Software players such as PowerDVD or WinDVD impose the same restrictions as standalone players. Some standalone players can be manipulated with codes so that they become region free (see Enable region free mode on your DVD player for more information about that)

Software players on the other hand can be manipulated with unlock or reset software.

DVDFab Region Reset is one of the tools that can be used to unlock the DVD and Blu-Ray regions in popular software players.

region reset

The program will automatically recognize supported software video players and display instructions on how to reset or unlock the region code. The supported video players are PowerDVD 10, 9 and 8, PowerDVD 7.3, WinDVD 10 and 9 as well as the TMT video player 2 and 3.

The instructions differ depending on the installed video player. The region code limit of PowerDVD 10 can for instance be reset to 5 regardless of the actual limit. A new region can be selected in the same menu.

WinDVD on the other hand can only be manipulated in safe mode which means that the computer has to be restarted into safe mode where the DVDFab Region Reset software needs to be executed again to make the changes to the region code.

DVDFab Region Reset can be downloaded directly from the DVDFab homepage. Blu-Ray users can look at Blu-Ray Region Code Remover for an alternative.

There have not been many releases on Blu-Ray disks though except for movies. Blu-Ray disks can have a region protection which means that it can be that a movie won’t play on a Blu-Ray player if the disk and the player have been purchased in different regions.

The world is divided into three regions: Region A spans across most of Asia, region B includes Europe, Africa and Australia while region C includes North- and South-America and Japan.

Not all Blu-Ray movies are region encoded though. The decision is made by the motion picture studio releasing the movie.

The Blu-Ray Region Code Remover removes the region code of Blu-Ray disk rips on a computer’s hard drive so that these rips can be played regardless of the user’s region. It furthermore supports removing of region code from Blu-ray titles and Java-enabled titles. It can also remove Prohibited User Operations for a better user experience.

The software program requires Windows XP or Windows Vista and the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.