Hi James!
Now we're cookin'! A developer... Oh! Goodie!
To really understand the settings, you must know how region lock works on Blu-ray discs.
Every playback device must have a region. A, B or C.
Or a player can be region free, no?
Code from the disc (either Java or HDMV or whatever it is called) executed by the player can read a value to determine the region of the playback device.
Okay, I think you mean that a disc-based script (or pseudo-code) queries the player to determine the player's region. Right?
The disc itself has no region marking. The player can not check or care about the discs region.
It is up to the code disc, if the player region is read at all, and if it is, if anything is done.
Okay, so it's the disc's pseudo-code that determines whether the player is of the correct region. I assume this all happens inside the player, via disc-based pseudo-code executed by an interpreter running on the player's CPU, and that the transaction is hidden from the computer application at the computer-end of the interface. Gosh, that seems unbreakable.
Even "region free" (aka ABC discs) can read the player region, and for example show an FBI warning only, if the player region is "A".
Or discs can show a message "wrong region" only, if a player reports region "B". Such a disc would be region "AC" coded.
Okay, correct me if I'm wrong: A disc's pseudo-code doesn't accept a player's region code because it's acceptable, but, instead, a disc's pseudo-code rejects a player's region code if it's unacceptable and then refuses to yield up stream data. Is that the gist of it?
As the disc has no "marking", AnyDVD has a hard time figuring out the region coding.
So, that's why I've not found a metadata field that can be confirmed to be region code.
If it reports a region (AB, free, whatever) it is usually right (minus one or two discs).
AnyDVD "removes" the region check, by changing the code on the disc.
Oh, wait, I must be misinterpreting what you write. How can AnyDVD change "the code on the disc"? Those discs are read-only (i.e., BD-ROM), aren't they?
Remember, AnyDVD does all this remastering magic on the fly, so you see the result immediately after AnyDVD has finished scanning.
Important to know for playback on a PC. And I love the subtitle remastering functions...
Back to topic...
E.g. the disc code asks for the region of the player. AnyDVD changes this code to assign a fixed value. Like "B".
So, instead getting the actual region of the player, the code on the disc will always read "B".
Okay. Here's the BIG QUESTION: How does AnyDVD get "into" the player's CPU and replace how the player answers the pseudo-code's query? (Did you guys find a back door?)
If you select a region with the region dialog, you tell AnyDVD to exchange the playback device region with the region you tell it.
"region free" in this dialog tells AnyDVD, that the disc will play ABC, and it doesn't need to do this complicated stuff. You could of course specify "A", if you like FBI warnings.
Well, I get those no matter what.
To make a long story short: Set the region to the country, where you bought the disc.
I have it set to "Automatic".
By the way, I'm a retired electronic hardware/chip/system designer.
PS: I hope you respond, James, because I have a follow-up question/idea that might help both of us.