I realize this is old, but I'm reviewing this whole thread and it jumpped out at me.
I hope that's NOT the case. I say that because, if I had a Region B movie and AnyDVD said
(*) Region B
and I let that go through without changing it to
(*) Region A
then I'm pretty sure PowerDVD would not play it.
Earlier today I wrote a big post, that if you set another region code in AnyDVD than on the disc, it would modify the region code on the disc to another region code. But that was bullshit as I thought and wrote. Again to James/others thanks for correcting me.
If I interpreted correctyl (I hope), that change is "just" in some adding of extra code , which emulates a playing-software region what the disc gets told, when it (disc-code) does its check.
Yes I'd guess it is. Your ISOs must contain the added code which simulates the same region-playing software as the region code identification on the disc (the Disc region binary ident-code itself is not touched at all by AnyDVD, regardless of which region setting you choose in AnyDVD).
The good thing is, no matter what WRONG region code you might had set in AnyDVD, at least it should alaways play with
unlicensed playing software like VLC and MPlayer, etc., because unlicensed playing software doesn't execute the disc region code which would check for a matching playing-software-region code.
Forgot also,Playing an m2ts file directly in (BDMV/STREAM -folder) or corresponding playlist file directly as Pete or James described, forgot the user name, also don't execute the checking code on the disc.
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Maybe there are other reasons. Maybe on some accosions you choosed the correct region, but other confounding factors playing a role
E.g. other things like Bus encrypted BD-discs, in such a case only the ISO must be created with AnyDVD directly, NOT with ImgBurn+AnyDVD, because only AnyDVD directly can encounter properly bus encryptrion!!!
(ISO from bus encrypted disc with ImgBurn+AnyDVD would be also NOT playable in MPlayer and VLC playable, NOT only not accepted to the PowerDVD program.
Afaik Bus-encryption is some kind of 2nd-encryption (of the SATA-ATAPI interace), I'm not not quite sure.
@
markfilipak
Does your ISO get played ONLY with AnyDVD ON in PowerDVD?
If yes, but NOT with AnyDVD OFF: Your ISO was probably made with AnyDVD image ripper (keep protection) (AACS+region code protection cannot be touched), which is not playable WITHOUT AnyDVD.
If you set "keep protection in AnyDVD ripper" afaik also the region code settings in AnyDVD is ignored and not used in AnyDVD and AACS as it is, but I'm not 100% sure.
Still Original BD-ROM discs should be playable with PowerDVD even without AnyDVD.
ISOs image format can't store "key-identification" meta numbers helping to decrypt the AACS, so if the ISO is with protection, it needs AnyDVD to get the missing meta-info or whatever check numbers from the OPD, which are only stored on pressed BDs, but not on the normal readable area, e.g. on an inner ring of the disc.
That missing meta information is stored in the AnyDVD OPD.
Afaik on the ISO with protection there is still some information left, which is sufficient for AnyDVD to know the matching meta-AACS-data needed for decryption (stored in the OPD).
To access the OPD AnyDVD of course must be on, so that an iso with encryption can be decrypted, PowerDVD has AACS keys itself afaik, not 100% sure, and it needs the metadata-AACS-info counterpart missing in the iso , to get from the AnyDVD Online Protection database.
When AnyDVD sees a new disc, yet unknown it reads that meta-information and adds that to the OPD (not designated to store within ISO image format).
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When I had set region setting when creating the ISO, even though the disc wihout any region code (region free), at least not any region logo, and no A+B+C logo, and I mount that ISO it in virtual drive while AnyDVD is running, and I set AnyDVD to "remove region code" but tell another region than that I first ripped the ISO with, even though region-free, then I get/got warning message in AnyDVD status window s.th. similar like "...bad magic header".
([Edit] This was a region free BD-disc without any region code LOGO, and I set region B, and then the ISO gave that message) not sure if that would hinder to play in PowerDVD.
Afaik retested with newer AnyDVD version, couldn't reproduce that warning message with same ISO.