# Restricted region switching on DVD drive - how?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restricted-region-switching-on-dvd-drive-how/237334>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 30, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restricted-region-switching-on-dvd-drive-how/237334 "2004-03-30T16:16:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restricted-region-switching-on-dvd-drive-how/237334/1 "2004-03-30T16:16:37Z")

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There’s a restriction on how many times a person can change regions on their DVD drives.

I get around this by having two laptops.

But I am curious as to how this was implemented. Is the restriction software controlled or is there some EEPROM on drive that gets written to with every region change.

No ulterior motives here, just a curiousity.

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**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restricted-region-switching-on-dvd-drive-how/237334/2 "2004-03-30T16:22:20Z")

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> [@BwanaBob](#):
>
> There’s a restriction on how many times a person can change regions on their DVD drives.
> 
> I get around this by having two laptops.
> 
> But I am curious as to how this was implemented. Is the restriction software controlled or is there some EEPROM on drive that gets written to with every region change.
> 
> No ulterior motives here, just a curiousity.

Yep it’s firmware on the drive that keeps track of this.

Apart form some drives available without the silly DVD region code thing, you can usually find a firmware upgrade that removes this.

Additionally, there are some programs (like DVd Idle Pro) which will run whenever you use DVD playing software (like power DVD) and will ignore the DVD region type.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restricted-region-switching-on-dvd-drive-how/237334/3 "2004-03-30T17:45:33Z")

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Depending on which drive you have, you can also flash the drive and remove the restriction completely.

Caveat: if you don’t do it right, you can render your drive useless.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/restricted-region-switching-on-dvd-drive-how/237334/4 "2004-03-30T21:05:25Z")

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Flashing failures would be worse for a laptop than a desktop, as desktop DVD drives are practially given away now.

But as **Kinthalis** said, there are software workarounds; I use DVD region-free, which works well and completely transparently.