PS3 DVD region change: what else can I try?

[Tura88]

Hello everyone.
First of all, thanks to all the developers for the work you do, I am new to the PS3 CFW scene and as I tried to make it work I read a lot of topics and succeded in almost all I tried because of your guides and suggestions. So many thanks for that.
So here's the thing: a few weeks ago I successfully installed a Custom Firmware on my PAL Phat PS3 CHECH-H.
I did this mainly to be able to change DVD and Blu Ray Region since I got a lot of US titles legally bought when I was in the US.
I searched A LOT on the web but, as many other users reported, I was able to play Region A BDs without any problems but I can't find a way to play Region 1 DVDs. No matter what I try, it always gives me the "Region code is not correct" error.
So I decided I'd make a list of all the things I tried and ask you guys what else I could try (or if there are other ways to do something I've already done).
I'm on Rebug REX 4.84.2.

- Webman and MultiMan both change BD and DVD region but then DVDs keep getting the incorrect region error.
Inside MultiMan, in the video sections I have two icons for the disc. When I try to play the single files from one of the two DVD icons, I get a lot of disc errors and green pixels/strings. If I press X on the other DVD icon MultiMan quits and I'm back on XMB, is that normal? I then try to play the DVD from XMB but I get the incorrect region error again.
- Enabling Fake Region in the Debug settings does not work for DVDs.
- Switching console region to North America in the Debug Settings does not work.
- Changing eid0 and eid5 to 84 via IDPSet did not work as I still get incorrect region error. Maybe changing other values besides the 84 could help?
- Remarrying BD drive after I switched eid0 and eid5 to 84 did not work.
- I tried restoring the PS3 system after setting the region to North America, didn't work.
- With the region set to North America, I tried to change the internal hard drive with a spare one I had lying around, I reinstalled the cfw on that. Didn't work.
- I tried editing the xregistry.sys from my PC because I read somewhere that the region settings were stored in there but, when I opened it, I found out that the DVD Region was already set to 1. I tried to set it to other regions and of course did not work with Region 1 DVDs. But maybe there are other values inside the xregistry file that I could try to edit in order to make it work?
- I currently have Rebug REX 4.84.2, but before that I tried installing Evilnat 4.87 and even Hen 4.87 but the DVD region didn't change on those. When I used the Rogero downgrader I tried staying on Rogero 3.7 but american DVDs didn't play there either. In the end I installed Rebug 4.84.2 so I could switch to Dex and have more shots at this. But I read online that on older firmwares the DVD region change worked at some point.
Maybe someone could suggest a specific older CFW that worked that I could try?


Side notes:
1 - I know I could rip the DVDs and play the isos, I just don't want to do that for all my DVDs, it would take too much time and hard drive space.
2 - I also know that I could buy a region free dvd player but I don't want another device in my living room (I already have ps3 and ps4 plugged in, I just don't want to add anything else).
3 - I could accept to permanently change the PS3 disc drive region code as I could use the PS4 to keep watching Region B BDs and Region 2 DVDs.
Maybe buying a PS3 disc drive replacement from US could solve this?

 

[Agrippa]

Well, I have seen reports about the DVD region changer not working properly. Maybe calling @aldostools, the developer of webMAN MOD, would help fixing this issue? Isn't the Cobra responsible for BD/DVD region patching?

 

[Tura88]

Well, I have seen reports about the DVD region changer not working properly. Maybe calling @aldostools, the developer of webMAN MOD, would help fixing this issue? Isn't the Cobra responsible for BD/DVD region patching?

Thanks for the reply. I read in some old topic that Cobra is in fact responsible for region patching, so I tried disabling the Toggle Cobra Mode option in the Rebug Toolbox, so i could only rely on the Region and Fake Region settings in Debug Settings, but even with Cobra disabled the Region A Blu Ray does play (and I'm sure this BD is not multi-region because in my PS4 with OFW it doesn't play) but when I insert the Region 1 DVD I still get the incorrect region error.
So I guess there is some other setting in my PS3 that's preventing it to accept the Region 1 setting...

