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Date:      Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:57:01 -0400
From:      "Bob Johnson" <fbsdlists@gmail.com>
To:        "Chandhee Thala" <cthala@gmail.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: vlc won't play region encoded DVDs
Message-ID:  <54db43990708171057k481fbe0aycb1473293c744145@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <77647f500708161933h4bac6ea1u29671ae701296cd7@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <77647f500708161933h4bac6ea1u29671ae701296cd7@mail.gmail.com>

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On 8/16/07, Chandhee Thala <cthala@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm running VLC 0.8.5 on FreeBSD 6.2.
>
> I was under the impression that VLC ignored region-encoding when
> playing DVDs, but this is apparently not the case on my BSD box.

In all but the oldest DVD drives, region encoding is supposed to be
enforced by the drive itself, not by your software. You can change the
region code setting on your drive a few times, but there is a limit (5
times, I think). Have you succeeded at playing the same DVDs with VLC
on a different O/S?

> Most of the American DVDs I try to play gets a region encoding error
> and quits. I have no problems with foreign DVDs (from other
> countries).

Most American movies are marked with a specific region code. In some
countries (China for example), it is common practice to publish movies
marked to be playable in all regions. And of course, you may be
playing movies from the region your drive is set to.

> Is this standard behavior for VLC on BSD or am I doing something wrong?

I haven't actually tried to play an out-of-region DVD, so I don't know
from direct experience, but I wouldn't expect to succeed if I tried.
As I said, the region protection is done by the drive itself.

I hope I'm wrong, though. The sooner this idiot DRM stuff dies, the better.

- Bob



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