I have a Benq 1640 and was trying to play my legitimate dvds that Powercinema says is region code 1 disks.
Powercinema also says that my drive is set a region code 0 right now (that I guess is how it came from the factory).

Anyways powercinema says it will change it for me to region code 1 if I want, but only 5 changes can ever be done on my drive.

1) Is that 5 changes per firmware upgrade, or 5 total changes ever no matter how many firmwares I ever revise on the drive? Is the change somehow registered in the hardware somewhere other than where the firmware change physically takes place?

2)I had a Benq 1625 drive, and it played this same disk no problem, without any prompt about impoper region. So does that mean that Benq1625 drives come out of the factory to the US witht the region code already set to 1, or was that 1625 drive also a region code 0 drive , but for some reason Powercinema let it play my region code disk 1 without any haggling?

3)Is there any advantage if I had the Benq 1640 set at its region code of 0, when using it with other software tools? Is there any software that would let me change it back to 0 if I change it to 1? Are there any region code 0 disks? I realize that region code 0 is supposed to be universal, but it does not seem to be acting universally with the Powercinema software (ie. it is not reading region 1).

I do not seem to search and find others discussing this much on this forum, so what is my problem, and why are not others running into it, or did everyone just change there drive to 1 (in the USA) when they got it?

Appreciate the help, thanks.

Well, I must have gotten frustrated, and inadvertantly hit the button to change to region 1. So now my dvd plays fine!

But, I still wonder, what am I going to miss out on if I had left the drive at its original region code of 0 (zero)?

Can I actually change it back to 0 using Windows DVD Region setting? Is "0" an option?

Also do you get 5 changes per firmware version or overall for the entire drive?

Did I do the right thing?

You couldn't leave it there. No DVD would have played. The drive ships without a region being set, then you set it when you get it. That way drive manufacturers don't have to have drives set for different regions at the factory.

No.

Entire drive. Its not a firmware setting.

Yes, otherwise you couldn't play the DVD.

That said, you can download a modified firmware that will allow you to play all region discs on the drive. You can grab it from here:
http://tdb.rpc1.org/#DW1640

Note that this technically voids your warranty since its a non-stock firmware.

5 Changes total, it's called RPC2. http://www.dvdcca.org/rpc.html

Drives are typically sold with no region set. You either set a region, or it takes the one of the first regioned disc used. You can only typically set a region that matches the region(s) available on a given disc currently in the drive.

There is no advantage, the drive should refuse to play ANY regioned disc. Some discs are not region coded at all, while others enable ALL regions, some enable a couple of regions (ie 2 and 4), while most are set to a SINGLE region. Your drive was not set to region 0, it was simply not set to any region at all. It was also not region free or universal.

You're probably just paranoid, it's pretty standard stuff. Windows typically determines the region by looking at the international dial code for your country.

An RPC1 firmware has no region control, but you must use software to set your player and OS to use a specific region. http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=239

Brother Vlad