Dell Inspiron 6000 and DVD region locks

I ordered a Dell Inspiron 6000 last sunday and it should be coming in 1-2 weeks, but a thought has just occured: will I be able to play dvds from other regions?

I'm in Australia (r4) so playing interregional DVDs is not illegal, however if it requires a firmware upgrade that will void my warranty and after paying a few hundred extra for an extended warranty that is something I don't wanna do. Does anyone know what model the 8x DVD+/-RW burner is (and while I'm at it, is it dual layer too?), and if the drive is region locked, or would it just the software?

thanks

 

All drives on all brands come with 5 region changes allowed (the first change having been consumed to set it to your local region), after that it locks to the one you had on last. I know it is pretty stupid especially for people who travel between different regions and play dvds here and there, like me!

I would have to recommend against doing a firmware flash. It is sometimes more delicate to do on laptops than on desktops, depending on what you have. Could end up with a none functional drive!!! Happened to me [ ]

Just use one of the many available software to bypass region lock. I use slysoft's AnyDVD. Pretty small and does the trick. + it bypasses the Music CD lock that disallows ripping.

Anti piracy measures drive me nuts! WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO PAY TWICE FOR AN ALBUM? Once for a CD and another for MP3s for my MP3 player !!!!! [ !]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
N6010: P4M 3.2G, 1GB Dual 400MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I know, it's outrageous! If you buy the CD, why should you have to pay again because you want to listen to it on another medium? Then it makes it more of a hassle for people who buy it cos of all the measures.

That said, on my desktop I only ever had problems with CD copy control on one CD and while the Copy Controlled CDs would skip and jump in the car/cd players, they could ironically be copied easily (I invented Copy Control Control CDs [ ] - CDRs of music that could be played on any modern system). I wonder if the drive in the inspiron will be able to do the same.

Back onto the subject, thanks for letting me know of the software remedies! Since my family love to buy Amazon US (many dvds are cheaper there than in aus) this'll be useful