Best Freeware Region-Free DVD Program: VLC or VideoLAN Player

After doing a bit of searching on the web, and recognizing a few programs, I discovered a few things. One was this article in, of all online publications, Popular Mechanics which discussed a few free programs that deal with the region-specific demands of computers.

Because as everyone has noted, you can only change the region on your computer a max of 5 times and then you're locked for good. While most articles tell you that you can't change that, even if you re-load Windows, you actually can. But it would require that you erase your hard-drive and then completely reinstall everything. I know. I've done it.

So this seemed a more promising route: simply download a program that overrides your DVD player program's demand that you commit to a region. The one recommended in the article was called Remote Selector and it has a rather bare bones approach to how to use the program.

That did not work for me. I have Power DVD's Dell-specific program called "Media Direct" and that wasn't compatible with this program.

The other program the article recommended for MAC users is actually GREAT with Windows users, as well. This is the VideoLAN VLC Player.

In brief, it's awesome!!

You download it. It's an independent player. No interface necessary. Nothing fancy. Just literally a player that recognizes all regions. And it's a shareware, I downloaded the one from Madison University in Wisconsin, and it works an absolute treat. Did I mention the free part? Legally? Because it's shareware. No paying $59.95 or whatever for Div-X or some such thing.

But the absolute best part? All those programs like Div-X and the like require that you actually copy the dvd onto your hard drive and then you can play the movie. What if you don't have enough space? I mean, I do because I just bought a new computer, but honestly. I don't want that cluttering up my computer. And for all those people who say, "Yes, but it uses more energy that way, to run the movie off the dvd itself," I say pshaw. I want to play something immediately, not copy it over to my hard drive first.

VLC is, in short, GREAT!