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[bourke]

I need a way to view region 1 DVDs on my region 4 Xbox 360, and have heard conflicting stories about its feasability.

Most DVD Video players do not bother with the file system (.IFO file) to determine a video DVDs region - such checking is done at a lower level by the CSS module, which takes the discs region from the region code byte contained in the CPR_MAI sector (which byte of the 6 is it?).

I would assume that the Xbox 360 also uses the drives logic to determine this.

RCE simply takes the region as it was set by the firmware.  The firmware of just about every player that I've seen takes it from the CPR-MAI.  If the region is correct in order to mount the disc in the first place, then any subsequent RCE checks will get the same region value from the firmware.  RCE mainly picks up on the crude region 0 type hacks.

That said, I do not know how the video player is working on the Xbox 360, it could very well do additional checking - but I'd doubt it.

Could anyone try and modify the CPR_MAI read routine to return back a hard-coded region code byte?
(I am even willing to pay for this feature!)
 

Cheers,
Bourkie

This post has been edited by bourke: Dec 20 2006, 02:28 AM

[myfranco]

Right now there is no way to boot regions different than 360's region. This is for original movies.However,if you backup your movies with dvd shrink , clonedvd etc.. there is an option to create region free movies.I believe your 360 must be hacked to play them.

[bourke]

By 'can it be done' - I believe that I was implying the future tense of the word 'can' - i.e. I am well aware that at the moment there is no devised way of doing this LOL!

P.S. the reason for this requirement is that under the new Australian Copyright Act (law effective January 1st) it becomes illegal to even POSSESS a modified Xbox 360... UNLESS I can bypass a region code! (i.e. any region code whatsoever)

This fact was corroborated by a large law firm, Minter Ellison, here:
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0...Enbv%5E,00.html

Obviously the easiest region code for me to circumvent is the DVD region code :-)


Cheers,
Bourkie

This post has been edited by bourke: Dec 20 2006, 04:01 AM

[myfranco]

In that case , the answer is a real chip like for xbx1 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
That seems the only way to unlock all the doors  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[bourke]

The DVD region code is read (and probably validated) by the DVD drive itself - so there should be no need to hack anything but the drive (which is already possible).

I will happily pay US$400 for anyone who can modify the Xtreme and Maximus-v78 firmwares to achieve this goal :-)

This post has been edited by bourke: Dec 20 2006, 04:51 AM

[bourke]

Bump.


The offer is still out - US$400 for anyone that lets me hard-code the DVD region code byte returned by the CPR_MAI subroutines.


Cheers,
Bourkie

This post has been edited by bourke: Jan 12 2007, 08:20 AM

[vinomarky]

Can't be done

While the DVD drive has been hacked, the xbox 360 itself has not. Think of it like playing a DVD on a PC, where  you would need to patch the DVD drive as well as the software to play region free.

Best alternative would be to make a backup of the DVD stripping off the region designation

[goodl]

I concur, just buy a spindle of dual layer dvd+rwith your 400 bucks and reburn them with no region coding. Its not that big a deal  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)