Windows XP eats a DVD region change every time I reinstall

[Jansku]

I have a Philips PCA424D DVD-rom drive and my os is Windows XP pro. The drive was a bundle with realmagic hollywood plus and it was supposed to be region free, according to documentation that came with it.

I have installed and re-installed windows XP few times and every time it has first seen the drive to be in region 0. When I have inserted a region 2 movie the region has changed to 2 and the remaining changes counter has moved without the os even bothering to note me about this change. I have only one change left until the drive locks according to windows. Why does this happen?

If the drive realy is region free why does it have regions?

If the drive is not region free why does the region have to changed every time I reinstall os?

Why has the drive worked on every other os I have tried? (win98se, mandrake 9.2)

Does anyone else have this same problem?

Any better experience with PCA424D?

What should I do?

 

[ekÆsine]

after installing OS and before playing a DVD use dvd genie http://www.inmatrix.com/files/dvdgenie_download.shtml

also you could decrypt the movie to the hard disk with www.dvddecrypter.com it also removes region lock like genie

 

[solaratov]

I use DVDIdle which starts in the background every time my player statrs up (WINDVD 5)... gives region free painlessly