.: Greetings, this is my first post, and I hope I don't waste anyone's time, but I was unable to find an answer to this question. I have a couple Region 2 DVDs, and tried using DVD Shrink 3.2 to copy, not knowing in advance if DVD Shrink would also allow for converting to Region 1. Of course it didn't happen, and I learned that I had to reset my drive twice (to and from Region 2).

After some diligent searching, I came across the site for DVD Region+CSS Free at DVDIdle (http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm), and while reading about it, noticed that the site recommends DVD Fab as well (http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd-fab-platinum.htm). Further reading and searching didn't help me understand the difference between the two products. The DVDIdle products page (http://www.dvdidle.com/products.htm) lists them all, seemingly in descending order of price.

I found the comparison pages here:
DVDFab versions:

http://www.dvdidle.com/fab-compare.htm

DVD Region+CSS Free:

http://www.dvdidle.com/compare.htm

According to the DVDFab comparisons page, all versions can remove Region restrictions. But oddly enough, on the DVDFab Platinum page (http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd-fab-platinum.htm), all I could find that might suggest it removes the Region restriction was this line:

1. "Remove all DVD copy protections, like CSS, CPPM, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs, ARccOS, RipGuard, FluxDVD, CORE X2, etc."

Because I don't know these acronyms, I am assuming one or more refer to the Region restrictions.

Anyway, after all this, my question is, what's the difference between these two products, and what do the experts here recommend as a purchase if I want a program that will allow me to rip from Region 2 (or another Region) to Region 1, without having to use up my drive's remaining three lives?

I use Nero to convert .avi, etc., to Video TS, etc., and am wondering if DVDFab would replace Nero in that regard, or do the two programs need to be used together to get the final product?

Thanks in advance for any and all guidance and assistance.

Kind regards.

Region 1 is NTSC and 2 is PAL different formats, Fab will remove the RCE but won't change the format. You'll need something else to do that. The best bet is just get a region free player and forget about region codes.

DVDIdle/CSS Free is not currently being supported. This may change in the future. It is/was a driver-level decrypter that made your DVD drive appear to be reading a region-free unencrypted disc. There was no ability to re-author a disc or otherwise manipulate its contents AFAIK. DVDFab reads an encrypted disc, manipulates it per your settings (including compression if necessary) writes it to a temporary file, then burns this temp file to disc. It also will convert DVD content to many MPEG4 formats and containers for iPods and other mobile devices.

OK podbay, The answer to your question is simple. Yes dvdfab platinum or dvdfab gold will open the disc on your dvd drive without you changing the region code on it again. But you cannot use them to watch the movie on your computer as they are only dvd copy software. Also I am assuming you have a dvd player that can play both NTSC and PAL dvd's because dvdfab does not change the format of dvd's. And yes you can use dvdfab to make a backup dvd with out having to use any other programs. Dvdfab is an all in one dvd copy program and is the best at what it does.

sorry podbay I not know if dvdfab can convert avi to video ts. But maybe someone else will know and tell you.

DVDFab does not read anything except the IFO and VOB files in VIDEO_TS folders. If you want to convert from AVI to DVD or PAL/NTSC try ConvertXtoDVD3 from VSO Software. It has the same burning engine as DVDFab if you want to burn the output to disc.

Thanks to everyone for providing information about the difference between these two related products. I am very new to dealing with anything beyond Region 1 DVDs, and just wanted to know if there is a product out there that lets you load a Region 2 (or otherwise) DVD without having to do something to the drive. I use Nero to convert .avi to video/ts, so that's ok for now.

So what I'm seeing then from the responses is:
- DVDIdle/CSS Free is not currently supported
- DVD Fab will open a Region 2 disc to allow for copying of software, but cannot change the format of the copied software when burning, so the burned DVD would still be Region 2

I would ask then, what would be the major advantages in purchasing DVD Fab versus a free program like DVD Shrink?

Thank you kindly to everyone who has responded, I appreciate your help and advice a lot!

