Comments on: Free My DVD

Question: Free My DVD

ninazer0 — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:31:29 -0800

I've had it with my Sony Vaio! Is it possible to unlock the DVD drive so that it will play any region?

I want to unlock the DVD drive on my Sony Vaio. When I purchase or rent DVD's that work perfectly well on my standard DVD player, quite a few won't work on my laptop because of "region issues" - even when it is in fact the correct region. I can only assume that this is a glitch in the (unsupported) driver. Great one Sony - another fabulous effort.

According to my device manager, the drive is listing as a QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242C. Searching on this brings up masses and masses of useless sites OR adverts for suspicious-sounding "unlock secrets".

Can it be done? If so, how hard is it? How dangerous? Frankly, I'm so sick of the POS machine and Sony's complete lack of support that I wouldn't be too upset it the whole machine melted into a flowing puddle of slag.

By: thelongcon

thelongcon — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:35:20 -0800

I use a program called "DVD Region+CSS Free" that lets me play DVDs from any region. It doesn't change the drive in any way but just overrides the settings I think. Anyway it does its job and you can buy it or download from a torrent or warez site.

By: -harlequin-

-harlequin- — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:39:34 -0800

Seconding thelongcon. There is a free trial version too.

By: chrisbucks

chrisbucks — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:10:10 -0800

Slysoft makes a product called AnyDVD, has worked quite well for me, but I'm sure there are freeware/opensource alternatives which function fine too.

By: mge

mge — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:03:33 -0800

Assuming you can boot off a floppy, you might try this Firmware Patcher. Never used it but it might help...

I think you want the second link on that page.

By: jammnrose

jammnrose — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 01:21:45 -0800

AnyDVD is what I use.
I'm sure there are other free alternatives, but AnyDVD sure does a good job. They keep up with the times when new protections come out too.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 02:06:22 -0800

Use VLC.

By: Martin E.

Martin E. — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:41:45 -0800

With my VAIO I flashed the firmware as mge said and when that didn't work started using Remote Selector. WinDVD works just fine now if I start it up via Remote Selector. This was after trying over half a dozen other quick & easy free solutions that didn't work. This was also about 2 years ago.

By: TomMelee

TomMelee — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 05:29:31 -0800

Seconding AnyDVD--it's an amazing tiny bit of software that lets you do everything the MPAA says you shouldn't. Basically, it unlocks *every* disc to region free and unencrypted, on the fly, using no system resources.

By: ob

ob — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:14:23 -0800

Thirding DVD Region Free

By: saturnine

saturnine — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:22:56 -0800

Seconding VLC. It's remarkably versatile and I've used it for years. All this region crap is in the software.