Everyone:

I don't bring a question or a complaint here. I want to mention a utility I never even knew was part of Fedora. But it is, and it's a great boon to anyone who wants to sample DVD content from regions other than your region of residence.

It's called: regionset.

It resets the region code of any internal or external DVD player/burner, no matter how it's connected. I just used it to reset the region on a USB-connected external burner (Samsung/TSST BDDVDW SE-506BB TS00).

Installation is a breeze. If you have the Fedora repos enabled (and, being in this community, of course you do), execute:

sudo dnf install regionset

(Replace "sudo" with "su -c" if you're not a member of the "wheel" group.)

To use, execute:

sudo regionset /dev/dvd

where you replace "dvd" with a particular device name. (My system does not use the dvd name. It numbers my drives sr0, sr1, etc. I used vlc to figure out the device name.)

Make sure you load a disk in the drive before you begin! Otherwise it will throw an error and tell you to make sure you put a readable disk in.

When you get through, you get back the make and model of the drive, the current region code (if it has one--the SE-506BB didn't have one), how many times the vendor can change the code, and how many times you (the user) can change the code. Then it asks you whether you want to change the code or not.

If you do, then it asks you to specify a region (1 through 8, according to convention) and confirm twice. (The second confirmation shows you the proper "back mask." Second-guessing that is an advanced concept.) If successful, it will confirm that for you.

What does that mean? Well, if you're used to traveling extensively and picking up optical media along the way, you need to do one of two things:

1. Shell out big bucks (or quid or euros or whatever) to buy a multiregion player. (Do not bother with the old region-free players! Studios are wise to that and now encrypt their disks so that they will play in one region and only one region. If your player doesn't have the code to match, you're out of luck. Which is why I had to set the region on my SE-506BB to play anything other than a Region 1 disk. But some of the new players will read the region code on the disk and adapt to it pro-actively.)

2. Have at least one drive available so that you can reset its region.

Depending on how many regions you regularly visit, I'd recommend buying as many external USB drives as you have regions (other than your home region) you travel to, setting one for each region, and labeling them. Problem solved.

Of course if you travel the whole world, you might as well get one of those standalone multi-region machines. Beyond a certain point, you'll pay more for the extra drives than for one device. (Except for one thing: when you're on the road, those little portable drives are a lot easier to carry, and to power up, than a big monster you have to lug around and entrust to non-gentloe baggage handlers and customs officers!)

I don't do that. I use disks from Regions 1 and 2. (Some titles aren't available in Region 1, and my retailer will import them.) I then rip the disks so I have the playable files on hand. But: to do that, I needed a drive set to Region 2 to rip my Region 2 material.

Now I have that. And I just used MakeMKV to rip a Region 2 disk.

Success.

Temlakos