:21 PM on March 15, 2015
posted by fifthrider at 1:21 PM on March 15, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I now see it's the drive, not the discs.
I'll work through the suggested solutions today.
posted by Prof Iterole at 4:10 PM on March 15, 2015
I'll work through the suggested solutions today.
posted by Prof Iterole at 4:10 PM on March 15, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 1:41 AM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]