I have the DVD-ROM drive on my computer set to Region 2. In the past, I have not had any problems playing R2 discs via the Windows DVD player (dvdplayer.exe). Today I got my Family Guy Season Two set (yay!), but when I try to play it with the DVD player, I get the message “DVD Player is unable to play this disc because the disc is copyright protected”.
WTF?
I even checked some other R2 discs that have worked as recently as last week and get the same message (except for two The Good Life sets).
If I use Intervideo’s WinDVD, everything’s fine.
I checked the Microsoft database, but found nothing useful.
Welcome to the world of extremely restrictive media ‘pirate protection’. I just use the software that works and cry at my inability to legally watch foreign DvDs.
You say that many of your DVDs worked a a little while ago, but very recently it’s started farting on copyright issues?
Have you done any updating recently? Or… jeez… even a constant internet connection would allow your computer to contact Microsoft to download updates “for your convenience.”
I haven’t updated anything. I have Zone Alarm to block all Microsoft update attempts. I have no idea what happened. Although, I had to perform a Restore yesterday. I reset my computer and when it started back up I got the error “MPREXE has caused an error in mprexe.dll. MPREXE will now be closed”. When I clicked on the close button, I got a grey screen and then absolutely nothing. I had to go into the safe mode to recover. Googling for MPREXE turned up nothing useful.
Sailor: I saw that article, but it doesn’t apply. I am not on a network of any kind and I don’t use passwords.
As for the region codes:
Your DVD-ROM drive should be set to the region you are living in (Region 1 for the US). If you put a non R1 disc in the drive, the software that runs it will ask you if you want to change the setting for the drive based on the region code of the disc. Usually, you have four changes available. The last change becomes permanent (although there are ways to reset this). I decided to change mine to R2 in order to get box sets (Futurama, Family Guy, The Good Life, etc) not available in the US. Of course, Futurama & Family Guy are coming soon in R1 sets.
I don’t know about computer DVD players but I have seen no-restrictions, multi-regional DVD players for teevee as low as £60 / $90 over here – to be honest, I thought all that regional nonsense was behind us now…… Sorry I can’t be any more help…
Unless you are talking about a different computer with no internet connection, then of course you are on a “network”. Or how are you posting? If you are using dial-up then you have a Dial Up Network. If you are using ADSL then you have a network adapter. Go to Network Neighborhood and you will see your network components. Windows installs them by default so, unless you have removed them, they are there.
Regarding the regional code, I was ready to buy a DVD drive but I am going to wait and make sure I can get a region-free drive. I am glad I found out before buying.
I was thinking network as in multiple computers connected at the same location. I didn’t really consider the internet connection. Still, I have never had this error before. Any ideas how it could have happened?
When I found that article on MPREXE, it referred to Win 95 & 98 and I am using Win ME.
sailor most, if not all, DVD-ROM drives nowadays are region coded in their firmware and can be easily patched to accept multiple regions. The Firmware Page is an extensive database of CD/DVD drive info and firmware patches. Try a search on any models you’re thinking of buying to see if any workarounds exist for region coding.
Mr. Blue Sky, it just seems you have a problem with Mprexe which is quite probably unrelated to the DVD issue. As I said it relates to the network and you can find plenty of stuff online discussing it. If the file is corrupted you may want to restore it and tyou may also try reconfiguring all your network settings (adapters, clients, bindings, etc). If everything else fails, reinstalling the OS will take care of it. I think the DVD issue is unrelated.
Hodege, thanks for the heads-up. I am going to wait a bit and not rush into buying a drive I really do not need and which I was going to get just because they are cheap.
AFAIK, there are quite a few to choose from now, handy. This is a cheapo chain near me that stocks some – if you look scroll down the list most of them are ‘multi regional’ players: