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May. 2nd, 2008

04:57 pm - Got my laptop working!

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All right! I have successfully gotten my laptop turned on and connected to the internet. Also, I bought a wireless mouse for it, and the first time I tried using it, it didn't work, but then Jon told me the magical incantation to make it work: press the tiny "Connect" button on the receiver while it's turned on, then press the "Connect" button on the bottom of the mouse. It works!

Then I tried to play a DVD. MediaDirect launched, but told me it couldn't play the disc because it was the wrong region. The disc was region 1, while the region code the player was set to was labeled "Free". Um, shouldn't that mean it can play any region? I started trying to research how to get around the region encoding, but it sounded too complicated. I just set the player to region 1, and the disc played. I'm not an anime fan anyway, nor am I expecting to want to order any DVDs from Africa, so it shouldn't cause me any problems. Anyway, it'll let me change the player's DVD region code a whopping four more times. DVD region coding is such bullsheets.

Now to see if this thing will play CDs.

(12 comments | Leave a comment)

Comments:

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From:cnoocy
Date:May 2nd, 2008 10:14 pm (UTC)
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Europe would be your big issue with DVD region coding: many movies and TV shows have different release schedules in the US and in the UK.
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From:nefaria
Date:May 2nd, 2008 10:46 pm (UTC)
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Yep, if you bought an anime DVD from Japan, it probably wouldn't have English subtitles, so you'd have a hard time figuring out what was going on (ala What's Up, Tiger Lily?)

Oh, if anyone out there wants to change their DVD's region: right-click your DVD drive, select Properties, Hardware, your DVD drive, Properties, DVD Region.

Edited at 2008-05-02 10:49 pm (UTC)
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From:orv
Date:May 2nd, 2008 11:41 pm (UTC)
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But be careful. Most DVD drives will only let you change the region a fixed number of times, usually 5 or 10.
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From:kinkyturtle
Date:May 2nd, 2008 11:45 pm (UTC)
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5, in this case. Which is total bullflop.
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From:kinkyturtle
Date:May 3rd, 2008 01:17 am (UTC)
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Thanks for the tip! But the thing is, I've never needed to. I don't think I have any discs in my collection that aren't region 1. And as I said, I'm not an anime fan, so I don't expect I ever will.

But if, a few years from now, you see me ranting on my LJ about having found the COOLEST movie EVER, but it was only released in Finland and our regular DVD player won't play it... remind me about AnyDVD again, won't you? :}

I say the whole region coding scheme is total bullflop, and it is, although it's total bullflop that hasn't flopped on me personally. :}

Edited at 2008-05-03 01:18 am (UTC)
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From:yakko
Date:May 2nd, 2008 10:55 pm (UTC)
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The disc was region 1, while the region code the player was set to was labeled "Free". Um, shouldn't that mean it can play any region?

That derisive laughing sound you're hearing is the MPAA. The truth is that region 0 used to mean "play any DVD," but that's when the MPAA came out with Region Code Enhancement (RCE), which compares the region on disc with the player's region and stops playback if things don't check out. Many players have firmware hacks to defeat RCE and region codes.

Regions, RCE, User-prohibited Operations (UOPs; this is why you get the hand icon when you try to fast-forward past the FBI banner or Disney's commercials) and the rest... like you said, such baloney. None of this has prevented or reduced piracy. It's a protection racket.
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From:vakkotaur
Date:May 2nd, 2008 11:03 pm (UTC)
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And it has the usual counter effect, too. I've not ripped or duplicated a DVD yet and until I encountered one where I was stuck with going the slow way through ads and pointless intros, I didn't want to. Then I had that experience, and that's when I first had any desire to rip a DVD - just to be able to remove the stupid that was coded into it. Not skipping the standard FBI warning, fine. Forcing the adverts? Not cool. I've taken to loading the DVD player early and walking away, returning sometime after the stupid has played out.
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From:kinkyturtle
Date:May 2nd, 2008 11:47 pm (UTC)
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At least it allowed me to skip through the previews of other DVDs, which was especially desirable in this case because the disc I was testing it with, "Surf's Up", has an ad for (ugh) "Daddy Day Camp" on it.
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From:orv
Date:May 2nd, 2008 11:40 pm (UTC)
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It works the other way around, though -- Region 0 DVDs can play in any DVD player, regardless of its region setting. These are rare but they do exist.
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From:cnoocy
Date:May 3rd, 2008 04:04 am (UTC)
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A lot of porn is released on region 0 discs.
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From:orv
Date:May 2nd, 2008 11:42 pm (UTC)
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Oh yeah, and region encoding wasn't supposed to prevent piracy as such. It was intended to allow movie companies to continue releasing in different countries at different times. They wanted to be able to release DVDs in the U.S. while a movie was still in theaters in Europe, without undermining their own profits. I think it's stupid -- artificial incompatibility is always stupid -- but that's what it's for.
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From:yakko
Date:May 3rd, 2008 02:31 am (UTC)
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I guess I should've been more accurate and called it a "content control racket." Also, I never quite understood why (other than "maximum profit") studios do staggered releases. They get the money either way...
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