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That is EXACTLY what my engineer buddy (ex NASA BTW. I actually got to hold some of the original blueprints for the shuttle. Very cool) was talking about when advising his client on "green" tech to invest in, and much better than I could have put it, so thanks. I think another part of the problem though is there seems to be this epeen "my device is smaller than yours!" race going on, for reasons I haven't figured out yet. Sure nobody wants giant bricks like we had for cells in the 80s, but my GF's damned cell phone is so damned small I'm gonna need to figure out how to tie a "clapper" to that sucker just so she can find her phone!

And I don't know about y'all, but I would be happy to have an Ion platform or AMD ULV netbook in a normal size case, but have the remainder of the case (a netbook so I wouldn't waste juice on a drive. I got a thumbstick for transfers) taken up by a decent battery that got...say 12-14 hours on a charge. But currently you can only get ultra expensive Lenovo Thinkpads with full Core 2 Duos with extra battery capacity. I can't be the only one sick of 4-6 hour battery life, can I?

BTW, for those that want more time when watching videos I would recommend DVD Idle Pro. Don't let the name fool you, while it does help with ripping DVDs, the more important feature is it will load just about any video format straight into RAM (if you have a decent amount) so that your drives can be spun down. It can really extend the battery life when watching videos on your laptop by letting the DVD and HDD spin down and just run straight from the RAM. With my nearly four year old Dell with 1.2Gb of RAM I can watch my rip of my extended edition LoTR and still have 20-30 minutes of battery left when it is done. Without it I'm maybe getting half way before the battery conks out.

I'll just be glad when somebody comes up with some new battery tech, as I still want 12-14 hours on a charge. To be able to work all day in the field without needing a charge? yeah that would be nice. That is one of the reasons I have avoided the whole "smartphone" craze as I need my phone a hell of a lot more than I need Internet access from my cell or video/audio capabilities. I for one would rather just use my laptop for Internet, my stick of gum sized Sandisk for music (why the hell can't we get netbooks that run on rechargeable AAAs like my MP3 player?) and have my phone actually last awhile on a charge. But as my engineer buddy said, when somebody comes out with battery tech that will let you get that 12-14 hours without weighing the machine like a bag of bricks that person is gonna make Bill Gates look like a baglady. Everybody will be lining up to buy their product. I just hope it comes out before I'm too damned old to enjoy it.

Or he can spend $50 on DVDidle Pro and watch movies from any region while having the movie loaded into RAM so the drive hardly spins at all.

If you have the hard disk space (since you must rip to hard disk) you might consider trying DVDFab Decrypter. It's freeware and has been used quite alot by the ripping and encoding community since copy protections started making DVD Decrypter (which was threatened by Macrovision Europe and has ceased distribution, i'm not sure about development) useless.

You can do some further post processing on the ripped files by using something like IfoEdit or DVD Shrink (which can squash the rip from DVD9 to 4.3GB DVD)

* DVD Decrypter Recently bought out by Macrovision to shut down it's decryptey goodness, DVD Decrypter is really a no-nonsense, no-fuss DVD ripper and burner. Want to rip a movie from a DVD so you can watch it later? One button. Want to rip it back to a DVD? Another button.

If DVD Decrypter can no longer rip/decrypt DVDs (since it's not being updated anymore), the next highest-rated (by videohelp.com users) freeware ripper (that's still being updated) is DVDFab Decrypter.

Two nice sites for information about video tools with guides:

• VideoHelp.com
• afterdawn.com

I've been using DVD Region+CSS Free for years and have never had to touch my hardware - yes this is a recommendation, no I'm not affilliated.

I originally got it for the region free bit (being a Brit with a lot of UK stuff - yea Spaced :), but where it really shines is the user restriction removal. I can stick in a DVD and it starts on the menu - no credits, adverts or FBI warnings. I've got so used to it that I actually thought our standalone DVD player was broken when I stuck in a disc the first time and HAD to watch a couple of minutes of logos and FBI warnings.

cLive ;-)

Try DVD Region+CSS free It is not free as in beer, but for $40.00 you can remove the software+hardware region locks.

DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink are a fantastic combination. If you are just going to be playing the disc in your computer, you can use DVD Idle Pro to remove the Prohibited User Operations.

LK

Worth a try if that's your setup.

.02

cLive ;-)

Mind you, Doom 3 doesn't seem to like it when that's installed, either, so your main point still holds...

You could always use DVD Region+CSS Free.
Works a treat, and well worth the piddling $39, with free lifetime upgrades.
I run a sony vaio laptop and I regularly watch dvds from Australia, US, NZ, and the UK.

Instead of complicated firmware hacks, there's a tool that works for every DVD player on a PC:

This works for me, although I can't say I've tried it on a Dell laptop as I don't have one :)

1. can I get a region free DVD drive for my Dell laptops?

Possibly. Try having a look on The Firmware Page and seeing if there is a region-unlocked firmware for the drive in your Dell laptop. Your other alternative is to get hold of a program like DVD Region Free which I believe will strip off the region coding (and other things) before it reaches your DVD player software.

I had this same problem over a year ago. I had an nVidia Geforce 2 card with a TV out, I not have a Geforce 4 and do not experience the problem. I am running SP2 and no problems thus far.

I was able to get around it with DVD Idle Pro.

It makes it work even with the macrovision protection.

LK

Too true! Never mind about dual layer, how about multiregion? My DRU-500AX has only one region change left - thank $DEITY for DVD Region Free.

Unless of course you're talking hardware DVD player - on Slashdot? Nah :)

.02

cLive ;-)

Australia's consumer watchdog considers region coding to be a restriction of trade (wonder if that'll change, with the new US free trade agreement). I suspect a lot of countries outside the US feel similarly. Anyone know if Sri Lanka does?

Failing that, there's always a PC and DVD Region Free.

Yes, because we all know how effective region codes are, don't we? Surely even the movie industry must have realized by now there is no way of creating digital media such that it is both enjoyable and uncopyable by the end user.

Travelers are affected, though. If you spend time on both sides of the pond, you might like your laptop to work wherever you are. Here, the region code stupidity really screws you up. Someone (http://www.dvdidle.com/) sells a $40 piece of software which lets you play any region. It's better than nothing but the DVD consortium should do away with this pointless limitation.

There are also a bunch of web sites that list region code hacks (http://www.unlock-dvd.com/regioncodemap/, for example. A Google Search suggests that the knowledge is pretty well known. However there is also a lot of misinformation out there.

Just download DVD Region Free, it will let you play DVD's from any Region.

You can also use a program called DVD Region Free to remove the UOPs and allow you to skip whatever you want. It isn't free though, and why should we have to pay for an extra program to allow us to do what we want with a DVD that has already been paid for!

Aren't there enough restrictions on DVDs as it is, with region coding (aka price fixing), Macrovision and whatever annoying technology prevents legally purchased DVDs being played on any PC which has a TV-Out on the graphics card. If I pay for a DVD I should be able to play it how I want, and on the device of my choosing without spending more money on programs to work around all of this crap.

DVD Genie can't make DVD drive region free!
I have an Advent 6413b laptop which has a region locked Matshita UJDA710 DVD player, DVD Genie can help me, but I'm region freeeeee now with the help of DVD Region-Free.

I find it interesting that they've chosen to display the "Designed for" logo on their product page. IIRC, that logo is used as somewhat of a certification. IE. you're only granted use of that logo after you pass certain requirements from Microsoft.

I'd find it hard to believe they actually have official support from Microsoft for a DVD region hack utility.