[vdr] Re: AW: Re: OT: reset DVD drive "LG D8120B" region code, how?

["Reinhard Walter Buchner" <rw.buchner@freenet.de>]

Hi Klaus,

> What I don't quite understand is: how can the _DVD_ ask the drive
anything?
> IMHO only the software (libdvdnav?) that reads data from the DVD can
interpret

Well the DVD reports a region code as soon as it is inserted into the drive.
The drive then checks if it has the same code. If so all is well and the
*drive*
(not the software!) plays the DVD. The RCE DVD is just a little bit more
sneaky
as it does this checkup twice (I believe it also addresses a different ROM
area in
the DVD drive to make this second check). If the second test (pure
comparison
of region on the DVD vs region in the drive) fails, even if the first call
was sucessfull,
the drive stops playing. This checking is *NOT* part of the player software,
but
rather of the *drive* firmware. You cannot force a region locked drive to
play
a non matching region, because the firmware locks the drive hardware ;o((
That's what hacked firmwares are for ;o))

> Please forgive me if this is a stupid question - I haven't done much with
DVDs
> so far...

There is no such thing a stupid question ;o)) This is done (and must be
inserted
into the drives FW by the manufacturer) to prevent you from watching a film
which already has reached DVD marketing level in USA, whereas in good old
Germany, it hasn't even reached the movie theater ;o))

Good FW hacks simply take the reported region and makes this to the drives
region. That way the DVD can ask as many times as it wants and it will
*always*
get back the info it is the correct region. Your hacked firmware probably
reports
back region zero, which means it can play any DVD. However, this doesn't
work
for RCE DVDs as they want the *specific* region code (and not NULL). That's
why they invented the RCE encoding (and that's why hackers invented the
region
correction hack ;o)))

Greetz,
Reinhard



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