Amazing Region Free tool for ltd-165 and 163!

[dimitri]

Just seen it in the firmware forum :

http://www.topotec.com.hk/download/DOWNLOADLiteon.html

It's on this Hong Kong site apparently since May.
They present it as "Liteon DVD LTD-165H Region code free tool"
but I tried it on my 163 and it works too.
"Ein" who found it and posted it in the firmware forum has successfully tried it on his 165H drive. He says he had to set the win 98 compatibility mode on his winxp pro to get it to work.

No need for dos mode, no command line, don't even have to know where your drive is on the IDE....

Amazing!

[ccb056]

what, does it need to be run in dos, or can it be run under windows, how does it actually work, by updating the firmware?

[Tril-]

i too would like to know what it does. and will it work on the 163D ??

good job dimitri you always seem to keep up with the liteon 16x drives

[dimitri]

Runs in Windows: you select the drive from the drop menu, press "disable" and that's it. Region protection is immediately disabled.

If you want, you press "enable" and it's protected again.

No DOS, no reboot, no worry.

How it works? it changes a couple of bytes in the firmware, telling the drive to check or not to check for zone matching.

[dimitri]

i too would like to know what it does. and will it work on the 163D ??

good job dimitri you always seem to keep up with the liteon 16x drives

Tril,
I'm quite sure it works on the D as well. It works on the whole 163 and 165 range, rebadged included. It might just work with ALL liteon dvd's

And I think it wouldn't surprise anybody that it's already available on my site as well

[ccb056]

Is the change permanent, or do i have to select it every time i reboot/reformat/switch drive w/ another computer?

[dimitri]

As I said it writes to the firmware. The firmware sits in the drive.
It is "permanent" till you run the utility again, with the "enable" (region protection) button, or till you flash the firmware.

It makes the drive region free, not the system. So you can reformat twice a day if you like

[ccb056]

will it work on any firmware?

[dimitri]

will it work on any firmware?

Here's where you come into the picture CC (hope you don't mind I call you CC)
The only way we'll know for sure is from users reporting in, so:
What's your firmware, your OS and has it worked for you?

Cheers

[ccb056]

i dont have any dvd drive... yet, but i was just wondering if it would work on the one i was going to buy, guess ill just have to wait.....

[dimitri]

I don't see what you're waiting for.
We could already make any Liteon dvd region free before, it just got easier now...

cheers

[dodecahedron]

hi dimitri.
sorry if this is a stupid question, but:
can this ruin the drive? i mean irrevocably, not fixable by another firmware flash? (is it more "dangerous" than a regular firmware update?)
if so, why would anyone risk it ? (seeing as there are other ways to get region freedom, as you say). i would be concerned about experimenting!

[dimitri]

Hi there dodecahedron,

In my opinion it's a very safe little tool. I've been playing around with it enabling/disabling RPC like a light switch . I'm getting only possitive reports from other owners.

The alternative for 122/163/163D drives is the r1211, which is as safe if less convenient. The Alternative for 165 drive is flashing with a patched firmware, which didn't work for everyone and is inherently more risky.

Even regular firmware upgrading is more dangerous because it starts with erasing the drive's EPROM chip, that's why it's called flashing.

Both the r1211 and the Rpced (the new tool) change exactly 4 bytes directly in the firmware, without erasing it first. It's those bytes that tell the drive to check or not to check for region match. Should anything go wrong, and I can't see what, a subsequent firmware flash should correct it.

A little food for thought:
Liteon is forced to employ Regional Playback Control, it's not their choice.
Liteon never made their drives difficult to disable RPC, they know what sells...
Both R1211 and Rpced come from 'unknown sources' in the orient.

No comment!

Greetingz

[dodecahedron]

thanks for your detailed answer.

A little food for thought:
Liteon is forced to employ Regional Playback Control, it's not their choice.
Liteon never made their drives difficult to disable RPC, they know what sells...
Both R1211 and Rpced come from 'unknown sources' in the orient.

No comment!

LOL
you have a sneaky, cunning mind, dimitri...

[blakerwry]

Are you saying this will work on the lite-on 122?

