DVD & BD Region Setting

From NMTWiki

Contents 1 A-200/A-210/A-300 BD Region Setting 1.1 BD Region Setting 1.2 DVD Region Setting 2 C-200/C-300 BD and DVD Region Setting 2.1 BD Region Setting 2.2 DVD Region Setting 3 Additional BD & DVD Information 3.1 BD Region Free/Unlimited changes 3.2 DVD Region Free/Unlimited changes 3.3 How to check your BD license and DRM 4 Guide to making a ROM Drive Region Free on the C200 4.1 The Basics 4.2 What Drive? 4.3 What Do I Need To Do This? 4.4 The Procedure 4.5 Successfully Tested ROM Drives

A-200/A-210/A-300 BD Region Setting

• The A series will play backups of retail BD discs that have no encryption. It cannot play backups with encryption due to the lack of a Bluray license, additionally certain features require a license, such as BDLive and PiP, and these are also not available. It will however display the actual Bluray Menus and enable you to select the options that you require for things like audio and subtitle tracks.

BD Region Setting

• The unit will play retail Blu-ray backups that are unencrypted and match the Region that your player is set.

• Some BD features require storage space so, if you do not have an internal HDD with NMT Apps installed, you need to use a 2Gb USB pendrive. You can use any of the external USB host ports.

• The firmware will automatically create the folders on any USB stick that is FAT/NTFS formatted.

• You need to set the Region via your Remote as per these instructions:-

  IMPORTANT: THIS WORKS ONLY 5 TIMES IN EACH SETUP!

  BD Region Setting:
  1.) Go into Setup (no need to put a BluRay into the drive)
  2.) Press the following buttons: "SLOW, 1, 6, 6, 3" on your remote
  3.) A popup appears, on the remote use the number keys to select the region you need.

  1 = Region A
  2 = Region B
  3 = Region C

• If you are unsure what your BD Region is then check your BD box covers or refer to this handy map.

DVD Region Setting

• Only Bluray has a region setting within the player. Region coding is handled by the drive and as the A series has no ROM drive it has no region coding. It is DVD region free.

• Playback of retail DVD via backup is supported via all usual outputs.

C-200/C-300 BD and DVD Region Setting

• In order to play retail discs you need to set both a region for DVD and BD.

• Playback of retail DVD is not supported via composite or s-video due to protection methods required by licensing authorities.

BD Region Setting

• The unit will play retail Blu-ray discs with the addition of a BD-ROM.

• Some BD features require storage space so, if you do not have an internal HDD with NMT Apps installed, you need to use a 2Gb USB pendrive. You can use the internal USB port situated on the motherboard or any of the external USB ports.

• The firmware will now automatically format and create the folders on any internal USB stick.

• You need to set the Region via your Remote as per these instructions:-

  IMPORTANT: THIS WORKS ONLY 5 TIMES IN EACH SETUP!

  BD Region Setting:
  1.) Go into Setup (no need to put a BluRay into the drive)
  2.) Press the following buttons: "SLOW, 1, 6, 6, 3" on your remote
  3.) A popup appears, on the remote use the number keys to select the region you need.

  1 = Region A
  2 = Region B
  3 = Region C

• If you are unsure what your BD Region is then check your BD box covers or refer to this handy map.

DVD Region Setting

• Retail DVD's play fine from any BD/DVD ROM. DVD playback is not possible via composite/s-video due to licening/protection systems.

• You need to set the Region via your Remote as per these instructions:-

  IMPORTANT: THIS WORKS ONLY 5 TIMES IN EACH SETUP!

  DVD Region Setting:
  1.) Insert a DVD Disc which has the Region you want to select, if the Region is not the same as the Disc, it won't work!
  2.) Please go into the Setup Page
  3.) Press the following buttons: "SLOW, 1, 6, 8, 3" on your remote
  4.) Now, a popup appears, on the remote use the number for the region you want to select.

   DVD Regions
   1 - Canada, United States; U.S. territories; Bermuda
   2 - Western Europe, incl. United Kingdom, and Central Europe; Western Asia; including Iran, Israel and Turkey, Egypt; Japan,
   South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho; French overseas territories
   3 - Southeast Asia; South Korea; Taiwan; Hong Kong; Macau
   4 - Mexico, Central and South America; Caribbean; Australia; New Zealand; Oceania;
   5 - Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Continent of Africa, excluding Egypt, South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho; Central and South Asia,
   Mongolia, North Korea.
   6 - People's Republic of China, Hong Kong

Additional BD & DVD Information

BD Region Free/Unlimited changes

• For BD Region changes the limit of 5 changes is entirely in the NMT.

