Got a DVD of the Office in Region 2/4 and so DVDShrink says I need to change my DVD burner to those regions to read the DVD.

-is there any way I can change my region without having my computer count down the number of times I change my region?
-once I can read the DVD, can I burn the DVD to any region I want, or region-free?

The first question is more important because I'm going to be stuck in one region if I have to keep changing region settings.

Thanks for any help.

you can use anydvd, to play or backup DVD with different regional coding.
second question - DVD Shrink is set (default) to produce region free output, if im not mistaken

RPC1 Firmware.

Also, don't forget the DVD will still be in PAL. Shrink cannot change that. You need a NTSC/PAL DVD player or try to convert the DVD to PAL. This can be a daunting task though.

If you play the DVD on the computer it won't matter if it is PAL or NTSC as it is shown in RGB and will be in colour.

this may not be an issue since he hasn't named his country. he could very well be in a PAL country.

and to answer the questions:

1.
- if you have a Matshita drive you're stuck (you haven't named your drive model)
- if your drive has rpc-1 firmware available for it then you can load this firmware to make the drive itself recognise all regions.
- if there is no rpc-1 firmware available, a software solution like anydvd will be able to make discs appear region free to your drive and will therefore be readable regardless of drive region and disc region.

2.
the backup you make will be region free (or region 0 or "locked to ALL regions) depending on the software you use. it all means the same thing though - no region restriction.

3.
if you are, in fact, wanting to play PAL dvds on an NTSC system, i'm not going to explain it here as this is asked every third post on the forum. Do a search for the disadvantages of software solutions in this sense and the up-side sof purchasing a multi-format standalone player.

True but, this situation comes up all the time and so far it has been 9 out of 10 times it is someone from the US asking the question. This comes up all the time on the Shrink forum and it has always been the same.

Thanks for the help. AnyDVD solves all my problems.