Hard ware:
I have NEC-3500A DVD burner, firmware 2.16. As media I'm using Memorex 8X DVD+R.

Software:
- AnyDVD 4.1.1.2
- CloneDVD2 2.5.3.3

I have a DVD from Region 2 and I'm trying to clone it to Region-free. Or trying to make it Region 1 so I can play it over here. In AnyDVD Under the "Feature Removal" Tab I selected/activated all features. So I activated to remove the Regio code software, Regio code hardware and Code Scripts.

I've tried to make a direct copy with CloneDVD with the "Clone DVD" option. After the DVD was made I tried the new "region-free" dvd in my stand alone dvd player but didn't work. I'm getting the same message as with the original region 2 dvd saying that the dvd in incompatable.

I also tried to copy it with the option "Copy DVD Titles". This with the same result.

And I've tried a 3rd option. Copied the DVD to the hdd (and also tried it to make an ISO file) and then burn it to an DVD but each time with the same result. Incompatible DVD.

And I'm sure it's not the media the burner can not handle. I'm making my own movies and burn them to the same media and they work fine in the stand alone dvd player's I have.

Can anybody help me to solve this problem? Is it something I'm doing wrong?

Try setting the AnyDVD default region to match the DVD (Region 2). It will still strip out the region coding, but sometimes it needs to be set the same as the original to start with.

Good luck

Didn't work either. But thanks for your response anyway.

There is one more thing that just came up in my mind. I had an Error message during the installation of AnyDVD. I printed the Error copy, and this is the whole message it gave me.

"Error opening file for writing:"C:\Windows\system32\ElbyCDIO.dll" Hit "Abort" to abort installation, "Retry" to retry writing the file, "Ignore" to skip this file."

I've tried "Retry" but that didn't work. Then I tried "Ignore" and the installation did go on. Afterwards it looks like AnyDVD was working fine. I can play each DVD I wanted.

Maybe this has something to do with it. But I realy don't know.

With the search option in Windows I searched for the ELBYCDIO.dll file and I found it in the system32 folder. Can somebody tell me what's wrong with this and if and how I can solve this problem.

Thanks

Maybe it's not a problem of the region but of the wrong format.
To be more specific if your player can't play PAL discs he might
still not be able to play the PAL disc even its a region free one.

That sounds possible to me. Thanks.

Do you (or anybody ells) knows if I can format from PAL to NTSC?

You can try this out. Apparenly there have been a few successes using this method to convert a PAL disc over to NTSC.

But your best bet is to find a DVD player that will handle both PAL and NTSC discs.

Keep in mind that your television also needs to support both modes. Here, in Europe for example, we have the PAL format. If I try to play an NTSC disc on a TV which only supports PAL, it will produce a black and white picture.