 

[Coro]

Thanks for the reply. I read in some old topic that Cobra is in fact responsible for region patching, so I tried disabling the Toggle Cobra Mode option in the Rebug Toolbox, so i could only rely on the Region and Fake Region settings in Debug Settings, but even with Cobra disabled the Region A Blu Ray does play (and I'm sure this BD is not multi-region because in my PS4 with OFW it doesn't play) but when I insert the Region 1 DVD I still get the incorrect region error.
So I guess there is some other setting in my PS3 that's preventing it to accept the Region 1 setting...

i don't think the region debug settings are for dvd/bluray. they have to do with games only AFAIK.

 

[Agrippa]

Well I do not think that debug settings have got anything in common with the DVD region just like @Coro wrote, since the debug consoles do not play the DVD and BD video discs. I do remember that the DVD region free functionality was not implemented in Cobra, or maybe the implementation does not work properly.

Unfortunately, I do not have any DVD discs other than the Region 2 to test.

 

[aldostools]

Hello everyone.
First of all, thanks to all the developers for the work you do, I am new to the PS3 CFW scene and as I tried to make it work I read a lot of topics and succeded in almost all I tried because of your guides and suggestions. So many thanks for that.
So here's the thing: a few weeks ago I successfully installed a Custom Firmware on my PAL Phat PS3 CHECH-H.
I did this mainly to be able to change DVD and Blu Ray Region since I got a lot of US titles legally bought when I was in the US.
I searched A LOT on the web but, as many other users reported, I was able to play Region A BDs without any problems but I can't find a way to play Region 1 DVDs. No matter what I try, it always gives me the "Region code is not correct" error.
So I decided I'd make a list of all the things I tried and ask you guys what else I could try (or if there are other ways to do something I've already done).
I'm on Rebug REX 4.84.2.

- Webman and MultiMan both change BD and DVD region but then DVDs keep getting the incorrect region error.
Inside MultiMan, in the video sections I have two icons for the disc. When I try to play the single files from one of the two DVD icons, I get a lot of disc errors and green pixels/strings. If I press X on the other DVD icon MultiMan quits and I'm back on XMB, is that normal? I then try to play the DVD from XMB but I get the incorrect region error again.
- Enabling Fake Region in the Debug settings does not work for DVDs.
- Switching console region to North America in the Debug Settings does not work.
- Changing eid0 and eid5 to 84 via IDPSet did not work as I still get incorrect region error. Maybe changing other values besides the 84 could help?
- Remarrying BD drive after I switched eid0 and eid5 to 84 did not work.
- I tried restoring the PS3 system after setting the region to North America, didn't work.
- With the region set to North America, I tried to change the internal hard drive with a spare one I had lying around, I reinstalled the cfw on that. Didn't work.
- I tried editing the xregistry.sys from my PC because I read somewhere that the region settings were stored in there but, when I opened it, I found out that the DVD Region was already set to 1. I tried to set it to other regions and of course did not work with Region 1 DVDs. But maybe there are other values inside the xregistry file that I could try to edit in order to make it work?
- I currently have Rebug REX 4.84.2, but before that I tried installing Evilnat 4.87 and even Hen 4.87 but the DVD region didn't change on those. When I used the Rogero downgrader I tried staying on Rogero 3.7 but american DVDs didn't play there either. In the end I installed Rebug 4.84.2 so I could switch to Dex and have more shots at this. But I read online that on older firmwares the DVD region change worked at some point.
Maybe someone could suggest a specific older CFW that worked that I could try?


Side notes:
1 - I know I could rip the DVDs and play the isos, I just don't want to do that for all my DVDs, it would take too much time and hard drive space.
2 - I also know that I could buy a region free dvd player but I don't want another device in my living room (I already have ps3 and ps4 plugged in, I just don't want to add anything else).
3 - I could accept to permanently change the PS3 disc drive region code as I could use the PS4 to keep watching Region B BDs and Region 2 DVDs.
Maybe buying a PS3 disc drive replacement from US could solve this?

Maybe it's an issue with the version of Cobra config used by webMAN MOD.
Cobra 8.2 and lower versions have an useless integrity check that resets the config if the structure size is different.

