Computer Info – June 13, 2001
This Week’s Meeting
John Watkins is in town and
will be hosting the meeting this week. He said his program will be
Finding your way around the UK with cyber maps
Finding people in the UK
MSN messenger
and, of course,
Questions
DVD Players and Regions
How does Windows 98 and Windows
Me handle DVD region selection? The initial default DVD region is chosen
during Windows 98/Me Setup when you select a country in the Establishing
Your Location dialog box. If you choose None for a country location, the
default region selection is based on the country code and time zone.
The first time a DVD movie
is inserted in the drive, Windows 98/Me compares the region on the movie
disc with the region selected during Setup. If the DVD movie has a different
region than the region selected during Setup, the default is changed to
match the DVD movie. If the first DVD movie inserted in the drive has only
one region on the disc, Windows 98/Me uses that region as the default,
regardless of everything else.
Once the selected region
has been used to watch a movie, you can change it four times, for a total
of five possible regions. When you insert a DVD movie, if the disc is from
a region other than the default, a dialog box is displayed that informs
you that you have inserted a disc from a different region. This dialog
box displays the region for the inserted movie disc and the current player
region, along with a list of new player regions and countries you can select.
When you select a new region, a warning is displayed stating the number
of region changes remaining before the change is written.
The DVD-ROM drive enforces
the number of changes. Each time the region is changed, the new region
is written to the DVD-ROM drive firmware. Once the limit for region
changes is reached, the DVD-ROM firmware locks out further attempts until
the drive unit is replaced or reset by the manufacturer.
Here's a brief introduction
to regional coding. When DVD was created by manufacturers such as Sony,
Panasonic, Toshiba etc. they knew that they would need the support of the
Hollywood movie studios if DVD was to be a successful home video format.
The studios saw DVD's potential for making money, but they had concerns
about distribution which is why regional coding was introduced.
Normally movies are released
in cinemas first in the United States and then later in other parts of
the world such as Europe, usually when the movies are released on home
video in the States. The studios were concerned that people from other
parts of the world would import movies on DVD from the US and see them
before they were released in the cinemas in their own country. This could
lead to less people going to see movies at the cinema which would mean
less profit for the studios. To safeguard against this, it was agreed that
the world would be split up into six regions and every DVD disc and player
would have a regional code corresponding to where they were intended to
be sold. DVD players from one region will not play titles from another
e.g. region 1 players will only play region 1 DVDs, and not region 2, 3
etc.
The main countries in the
six DVD regions are listed below.
1. US territories, Canada
2. Europe, Japan, Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
3. Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
4. Austrailia, New Zealand, South America, Mexico, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
5. Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa, India, North Korea, Mongolia
6. China
Regional coding can be a
problem for many people, especially those who don't live in the United
States or Canada (region 1). This is because while all the major film studios
are regularly releasing their movies on DVD in region 1, elsewhere they
are not so supportive of the DVD format. Because of the support for DVD
in region 1, and the fact most titles are available in region 1 long before
any other region, many people who live in a different region want to convert
their player to "region-free" i.e. play DVDs from any region. The terms
"code-free" and "multiregion" are often used to describe players that can
play DVDs from any region. Pre-modified DVD players are available from
many suppliers if you don't already own a region-locked player.
Most DVD's will have a globe
with one or more number(s) in it clearly visible on the cover. If the number
of the region where you bought your (unmodified) player is not shown then
the DVD will not work with your player. In addition to this you should
be aware that in some of the regions there are both PAL and NTSC releases.
Most U.S. players only supports NTSC video while most European players
supports both NTSC and PAL.
There are 3 types of multiregional
or "code free" modification for the players:
Region 0. This was the first kind of modification. Many DVDs are encoded
so that they will not be read by this player.
Automatic change of region. The discs can be encoded to "fool" the
player to change to the wrong region so they become unplayable, but there
are no such discs yet.
Manual change of region. This is the only type that assures full compatibility.
Windows XP
Another new operating system
is due out this year – Windows XP – on October 25th. This system
will finally get rid of the MS-DOS platform that all previous versions
of Windows for home users has been built on. We thought this was suppose
to happen with Windows ME (but didn’t). Almost all of your existing programs
will run under Windows XP – with the exception of those that were written
before Windows 95. It will have a new color scheme of muted oranges, reds
and pastels with a blue taskbar.
Windows XP will improve
your computer’s performance and usability, as long as you have the power
it requires.
VIRUSES
W32.Badtrans.13312@mm
VBS.VBSWG2.X@mm
W32.Magistr.24876@mm
These are three of the TOP
THREATS as far as viruses go right now. So you should be doing what
we keep suggesting -----
(1) Keep your DAT (Virus definition files) updated.
(2) BE VERY SURE WHEN YOU DECIDE TO OPEN OR RUN AN ATTACHMENT !!!!!!!!
Web Sites
Traffic citations issued in Volusia County
You must use Internet Explorer
for this site. Netscape is not compatiable with it.
http://www.clerk.org
Glossary of Internet Terms
This is a very good site
for an explanation of various terms used in connection with the Internet.
http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html
Obsolete Computers Museum
This is a good site for
finding information about OLD computers (Tandy, Commodore, Apple, etc).
Has pictures and other information of many different models.
http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/