• To enable unlimited BD Region changes, or rather - unlimited region counter resets - simply check out the Community Software Installer C200 version available on the C200 Forum Section and install the app that is entitled C200 Region Counter Clear. Please read the simple instructions on how-to use it that are displayed on the CSI UI.

DVD Region Free/Unlimited changes

The following information is provided by users following user development and user apps. It is not a Syabas initiative and is entirely at your own risk.

• In order to understand how to get around the limit of 5 changes for BD and DVD Region settings you first need to understand how the protection works:-

• For DVD Region changes the limit of 5 changes is in the C-200/C-300 but ALSO on the ROM drive firmware.

• To enable unlimited DVD Region changes then as well as the C200 you also need to make changes to your ROM drive firmware. ROM drives use what is known as RPC2 firmwares which introduces Regions and the 5 change limit in the ROM drive's firmware. There are alternative firmwares known as RPC1 or RPC2reset firmwares which remove the need for Region setting and the limit of 5 changes on the ROM drive. These firmwares have been around for many years for DVD ROM drives however they are still in very limited availability for BD ROM drives. If you need unlimited DVD Region changes on a BD ROM ensure that before you buy one that is not only is it compatible in the C200 but that a RPC1/RPC2reset firmware is available for the make/model. Look at these websites here and here for these firmwares and help/instructions on how to flash the firmwares.

• Once you have you RPC1/RPC2reset firmware and the app installed you have unlimited BD and DVD Region resets. Just start the webservice when you need to reset the Region counter.

(Old deprecated version here: Region Clear)

How to check your BD license and DRM

• Use the Remote Control and select Setup > Maintenance and press:

  Slow(|<) ,2 ,8, 2, 8

• A pop-up will appear and you should see your installed BD license keys and DRM details.

Guide to making a ROM Drive Region Free on the C200

• This guide offers some advice on what to look for in a DVD/BR drive for your Popcorn hour as well as what you need to do to turn it into a Region Free drive.

• Its pretty easy once you know how, but there are lots of things to think about, install and do... and it took me a good few days to figure it out, so thought this guide should be written.

The Basics

• The basic principle is to Flash (install) new Firmware (software embedded in the drive’s hardware) so that the drive allows you to change between the various regions without limitation. Drives generally offer you 5 changes of region, but after that you have to stay on the last region and the drive becomes locked at that region. You definitely want to do this procedure BEFORE changing the regions!

• There are two kinds of Region Free “fixes”. RPC1 and RPC2reset. RPC1 firmware is hard to find for most drives but is more convenient than RPC2reset, which does lose one “life” each time you change regions, but then when you power down the Popcorn Hour, the drive auto-resets itself back to 4 or whatever number you were on when you first applied the RPC2 firmware. This is what I did to my drive and it works very well... and only takes about 15 minutes or less.

• There is another part to the story. Even if your drive is flashed as RPC2reset, the PCH will still not allow you to change regions as much as you like. There is another “fix” you have to perform, and that is to make the PCH ignore your region changes. To do that, there is some software you have to install on the PCH, but more on that later.

What Drive?

• I heard that the Popcorn Hour (PCH) was developed using the LG-GGC-H20L drive which is now discontinued. However it's successor the LG-CH08-LS10 has proved to be equally compatible. In general LG may be the most compatible, but I’m sure many other drives would work. There is a list, on the Network Media Tank (NMT) Wiki, of drives that have been tested for compatibility. But do not make the mistake I made at first. I chose a drive based on that compatibility chart alone. You MUST go to the RCP1.org site to find out if the drive you are thinking about getting can be made Region Free. The drive I chose, and the one I know works well is the LG CH08LS10.

• On the RPC1.org site, there is a link on the left to their firmware database. There you will hopefully find a link to the drive you want. Many new drives have no firmware yet, but on their forum you could request a firmware that does not exist yet. ONLY get a drive which is listed here.

• Now here’s the big gotcha. The guys at RPC1 do not mention on their firmware database page, that MOST of that firmware is simply manufacturer’s firmware, ie, it is NOT “fixed” in any way, and will make no difference to the Region Freedom of your drive. To make it RPC2, you HAVE to download some special software, more of that in the next bit...

What Do I Need To Do This?