The DVD & BD region change in webMAN writes to the Cobra config and requires a reboot to take effect.
As webMAN was saving the structure for Cobra 8.3, the older version was not recognizing it and the config was reseting.

I updated webMAN today in an attempt to fix this issue. You can try installing the latest installer (the version in the page is still the same, but the binary is newer).

 

[Tura88]

Thank you all for the insights guys!

i don't think the region debug settings are for dvd/bluray. they have to do with games only AFAIK.

I thought I read in older threads that those settings in the debug menu were also for dvd/blu ray but as I said I'm new at this so I think I may have misread something that led me to that conclusion Thank you for the explanation

Maybe it's an issue with the version of Cobra config used by webMAN MOD.
Cobra 8.2 and lower versions have an useless integrity check that resets the config if the structure size is different.

The DVD & BD region change in webMAN writes to the Cobra config and requires a reboot to take effect.
As webMAN was saving the structure for Cobra 8.3, the older version was not recognizing it and the config was reseting.

I updated webMAN today in an attempt to fix this issue. You can try installing the latest installer (the version in the page is still the same, but the binary is newer).

Thank you so much. I tried to install the new version but I still get the region incorrect message on the DVDs...
The strange thing is that webMAN did save the region settings even before this update... After changing dvd to 1 and BD to A in webMAN and rebooting, when I reopen the webMAN settings I can see they are still on region 1 and region A.
The other strange thing is that in my xregistry.sys the value for

setting/bddvd/dvdregioncode

is in fact set to 00001
Should I try to manually change other values of that string? (Flags or Checksum?)


Anyway, I wasn't aware there was a Cobra 8.3 as the Evilnat 4.87 I found online came with Cobra 8.2... But as I said I am on Rebug 4.84.2 so I have Cobra 8.1 now.
I could also try to update to Cobra 8.3 if I have a shot at this, do I just update Cobra or should I move to CFW 4.87 first?

 

[sandungas]

Maybe this is related...

Inside EID2 there is something maned P-block (0x80) and S-block (0x690)
It seems the P-Block (and EID4) contains region settings
In the "remarrying" process we are creating a P-block (based in the info from EID), and then we are writing the P-block into one of the chips of the bluray drive (either flash, rom , eeprom, whatever)
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Flash:Encrypted_Individual_Data_-_eEID#EID2
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Hypervisor_Reverse_Engineering#Remarrying

 

[aldostools]

Thank you all for the insights guys!



I thought I read in older threads that those settings in the debug menu were also for dvd/blu ray but as I said I'm new at this so I think I may have misread something that led me to that conclusion Thank you for the explanation



Thank you so much. I tried to install the new version but I still get the region incorrect message on the DVDs...
The strange thing is that webMAN did save the region settings even before this update... After changing dvd to 1 and BD to A in webMAN and rebooting, when I reopen the webMAN settings I can see they are still on region 1 and region A.
The other strange thing is that in my xregistry.sys the value for

setting/bddvd/dvdregioncode

is in fact set to 00001
Should I try to manually change other values of that string? (Flags or Checksum?)


Anyway, I wasn't aware there was a Cobra 8.3 as the Evilnat 4.87 I found online came with Cobra 8.2... But as I said I am on Rebug 4.84.2 so I have Cobra 8.1 now.
I could also try to update to Cobra 8.3 if I have a shot at this, do I just update Cobra or should I move to CFW 4.87 first?

The settings in Cobra 8.2 and lower are reset in memory when the config checksum doesn't match with the expected values. Cobra 8.3 has a different structure size. I only fixed the size to match the current version of the Cobra payload in use.

You should not mess with Cobra unless the CFW creator include it in the firmware or release an update specific for that CFW. If something is wrong the console could brick.

Evilnat's 4.87.3 is still being tested. It will be be released after everything is working without known issues.

