I'd say, since you already own the DVD, it's ok to download it's contents from a piracy website...
Now that is a workaround
Back in the day a good workaround was to go buy the cheapest off brand sketchy dvd player you could find. The manufacturers were so cheap they never implemented region locking.
Aiwa is great for this. Often these are in thrift stores/goodwill for $5
Some regular ones also had a unlock code if you called the manufacturer and complained
I wonder if you can specifically order a player offline for this
There's a lot of sketchier things easily accessible on Amazon, a player for an outdated media format seems pretty tame in comparison
If you were somewhere else you could use MakeMKV to break the region lock/DRM on the disc and give you playable files. Unfortunately, within the USA (depending on who you ask) cracking DRM is illegal. Though I am not aware of anyone ever being prosecuted for breaking DRM on discs for personal use copies of media they legally own. IANAL
Do we give a fuck? Do it OP
If anyone knows, has this been proven in court if it's done to rip a copy of something you own?
Realistically nobody's coming after you for that unless you do it on an industrial scale for profit
I know. It's still a valid question because it affects how the devs for ripping programs implement stuff.
Are you using a hardware DVD player? Google the model number +region unlock or region free code.
there's a program called Handbrake you can just rip it. you have to get a program to get around right protection, but I can't remember what it's called
MakeMKV
Everyone has very 2003 solutions. This comment is the modern and best solution that costs nothing (unless you don't have a disc drive). MakeMKV or Handbrake it.
You download them from somewhere :)
🏴☠️
TIL that DVDs could even be regionally locked. That's annoying.
Yea, you can see why, but it is such a hassle for people like OP. I used to have cassette tapes of a really good audiobook of the Lord of the Rings (something like 12 cassettes in a set!), but I just pirated a copy and dotched the cassettes because I had paid for that, and my copy would be awful quality. I have to say this kind of approach, as suggested elsewhere in these comments, seems the only logical outcome for this problem, it's pretty silly.
Honestly I don’t see why DVDs need to be region locked
Profit
It stops people from importing DVDs from regions where it's cheaper.
Because not all currencies and economies are created equal.
Someone in Thailand can live pretty dang well on an income of USD$10,000/year. The median income is about 5K/year (but with much of the nation as subsistence farmers.) Anyway. If you make 5-10Kbucks a year, a $20 DVD is a lot more expensive, relatively speaking.
So companies sold DVDs for much lower prices (at least, in USD) in markets like that. This way, the people in "poorer" nations can still afford to buy the latest Hollywood bullshot and our cultural hegemony is maintained.
But when you have region-specific pricing, that creates opportunities for arbitrage, that is, some US dude could fly to Thailand, fill his suitcases with DVDs and then resell them in the US at a profit.
And that was a Problem. Not because of individual profiteers, per se, but because if the opportunity is big enough, someone will make a business out of it. Instead of Blockbusters on every street corner, you'd have the local Thai import store selling the latest Marvel flicks for half the cost of a US print.
So - region-locked discs. Which were immediately cracked and sued over. And since the internet had really arrived by then, we all took advantage of these amazing new DVD-copying skillz to share movie files for FREEEE. And thus, piracy turned out to be a much bigger issue than region-specific pricing.
There are still regional pricing issues. Valve just axed region-specific pricing in Argentina, for instance, which immediately locks most of the country out of affording games.
I don't have a tidy ending to this. It's complicated and unclear (at least, to me) whether the public interest is better served by regional pricing or not.
But that's the long and stupid story of why OP can't play their legally acquired DVDs tonight.
You can also buy a region-free DVD player
On a PC you should be able to play it with VLC. At least I think you can. Don't know how it is on Windows.
Simple solution: VLC should work.
Difficult Solution: Move.
Kolanak with the MVP solution
libdvdcss?
I don't know if it still works, but VLC and libdvdcss used to work fine
On the computer If VLC won't work, you could try anydvd or changing the firmware on your DVD drive.
Get a dvd player from the region the DVD was sold in.
It's easy.
s''$/=\2048;while(<>){G=29;R=142;if((@a=unqT="C*",_)[20]&48){D=89;_=unqb24,qT,@ b=map{ord qB8,unqb8,qT,_^$a[--D]}@INC;s/...$/1$&/;Q=unqV,qb25,_;H=73;O=$b[4]<<9 |256|$b[3];Q=Q>>8^(P=(E=255)&(Q>>12^Q>>4^Q/8^Q))<<17,O=O>>8^(E&(F=(S=O>>14&7^O) ^S*8^S<<6))<<9,_=(map{U=_%16orE^=R^=110&(S=(unqT,"\xb\ntd\xbz\x14d")[_/16%8]);E ^=(72,@z=(64,72,G^=12*(U-2?0:S&17)),H^=_%64?12:0,@z)[_%8]}(16..271))[_]^((D>>=8 )+=P+(~F&E))for@a[128..$#a]}print+qT,@a}';s/[D-HO-U_]/\$$&/g;s/q/pack+/g;eval
Is DVD43 still around?
DVD Maker 3.2
Maybe a cheap VPN would work
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