Play Region 1 DVDs On A Japanese PS2

skeller writes, "The Gaming Intelligence Agency has a story about a way to play Region 1 DVDs on a Playstation 2 (which is set by default for Region 2). You just enter in some codes on the controller during boot up. Dunno why it works, but sort of an interesting little tidbit. " The site cautions that the success rate is only about 50% (depending on which of the suggested codes you try), but since it's a non-invasive procedure, it sounds like an experiment worth trying ... if you can get your hands on a PlayStation 2.

Comments

Possibly destructive!

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't as "noninvasive" as you might think. Some DVD players have an electrically-erasable ROM in them, they can only be erased and reset a few times. You can change the region, but only about 10 times or so, and then the region can no longer be reset. Proceed at your own risk, you might end up with an unusable PS2 set to the wrong region.

A smack in the face to the DVD CCA

[m0e]

You know, whether or not this code was left in accidentally, left as a quick 'n' easy upgrade path for rollouts in other areas, or whatnot, there's one thing I can't help to think about one thing:

I bet that one (or more) of the designers just wanted to give the DVD CCA some actual multi-billion-dollar-revenue ass to try to kick so they'll think twice about screwing with the little guy.

Sure, the DeCSS thing may have been more of a big deal in a sense; but if they took the time to trace the link you put on your page that you got from your friend's brother's cousin's sister's friend's boyfriend and then pay a lawyer $450/hour to cite it on a legal document, then they're probably gonna gripe about this until someone decides they're tired of monopolistic punks and they go on a mass killing spree.

Capturing the controller signals for analysis...

[Silicon_Knight]

I thought that the PSX (dunno about PSX2) controller protocals are fairly well reversed engineered. Why not just jury rig something to either:

A: Capture the codes for analysis, ie, sniffing the PSX controller traffic, and

B: Using a PC to play back the signals?

The PSX2 takes regular PSX controllers if I remember correctly.

I imagine that the "40%" rate is because someone isn't entering the code properly. I don't imagine that the console designer included the debug code that would only work 40% of the time...

-=- SiKnight

Time to Sleep

[Yardley]

Hey, want to disable region-encoding limitations on your DVD player? Check out Multi-Region Hacks for Domestic DvD Players.