dell media direct region free help wanted

I bought myself an inspiron 1520 laptop some time ago, and one of the most annoying things that I have found is the insistance of the computer to play dvd's using media direct by dell, any time I put in a DVD it tells me that I have a small amount of uses before the program will decide which region to stick to.
this has put me off using the laptop for the viewing of DVD's.
is there a way of making this region free, or should i just use a different player as the default player?? there is one here, if this is the best way forward for me.
thanks guys and gals
Wheelo

When you purchase a new machine the DVD region is not set to your default.
Manufactures do this because they can't be 100% sure where the particular product will end up. It's a bit like the way Microsoft make you choose your default language & time Zone the first time you start a new machine.

The DVD drive allows you to change the default region up to 5 times & on the 5th change it locks your DVD drive to that region for ever more.

You need to assign the required region for you area yourself (before it gets locked) & it should leave you alone then


Procedure:

START

Right click MY Computer (Computer in Vista)

Choose "MANAGE"

Click on "Disk Management" (Left hand pane).

In the right hand pane, locate your DVD drive & right click on it then choose "PROPERTIES".

Click on the "DVD REGION" TAB.

You can choose your Region here & click on "OK" (You Region is 2 wheelo)

That defines your DVD's region & the Dell software should leave you alone

DVD Region Codes:

If you are not happy with the Dell software just remove it using the Control Panel.


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thanks for that Gman, I cant make it region free and I should choose a region before it gets locked in the wrong region, great stuff G. now a silly question, if i put another DVD player program onto the laptop, will it then be stuck with the region that i choose for the media direct player??

Correct, you can't make it Region Free unless you can get region free firmware for you particular model DVD drive & then flash the drive. You would want to be fairly comfortable with that whole process bearing in mind that it would void your warranty too.

Once you set the DVD region via Windows you should be fine in so far as most player programs will detect that you have it set.

All DVD's for Ireland are Region 2 & Region 0 plays anywhere.

Unless you have or intend to get DVD's from the likes of the States you shouldn't need to worry about it really.

Even if there was a hard to get title & you could only get it in another region you can always use freebies like DVD Decrypter & DVD Shrink to make a backup that would be region free


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thanks again Gman, have set the region to 2. It now makes sense, it is not the media direct program that I am setting a region for it is the DVD rewriter. and thanks for the tip about backup copies of DVD's using decrypter or DVD shrink.

No worries wheelo, anytime

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Gman is right on with his advice. The only thing i'd like to throw in here is this; as a PC media player...VLC is a great way to go. It's lightweight lacking the bloat that most do have. It can play a good deal of formats, and it's been recently updated with some new features that make it even better.

I have seen that player on the vlc thread, one of these fine days i am going to get around to loading it up, thanks 7th