DVD prob - please help

[yogaman]

HI, well I've got a big problem. I can't run any DVD's no more .... It used to work properly and now I borrowed a few new movies from friends and my DVD player (ATI DVD PLAYER) shows a yellow screen with Macrovision1, Macrovision2, Macrovision3 .... I do hear the music but no visuals!! First I thought it might be a region problem or something but the both DVD's are region 2 and I reinstalled my DVD player for Region 2 .... no luck so far!! I'm desperate.... any help?? Do you think I should get another DVD player such as powerdvd or do u have any clues?? I tried to open the DVD files manualy but the player wasn't able to open them!!!!! VERY WEIRD

somebody help, thx very much ???



yoga

[sk8bloke22]

hmm, wat r ur specs, just wanna know. u can try launching dvds using dvdgenie (search for it, very useful utility), also ur dvd drive might hav region protection, i just recently flashed my dvd drive to make it dvd region free, and used dvdgenie to boot different regioned dvds. but im not sure wat ur prob is exactly, any more info will be helpful...

[yogaman]

okay, I got dvdgenie .... but it doesn't seem to help ! My specs are PIII 650 , 128 RAM, ATI Xpert, and my Samsung DVD drive with ATI DVD player as software. I don't think that my specs will do any help though! Can somebody recommend me the "best" DVD player which doesn't bug with region problems? dvdgenie shows up my player but it doesn't really do any good ... maby I'm not using it correctly - do I have to uncheck all those "Auto Region settings" boxes??

any further hints?? thx sk8bloke22 for ur reply

oh forgot - hmmm just If there wouldn't be any further options, how do u flash ur dvd drive?? :sly:

[yogaman]

okay, with Drivinfo I checked whether my dvd drive has region protection - it doesn't !!! So something must be wrong with the software, although I reinstalled it .... could it be that there might be a window98 setting which screws it up? ....

[Slougi]

hmm never heard of this. You might just try e-mailin ati tech support, they're usually very responsive, or so i've heard.

[yogaman]

na...... I guess I download another DVD player - let's see - Power DVD should do the trick!! strange .... anyway, does anybody know what Macrovision1,2,3 means?

[Slougi]

Edit

What are u staring at?
Nothing to see here, move along

/Edit

[sk8bloke22]

as far as i know, macrovision is used to prevent different regions being used. they use it in the ps2, in that if u use the supplied scart lead and play an import dvd using something like action replay2 or dvd region free, it appears in like a greenish colour. that is macrovision apparently. (u need to use a fully pinned gold plated scart lead to solve the prob on a ps2) so im guessing wat ur trying to play is being prevented by ATI's player, which is why u r getting macrovision. If im right, then yeh PowerDVD or wateva else u go for will work...unless Macrovision is enabled by the hardware, then im not too sure...

[bodie]

Macrovision is a copy protection system.. the advantage of including it is to stop people from copying. It's rather useless though because, there are several ways to get around it...it doesn't interfere with normal playing,only when being re-played after copying ..you get things like colour bleed and picture warp etc ..btw don't have region killer or dvd genie active when checking your drives with drive info ,it gives the odd false reading ..i am not sure in which country you live so it's hard to assume what's gone wrong ..if the region 2 are not for your country and you have played different regions 5 times you get locked on to whichever region was last played..effectively not being able to play other regions disks ..i wouldn't recommend drive info..try nero info tool v1.00 ,it's gives a lot more info ..
..ok assuming the disks are another countries disks(i haven't a clue where you are from) and you have a RPC-2 = Region locked drive then you need to flash it with new firmware to make it RCP-1..
here's a guide just in case
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Find your firmware update from http://www.firmware.fr.st/
Download to your harddrive...
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Download a plain boot disc from
http://www.putergeek.com/downloads/#winme_plain
This is winME but will work for XP and should work for all versions of windows.
Follow the instructions... You will need a blank floppy.
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Open your firmware file and copy the contents to the boot disc in drive A Write down the name of the .bin files
eg. Bide00.bin
You may have more than one. Also make note of if there is a file named MTKFLASH.EXE or
FLASH.EXE
You will need one of these on your disc....
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Use the "Nero info tool 1.00" found on the Utilites page http://www.firmware.fr.st/
To find the location of your DVD drive. Run the program and then click the tab "Configuration" and write down the location of your drive. eg. "Secondary IDE, Master"
or "Secondary IDE Slave"
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Now Exit your Computer and switch off...
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Place your Boot disc in Drive A
and turn on your computer. After the computer has run through the BIOS you will see an A:/
If your DVD drive was primary master then you will type "MTKFLASH 1 w /a0 /b a:\bide00.bin" If you are using flash.exe then type "FLASH 1 w /a0 /b a:\bide00.bin"
BIDE00.bin would be whatever bin file you wrote down in step 4
If your DVD drive was primary slave then the 1 becomes a 2
If your DVD drive was secondary master then the 1 becomes a 3
If your DVD drive is secondary slave then the 1 becomes a 4 eg type "MTKFLASH 4 w /a0 /b a:\bibe00.bin
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that will flash your drive... you should get some info on the screen about the percentage complete.
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If you had a second .bin file then you need to flash again but this time you would type "MTKFLASH 4 w /a1 /b a:\bide01.bin"
Again the number after the MTKFLASH will depend on the drive location. Note that "a0" becomes "a1" and my bin file changes accordingly.
........................................ ........................................ .......................
Turn off your computer and remove the floppy. Then restart and hopefully you will be region free.
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luckily for me macrovision is not a problem .. for my stand alone dvd/vcr i have a box that sits between the dvd/vcr and the tv and re-syncs the data track and my computer dvd drive is RCP-1
i hope you get it sorted anyhow ...let me know how you get on
regards bodie

[sk8bloke22]

thats the exact guide i used, very easy to do, as long as u follow the steps carefully...do not fuck anything up as u can seriously ruin ur dvd drive...

one questio to bodie, or anyone who knows. i flashed my drive the other week to make it rcp1, and and using dvd region info softwares, including the nero one, it is definitely region free. but when i put in a different region dvd, i can only play using dvd genie, otherwise i get the "u have 1 more chance to change the region" crap. Is there anyway of playing different region dvds, without having to use dvd region free or dvd region killer?? if u get me.