somewhat of an answer

Using player firmware upgrade to disable region coding in order to access your DVD content, may currently be the best option to avoid running afoul of DMCA and recent updates to Copyright exceptions. Cases which challenged DMCA provisions relating to disabling DVD region coding, appear to indicate that doing so does not violate the circumvention provision of DMCA, such as disabling CSS(encryption) would. The rulings appear to recognize that region coding is used more for marketing purposes, more so than for protecting copyrights of legally purchased DVD movies.

The problem with using a software "rip" solution to specifically remove region coding in a movie, is that there appears no way of doing so without circumventing CSS encryption if applicable? This would be necessary since part of the CSS protocol uses the specific DVD id. So you can't simply just copy an encrypted movie DVD to a hard drive, remove the region coding, and re-burn the DVD. It won't play as the CSS DVD id does not match.

Though the DMCA apparently does not prohibit an end user to own such "rip" software, it is illegal for a company to manufacture and distribute such software that circumvents copy protection. As such, please avoid posting links to such software in the forums.

Tom_M wrote:
You could rip your DVDs to a computer and then burn a "backup" copy. Do an internet search to find software that will do this.

You don't have to do it as a 2-stage process. Programs like this one are as easy to use as standard DVD burning programs and make perfect DVD copies minus any regional or other restrictions. Most DVD players can play "region free" disks. Link disabled.

You could rip your DVDs to a computer and then burn a "backup" copy. Do an internet search to find software that will do this.

we have a number of DVDs from europe because of
our 5 years there. Some default ton German or spanish.
so tis was the proble. in buying a portable DVD player,
a US or region 1 is noticably cheaper than an international
or all region player. by being able to change the region
encoding, we can watch all our DDVDs on one player. Now, if
I can only find how to change the Jensen in the RV

Nowadays, the movie industry has changed their strategy from one of regional releasing, to more of a simultaneous release schedule in key world markets. This to help ward off, if not delay, sales lost to piracy. Region encoding is more to preserve marketing territories, especially in this age of the net commerce.

2oldman wrote:
What are DVD's from a different region? Interesting post title.

Since they were first introduced to the market, DVD players and the DVDs they play have been encoded with worldwide regional market information. This was done because the movie industry wanted to control when they released movies on different continents. Normally you wouldn't be aware of this since all DVDs sold in the US are for the US market as are all the DVD players, but if you went to Europe and bought a DVD it wouldn't play on a US player.

What are DVD's from a different region? Interesting post title.