DVD Regions

  • Thread starter Thread starter JohnT
  • Start date Start date
J

JohnT

Is there any way to stop XP from changing a DVD region during a
reinstallation of XP if you reinstall in another geographic location?
Although I told it I was in the USA (because most of my DVD's are from the
USA), it installed Region 4 for Australia ... which was where the computer
was originally purchased. When I first checked the region (after the O/S
installation) there was no region defined.

However, at some stage it decided I was in Australia and set that region.
The only way it could have done that is that it noticed when I returned to
Austraila and changed the system time.

TIA,

John
 
How the Region is Set

Initial DVD Region Selection


Some PC manufacturers have expressed interest in setting a default DVD
region before shipping the PC to customers. Microsoft created registry key
mechanisms to enable this. The OEM can set a registry key containing the
default DVD region for the system. On first boot, the drive region will be
set to this value. For RPC1 drives, the region is managed by the operating
system. For RPC2 drives, the region is set in the firmware of the drive.


It is the responsibility of system manufacturers to select a default DVD
region for the DVD drive in PCs they ship. If the manufacturer does not set
the default region, Windows will pick a region during first boot or first
disc playback based on settings such as locale, language, and time zone.
There is no interaction with the user during initial region setting. If
there is no disc in the drive, or if the disc has multiple regions
(including an all-region disc), the resulting region setting might not be
appropriate for the user.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/DVDregion.mspx#E1D
 
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