[dimitri]

Are you saying this will work on the lite-on 122?

I'm nearly sure about it, 99.9%
If you got the 122, please don't be a chicken
Just try it, it takes 2 seconds, and share your findings with us so we can build little data base, for the benefit of everyone.
Mention your firmware version as well, if it's not so much of a trouble.

Cheerz

ps: Just confirmed (by a brave owner ) to work on the brand new ltd166 too.

[ckl1998]

Is the utility work for LTD 166s?
Because my friend just bought the LTD 166s (manufactured in August 2002) and wonder the utility works?

[dimitri]

Yes it works with the Ltd166s too!

[ckl1998]

Thanks. Hooray!!!

[Sakajuia]

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 1970 10:00 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes it works with the Ltd166s too!

No it does not work. I have tried it more than once and it does not work. I tried to flash it as well and that too does not work. Everything you have advised to others does not appear to work with my Lite-On DVD 166s. Their are two types. DSOB and DSOF. I have the DSOB. I have downloaded this EXE utility from your site (links) and they say that I have the most recent update. I again flash the drive and reboot but nothing happens. Still region 4.


Sakajuia

sakajuia@netscape.net

[Sakajuia]

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 1970 10:00 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes it works with the Ltd166s too!

No it does not work. I have tried it more than once and it does not work. I tried to flash it as well and that too does not work. Everything you have advised to others does not appear to work with my Lite-On DVD 166s. Their are two types. DSOB and DSOF. I have the DSOB. I have downloaded this EXE utility from your site (links) and they say that I have the most recent update. I again flash the drive and reboot but nothing happens. Still region 4.


Sakajuia

sakajuia@netscape.net

[dimitri]

Sakajuia,
Since I've started this topic I got MANY confirmations.
The Rpcde.exe works on both Ds0b and Ds0f. You don't need to flash your drive with a new firmware, but if you do you have to run Rpcde after the flash!

Important if you run WinXp WinXP/pro or Win2000:
1. you MUST run Rpcde in Win98 compatible mode or it won't do a thing.
2. ASPI layer must be installed (preferably ver 4.6 or 4.7)

Take your time and read my region free page through, click any of the mirror in my sig.

good luck

[cfitz]

I also have a LiteOn 166S (JLMS DVD-ROM LTD-166S DS0B), so I though I would see if I could duplicate Sakajuia's problem. Here is my setup:

Windows 2000 SP3
Tyan S2505 Tiger 200 (VIA chipset)
DVD-ROM = IDE primary master (hard drives on separate raid controller)
ASPI 4.60
IDE driver = Microsoft 5.0.2183.1 or VIA 5.0.2195.120
DVD-ROM transfer mode = DMA or PIO
initial region code = 1

I tried all four combinations (based on the different IDE drivers and transfer modes). In all four cases, Rpcde reported success with the message 'Disabled "RPC" !!!'

However, cdvdinfo v 1.3.5 reports that the drive is still region locked. DriveRegionInfo v2.2 reports "PROBLEM WITH ASPI LAYER DETECTED - Due to this problem the DVD player program will probably detect your drive as region protected and you will probably be unable to play DVD's."

If I get a chance I will move the drive to another system to see if this is a drive issue or a system issue. But, for now, I will report preliminary failure to make the drive region free, at least in one system.

By the way, I didn't have any trouble executing "regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll" and creating a shortcut to run Rpcde under Windows98 Compatibility Layer.

Also, ASPIChk reports no problems with the 4.60 installation, nor does Nero Info tool nor cdrdao (which uses ASPI for burning).

cfitz

[mike_s104]

I used that utility about a month or so ago and it worked fine on my 163 and 166 that I just got.

here are some more info:

http://mand.tmfweb.nl/ltd163.htm <---- this is a good site just for region code issues

http://forum.firmware-flash.com/dl_firm ... ufactor=17

http://dvd.box.sk/?pid=firm&prj=view&us ... rad4=&trt=

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

[cfitz]

http://mand.tmfweb.nl/ltd163.htm <---- this is a good site just for region code issues

Yep, that's Dimitri's page - where I got all my info - except I don't think that is one of his official mirrors.

cfitz