1. Know what drive you want and that you can RPC2 it. Otherwise it will be a major and potentially costly experiment.
2. Go to RPC1 and download the firmware for your chosen drive from their firmware database page.
3. Download MediaCodeSpeedEdit. This is the tool for converting the factory firmware to the RPC2reset firmware. If you are able to successfully convert the firmware with MediaCodeSpeedEdit, you will (AFAIK) to RPC2 your drive
4. Download DriveInfo (useful for checking the status of your drive)
5. If DiskInfo does not run on your computer, you may need to download ASPI layer drivers 4.60 from discinfo.rpc1.org and install them.
6. Download and install NMT Apps to your PCH.
7. Download and install Community Software Installer from here

The Procedure

PartA

1. Copy all the software you downloaded to a folder on your desktop, or somewhere easy to get to
2. Switch off your PC and attach the DVD/BR drive then
3. Reboot your PC in Safe Mode (to prevent antivirus etc from screwing with the flashing)
4. Start MediaCodeSpeedEdit and OPEN the factory firmware for your drive. You may see a message like this one, but don't worry, I had the same message
5. Choose the RPC2 Auto Reset checkbox (it may then grey out, but that's ok...
6. Choose to SAVE the new firmware to any easy to find place. You will get this warning to remind you of the risk you would take.
7. Now double click on that newly created firmware and choose YES to Flash the newly created firmware to your drive.
8. Reboot your PC and then run DriveInfo. See that the Region setting status will say Not Permanent. This is a good sign! As you see below, Drive Region Info shows my drive as Not Permanent, and DiskInfo says Lock Detected.

• Switch off your PC, remove the drive, and install the drive to your PCH.

PartB (assumes you have already set up networking between your PC and PCH using NMT Apps)

1. Start your PHC and put a DVD from the region you would like to be the default region. If you bought the device in the USA it will probably be on region 1. If you like that to be your default, you will not need to do anything here, but if you like Region2 to be your default, then you need to change the region to Region2 BEFORE YOU APPLY THE RPC2reset programme. If you want to change your region, then do this:
2. With your remote, navigate to your settings menu and then on your remote, press the command “Slow” then press 1683. You will see a message which allows you to change your region by pressing the corresponding number on your remote. Once you are set to the region you want as your default, then exit this menu, you are ready to apply the RPC2reset patch.
3. On your PC run the NMT Community Software and scroll down the list to the software called "Region Counter Clear"

and Install this software.

1. Now go to your PCH and navigate to your Web apps, and now there should be an app called "Region Counter Clear", and run it. The PCH will reboot.
2. Important note: C-200RegionFree as shown below is deprecated! Do NOT use it!!

• Now you are pretty much done, but you will want to check that the patch has worked... Go back to your settings on your PCH menu, and do another SLOW1683. This time you will see a different pop-up, and it will have a winking smiley face to greet you... SUCCESS!!! With this solution, you will "lose a life" each time you change regions, but then you will get all your "lives" back by switching off your C-200 by press-holding the front power button till it flashes and switches off, and then switching on again.

• This guide uses the excellent Mediacodespeededit tool that works on many differing brands of ROM drives. It does however not work on every brand of ROM drive nor every model of the brands on which it does work. There additional tools around for ROM drives that do the same or similar functions, you will find then through RPC1.org and what used to be known as CDFreaks but is now MyCE.

Successfully Tested ROM Drives

Brand/Model	Type of ROM Drive	Compatibility	Tester	C200 firmware	User notes
LG CH08-LS10	BD-ROM	OK	Fredphoesh	Firmware 02-01-100119-19-POP-408	RPC2 reset firmware tested and as many changes as I want!
LG CH08-LS10	BD-ROM	OK	lordy	Firmware 02-01-100119-19-POP-408	Flashed via USB/SATA Dongle. (Only Windows Laptop available). The flash process seems stuck. I left it for two hours to be on the safe side, then had to powercycle the laptop. But after that, the LG was upgraded and working. I tested the reset using driveinfo whilst it was still on the PC.
LG GH22NS50	DVD-ROM	OK	Orecate	Firmware 02-03-100821-21-POP-408	RPC1 firmware retrieved from rpc1.org and patched with MediaCodeSpeedEdit in RPC2 reset firmware. C200RegionFree 1.1.4 works fine the first time after install, but after reboot, it doesn't launch (by selecting C200 Patch). Have to uninstall it each time ...