Media Direct and Region Code

Thanks for the wiki. I found this, too.

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/region.html

Region Free - Region-free can mean that your DVD device (eg. DVD-ROM drive) will not check for the region settings of your DVD movie, and will infact playback any movie from any region. Note that this is different to "automatic region detect", some standalone DVD players use - the region setting is not checked at all with these kind of region-free devices. Region-free can also mean that you have the ability to change the region settings of your DVD device (eg. Hardware/software DVD player) without decreasing the Region Counter (see above), and hence, have the ability to change the region settings of your DVD device for an unlimited number of times.

Well, in the case of Media Direct (MD), the first definition of Region Free in the above can't apply, since MD must have checked the region because it won't play until I set a region, and the second definition of Region Free also can't apply, because the Region Counter in MD will decrease if I set to USA.

I really don't care about decreasing the Region Counter, I'm just curious. Like fireberd said, the region, for this player, just needs to be set. This just surprised me, since I've installed many after-market DVD drives, and have never been asked to set the Region. I guess that's probably because I've always bought drives here in the US (amazon, newegg, etc), whereas this laptop could have been sold anywhere in the world. Nonetheless, it's also the first time I've gotten a Dell (and I have 8 Dells) that required this.

Now, I haven't installed Windows Media Player (WMP), which is required to play movies or audio in Windows Media Center, which comes with Vista HP. If I installed WMP (I'd probably get version 10, as 11 is not as user friendly for me), that may automatically set the Region Code of the drive.

I also haven't installed Dell's CyberDVD yet. I wonder if this would automatically set the Region Code.

One more thing, and this is why this subject doesn't seem to have consistent answers. I have two Dells in front of me, one is an Optiplex Desktop, the other is this 1420 laptop. When I check in the device manager in BOTH machines, the DVD Region Tabs say Current Region: Not set, and says that when I do set a region, I'll have one less change available. Here's the kicker...the 1420 won't play the DVD, but the Optiplex plays it just fine with any player I select, WMP or CyberLink DVD.