- Randy

From another site, I learned that "RCE, Regional Coding Enhancement, is an upgrade to RPC (Regional Playback Control). RCE enables a RPC/RCE protected DVD to refuse to play on a DVD player which is not region protected. Under RPC, the logic flow was "IF this region is allowed, THEN play this disk." Under RPC/RCE, the logic flow is "IF other regions are allowed, THEN do not play this disk."

region free

dvdfab platinum is all-in-one, dvd to dvd, dvd to mobile.

dvd shrink is not updated and will not handle every movie.

you can still use dvdfabhd decrypter and then use dvd shrink and imgburn. so thats three free programs.

also dvdfab will remove RCE

Also, no PathPlayer or equivalent function in Shrink.

Region 2 is not PAL. It is from Japan, they use NTSC system

Unfortunately, your statement is both correct and incorrect.
While it's true that Japan is R2 and utilizes NTSC, R2 is not confined to NTSC format.
Nothing about this is simple.

From Wikipedia, R2 includes:

European Union, Albania, Andorra, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Faroe Islands, French Guiana, Georgia, Greenland, Guernsey, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Oman, Qatar, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vatican City State, Yemen.

Referenced link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code

I assumed since the guy wasn’t writing in Japanese the region 2 disk in question was from the UK which is PAL. If it is an R2 from Japan, I stand corrected.

[quote=podbay;2035732]Thanks to everyone for providing information about the difference between these two related products.

So what I'm seeing then from the responses is:
- DVDIdle/CSS Free is not currently supported
- DVD Fab will open a Region 2 disc to allow for copying of software, but cannot change the format of the copied software when burning, so the burned DVD would still be Region 2

I would ask then, what would be the major advantages in purchasing DVD Fab versus a free program like DVD Shrink?
QUOTE]

The dvd that dvdfab makes will be a region free dvd with all copy protections removed. It will not be region 2 anymore and dvdfab platinum is an all in one program it does many things that dvdshrink does not do

I think we should be clear on this point for the OP, if it starts out as an R2 PAL disk, when DVDFab finishes backing it up it will be region free, but it will still be PAL and still won’t play in an NTSC only player (locked to region 1).

And I believe you'd be correct
Anyway, your advice about purchasing a region free player is right on the money. They can be had pretty cheaply these days and many also are NTSC <---> PAL capable.
This is by far, the simplest way to deal with region/NTSC, Pal issues.

I didn't say that R2 is NTSC only. I said that Japan uses NTSC

I'm not interested in what you think you said or in arguing with you.
You said:

Region 2 is not PAL.
This statement is incorrect...period.

The Region 2 discs I was/am interested in converting to be able to view in a Region 1 player were/are from the UK, that is correct.

So if DVDFab strips the Region 2 of its RCE and makes it Region Free, the problem is that is still remains NTSC. I know from using Nero that when I convert downloaded .avi files, it will sometimes tell me that the file has more NTSC than PAL, and do I want to convert to PAL.

I guess the perfect program would strip the RCE, and then allow the user to convert to Region Free and a choice of PAL or NTSC. Does such a program exist?

Again, thanks for the ongoing help and ensuing discussions.

[quote=podbay;2036095]
I guess the perfect program would strip the RCE, and then allow the user to convert to Region Free and a choice of PAL or NTSC. Does such a program exist?
QUOTE]

I also would like to know if such a program exists

[quote=GJ;2036103]NO....

no...

THE JOB OF CONVERTING ntsc<->pal is quite underated

No problem my dvd player plays both PAL and NTSC dvd's

I ,on occasion, use Adobe Elements to convert the output of a movie to NTSC from PAL format. It takes quite a long time and the quality on some occasions is watchable but does have errors. It is very true that using a multi region DVD player is much quicker. I do it only so the kids can watch some movies and TV shows from the UK.
The Copying process using FAB, then the loading into Elements, then the Burning onto disc can be as much as 3 hours. If you dont mind the wait then its a way.