DVD is Region 2, won't play...help?

This isn't really about burning DVDs, but:

I bought a DVD on ebay from a seller in the UK, and I live in the US. I failed to notice that it was a Region 2 DVD, and now it won't play on my DVD player.

I was also told that computers automatically switch between regions to read discs, and do it up to 5 times, but mine isn't doing so. What do I do so I can watch the DVD? (Preferably on DVD player)

I don't have a DVD burner or any of the tools, so is there anything I can do without using those? It also has extra scenes I'd like to keep, so I don't want to strip it and all of that. Any help is GREATLY appreciated, as that any of you who have seen Trigger Happy TV know how funny it is. Thanks __X_X_X_X_X_[small]Perception is reality.[/small]

 

You can simply rip the region 2 DVD to your PC's hard disk using one of the free ripping tools such as Decrypter available at this site or elsewhere. When you rip it, make sure you de-regionalize it so that the copy on your hard disk is both decoded and deregionalized.
Your PC's DVD player (not the Apex) can switch up to 5 times, but be very careful - the last switch could get you stuck only able to play DVDs from Napal!.
Better to just deregionalize your dvd, rip an iso image to your hard drive, mount the iso image (using eg alcohol 120% or similar program) and then play it using a regular software DVD player. That will leave all of the menus and extra's completely intact.
From there, you can always either get a dvd burner and "print" a new dvd, either with the extra's removed to save space, or with the disc recompressed, to fit on the smaller format burnable DVD. You can also print to VCD or SVCD, but the difference in quality will be noticable on a good quality screen.

 

Thanks for all of that. I just have a couple questions.

When I deregionalize it, is that just an option I can choose?

What do you mean rip an image/mount the iso image?

Thanks again, I'll go download that program and see how it works

 

ok a few definitions:
1.Ripping - to copy from the original optical disk to your hard disk. When you rip songs off of a music CD, you can just copy them directly to a folder on your hard disk. When you want to copy the files off of a DVD it is often more complicated as the DVD files are encrypted using an algorhythm called CSS. Hence if you copy the files directly, all that you get is gobbledegook. To rip or backup your DVD to your hard disk, you have to use a program like DVD Ripper or DVD Decrypter. i like Decrypter, because it can rip to an iso image.
2.)ISO image - a single file that contains in it, all of the files on the original DVD (or CD).It makes it easier to keep everything together, and given the right software, your PC can treat the iso image as if it was the DVD or CD itself. I use this for example on my laptop, to copy my key programs from the CD that they came on, to the Laptop harddisk. That way if I am traveling, and the program asks for the original CD - I've got it - sortof.
3.)Mounting - I mount a disk so that the Operating system can see it. When you boot windows, your C disk is automatically mounted and when you put a DVD in the DVD reader, it is automatically mounted, but what about that iso image that has all of the original DVD files (now decrypted) on it. Imount it using a pice of software that creates a "virtual" optical disk drive (as if you had a 3rd 4th and 5th CD/DVD disc drive) and then mounts the iso image on it. Your PC may report that the movie is now mountedon Drive J etc. I use the program called alcohol 120%, which is not free, but it is a great piece of software (IMHO). When you run alcohol, run the "image finder applet which will identify all of the iso images on your hard disc. Right click on an iso image and select add to alcohol. Then back to the main screen, right click the iso image and select "mount on drive..." If you have mounted a typical DVD iso it will begin to play juswt as if you had put a real DVD in the real DVD reader.
other issues, yes, degregionalize is an option in Decrypter and DVD ripper which is usually selected aas default.
Lastly, I mentioned that there are several ripper programs, such as DVD ripper and DVD decrypter. I prefer Decrypter at this point (ripper is what I started with - still a fine program and very straightforward to use). Both of these can rip a DVD for individual files, or to produce one "movie", but I prefer decrypter because it can rip the iso image that I mentioned above. This approach, ie of ripping as an iso, has the disadvantage of copying EVERYthing on the dvd, hence it is more wasteful of hard disk space, but the advantage that you get all of the extra's, plus you can deal better with the perverse little quirks that some DVDs employ on top of CSS to prevent their license holders from backing up their movies.
Check out some of the great GUIDES on this site, about ripping etc.
good luck

 

Ok, I'm attempting to rip the DVD now, and I am posed with two more questions. I downloaded the trial version of alcohol 120%, should this be sufficient enough? And also, the decrypter instructions say it is necessary to download something called an ASPI at www.ahead.de . Is this necessary for ripping, or just burning?

Thanks again.

 

Oh, one more thing. With dvd decrypter, it doesn't seem necessary to have alcohol 120%, as that it seems like it can create the ISO image on its own. What exactly does alcohol 120% do again?

 

Ohhhhh, nevermind, that is used to "mount" the ISO image so that I can watch it on my computer, in place of simply burning it. Ok.

I still have the other 2 questions though.

 

the aspi layer is simply a way for the ripper (ie decrypter)or other software, to talk to the DVD drive. It dates back to the early cretaceous period of computing. My current decrypter runs with aspi installed on my win2000 machine, and no aspi layer installed on winxp. I believe the instructions for most of the rippers recomend it, and various problems -such as failure to "see" the drive are attributed to it. However decrypter on Win XP simply reports "no aspi layer" and then proceeds. You can get an aspi layer, installer etc on afterdawn such as ForceASPI for Win 95 (to install aspi v4.6) and Asaptec ASPI 4.71.2 for later (the latter package includes ASPIcheck which is useful to see what is already there). Both of these are under CD-R tools, on the aferdawn software sxn.
As to the trial vs real version of alcohol - I don't know if the trial version is time limited or feature limited. If the former, then should be ok at least initially. Note that using alcohol (or other image manager) is my personel preference, and there are other ways to do it. I have come around to using alcohol because I find that various DVD titles do strange thinks to mess up the ripping process. I used to rip my dvds in file mode, yanking out stuff that i thought was unneeded. It worked "often", but it was frustrating to go to play a movie for my family that i thought i had correctly ripped that afternoon, only to find that i had for example, the music soundtrack, but no voices, or had an obligatory "directors comments" audio overlay. Wiser and more experienced persons on this board, are likely better able to pull out the right tracks for them (under the stream processing tab in decrypter) and may validly criticize my approach as wasteful of hard disk space.