Page 1 of DVD FOR PC`s

CAN ANYONE HELP ME? I AM LOOKING FOR A DVD FOR MY PC. OF COURSE I WANT IT REGION FREE. WHERE DO I GET ONE, OR CAN ANYONE RECOMMEND A PLAYER THAT CAN BE HACKED EITHER BY HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE. IN FACT ANY ADVICE AT ALL WOULD BE WELCOME.

No easy answer to this one!
first of you will need a DVD drive that is RCP-1
all drives made after jan 2000 are RCP-2 so if you are looking for a new one then you will need to flash the firmware with a cracked one.
check out this link for info on diffrent drives
http://www.7thzone.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?id_page=firm_dvdrom.
once you have a drive the next problem is the DVD play back software this is also region protected. this can be over come with software tool called DVDgenie.
the 3rd problem is some OS are region protected DVDgenie also overcomes this.
if you use a hardware decoder then this may also be region protected.

Are you going to watch the DVD`s on your PC?
if you have TV out then you may run in to problems with macrovision
there are tool that can get around this but they are dependent on the card that provides the output.

If you are getting a drive just to play back DVD films I dont recommend it. The video and audio is very poor next to a stand alone player and with the prices of standalone players falling all the time. by the time you have paid out for the hardware for your PC you could have had a far better standalone player for the same kind of money.

you are better off getting a hardware decoder,i have a hollywood reelmagic+ decoder which you can get for £55. this can be made region free and have the macrovision disabled by downloading a piece of software,which is free. the software is called remote selector and can be downloaded from www.visualdomain.net. the picture quality is exellent.

I`ve just installed a Pioneer which I bought from a m8 who didn`t use it - I downloaded the new BIOS - flashed the firmware and now it`s region free - I`ve also got DVD genie and am thinking of a Hollywood card so I can plug it into my TV to play region 1 (my Pioneer 515 is £100 to hack) - or you can buy aprehacked drive from http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk - you still need the playback software though but at least you don`t need to worry about flashing the drive !

i can recomend the creative labs dxr3 card (rebadged hollywood+)
my card gives better performance than any of the sub 200quid stand alone players i`ve tried.