Disabling Macrovision protection

[vertigo]

Righto, sure we've all encountered this one before but I thought I'd ask here before trying something more drastic, as the signal to noise ratio on the internet about this subject is far too much for me to get my head around.
So, knowledgable folks, my problem is this:
I want to play a legitimate region 2 DVD on my PC.
My DVD drive is set to region 2.
The DVD won't play in Media Player, InterActual Player or PowerDVD for the same reason; Macrovision copy protection.
I don't want to copy the DVD, I want to play it.
My DVD drive is a LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B.
Any way I can do this?

[wod]

look on here to check for a firmware flash for your drive

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php

also try dvd region free and theres some other that i'm sure do it

[vertigo]

Excellent. I'm trying the two software apps first, then will try out flashing to RPC-1 next if that doesn't work.
Thanks.

[Taka]

Give something called "DVD Region-free" a look. It's a software solution for Windows which works with almost all of the popular software DVD players out there. It's worked a charm for every person I've suggested it to.

[vertigo]

Yes, DVD Region Free appears to have 'arrived' so I will give that a look tonight.
Thanks both of you for the recommendation.

[randombs]

macrovision? would dvd region free sort that out? you could just try something like dvd shrink (just set it to dvd9 or else it'll compress the film) which'll rip it and get rid of the macrovision protection, then you can watch it just fine in PowerDVD using the 'open dvd file from hard drive' option or whatever it's called. this is provided you have the space on your hard drive, though.

personally, i've never come across a macrovision issue on the pc, seeing as macrovision deals with the actual signal to prevent recording to vcr, etc, and even then it only affects the composite signal (which is why macrovision doesn't affect rgb scarts, and why the ps2 does green-screen to combat this)

EDIT: wow, it really does!

[vertigo]

billy_dimashq, I could rip it to HD, etc but I don't want to, this isn't the point. The point is that I want to be able to instantly access the DVDs instead of having to faff about before we can watch them back, see. Also, Macrovision is certainly manifesting itself with the three players I tried, WMP confirmed it by putting up an error about digital rights management, which I can only assume is Macrovision as it says it's got that on the DVD's box. But Ill try DRF tonight and see what happens

[randombs]

i know that now, hence my edit saying that region free really does remove the macrovision on dvds that you want to play instantly.

i thought the posters got the wrong end of the stick and thought you wanted multiregion playback so i did that post. then i googled for dvd region free, had a look at the screenshot, saw the tickbox for 'macrovision removal' and did the edit, thus indicating my wrongness

[mid]

If you're getting errors about Macrovision, it probably means that

1) your video card has a TV out on it, but
2) either your driver or the card doesn't include the capability to degrade the signal with Macrovision.

You'll need to either use that DVD Region program (if it works) or possibly turn off the TV output.

[vertigo]

Yes, my card has TV Out on it. It's a GeForce 5600 FX.

[Fei Fong Wong]

I use AnyDVD if it helps.

[randombs]

check what the nvidia options are with regards to this. if you've updated your drivers from their website with later ones, there may be a dvd program or something to download, too.

my cousin had a similar problem with his pc as he had one of those creative dxr thingies in there with the tv out and it complained about macrovision

[vertigo]

Right, I've just tried DVD Region+CSS Free and it's not worked. It's installed, I've set the settings etc to be correct, tried to run the DVD in PowerDVD and WinMP and neither of them worked, both stopped with the same errors about digital copyright stuff.
DRF also keeps on asking me if I want to enable DMA but as far as I'm concerned (by checking my device manager) DMA is enabled on both IDE channels anyway, so I'm not quite sure why it keeps on saying that it's disabled.
But the main point is that the DVD still won't play, even though I have all the correct options ticked. Don't ask me if I know about the Macrovision box and the other ones. I know about them. Yes, I am sure I've ticked them
And yes I have rebooted to save the changes!
DVD Fab just turned out to be a thing that crashed and didn't do anything else, so that wasn't much use.
Downloading AnyDVD now.
Main problem with this is that I do want to actually make it output to TV when we're watching them, so hopefully I can get it to work and output to TV too.

[vertigo]

For. ****'s. Sake.
AnyDVD doesn't fix the problem either.
This is doing my head in now. I've tried a different CSS-protected DVD and I get the same error.
This is ****.
Hang on.
OK. I've just tried Mplayer Classic and it works. But InterActual, WinMP and PowerDVD don't, even though DVD Region+CSS Free says those apps are supported.
Bah.
Anyone got any further ideas?
It works, but not ideally. Anything better than nothing for now though, as long as the DVD I've got my g/f for Christmas works ok, not that I'll know until the weekend coz it's all wrapped up.

[vertigo]

Just an update: At 11 last night I finally managed to sort the problem out, after finding out that I didn't have the conversion cable that would allow my GeForce to output to TV. So with a combination of getting DVD R+CSS Free working properly, the strange events of finding a VGA looping cable, a specially-pinned video out to composite cable, working out that sound was set to come out digitally instead of analog, and installing an Encore DXR3 card, all of which were in my gaming/PC bits cupboard and I didn't even know I had any of that hardware and don't remember buying any of it either, it now works to output all regions and CSS encoded DVDs to either monitor or TV, as well as other video files from my comp.
Hurrah!
So thanks to you guys for all your help, my g/f will be very happy when she opens one of her Christmas presents early tomorrow and sees what I've got her for watching on Christmas Eve