 

[bucanero]

You should not mess with Cobra unless the CFW creator include it in the firmware or release an update specific for that CFW. If something is wrong the console could brick.

on a side note, I still wonder why SEN Enabler (6.2.7) updates Cobra without even notifying the user. Feels a bit risky to users. I mean, it worked fine for me, but unless that hidden feature has been tested in every CFW and different setups, it could still bring console bricks, right?

also, as the user is not aware, they might be just looking to spoof FW version to connect to the network, and they get the cobra update there too. Maybe the update is needed for the spoof, but I don't know the details of the Sen enabler app

 

[Tura88]

Maybe this is related...

Inside EID2 there is something maned P-block (0x80) and S-block (0x690)
It seems the P-Block (and EID4) contains region settings
In the "remarrying" process we are creating a P-block (based in the info from EID), and then we are writing the P-block into one of the chips of the bluray drive (either flash, rom , eeprom, whatever)
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Flash:Encrypted_Individual_Data_-_eEID#EID2
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Hypervisor_Reverse_Engineering#Remarrying

I did read that remarrying blu ray drive would rewrite the region information based on those stored in eid0 and eid5 but when I tried doing that it didn't work... Maybe I did something wrong though, can you recommend a good guide that I can follow to try again?

The settings in Cobra 8.2 and lower are reset in memory when the config checksum doesn't match with the expected values. Cobra 8.3 has a different structure size. I only fixed the size to match the current version of the Cobra payload in use.

You should not mess with Cobra unless the CFW creator include it in the firmware or release an update specific for that CFW. If something is wrong the console could brick.

Evilnat's 4.87.3 is still being tested. It will be be released after everything is working without known issues.

I'll follow your advice then, if the second try at remarrying the drive doesn't work I'll just wait for the release of evilnat's 4.87.3.

 

[aldostools]

on a side note, I still wonder why SEN Enabler (6.2.7) updates Cobra without even notifying the user. Feels a bit risky to users. I mean, it worked fine for me, but unless that hidden feature has been tested in every CFW and different setups, it could still bring console bricks, right?

also, as the user is not aware, they might be just looking to spoof FW version to connect to the network, and they get the cobra update there too. Maybe the update is needed for the spoof, but I don't know the details of the Sen enabler app

In theory, if Cobra was built properly and it is applied to the same firmware version that it was intended, the chances of brick are low.
If the FW has files that don't match with the expected hashes hard coded in the payload, some features like PSP or PS2 emulation will fail but the console will boot. The problem is mainly when some symbols are wrong, the payload could enter in an infinite loop freezing the console; but these are not the only cause of potential crashes in the payload.

As Cobra 8.2 and lower do not have a failsafe feature like the one developed by bguerville & haxxxen in Cobra 8.3 and implemented in Evilnat's 4.87.3 or Rebug 4.84.2 Repack 4. A bad stage2.bin could cause a hard brick on NAND consoles. On NOR consoles it could cause a soft brick, that is solved formatting the HDD on PC (the saves, installed games and all other user data will be lost).

In short, it's better that the CFW creators provide the Cobra payload, instead of the users risk their consoles doing things untested.

BTW Mamba is an alternative for developers & testers of new payloads, due modern CFWs have a failsafe system that deletes boot_plugins_kernel_nocobra.txt when the user enters to recovery menu.

 

[Joonie]

@Tura88 Have you tried both debug settings - fake region & cobra + wmm region changer together?

I tried the opposite thing on my NTSC unit to play PAL region DVD titles while ago, it was a bit tricky but that was how I was able to play IIRC.

*EDIT*

Cobra's region free patch can only kill "standard" region lock.

If the DVD title has RCE (Regional Coding Enhancement), I don't think it will work.

see this comment >> COBRA/modulespatch.c at master · aldostools/COBRA (github.com)

Here's more information about RCE >> Regional Coding Enhancement (dvdtalk.com)

 

[Tura88]

Thanks @Joonie , I did try with both webMAN and Fake region enabled but no luck.
About the RCE, I don't know if it's my case I've been trying to do this with Family Guy season 1 but I'll try other disks and see what happens...

EDIT

Nope, tried several other region 1 disks but nothing plays, in the link you provided I read this about RCE:

"It's a digital enhancement added to some Warner Bros and Columbia DVDs to stop region 1 (R1) DVDs from playing on Region-free DVD players."

I clearly remember that one of the disks I've used to these tests worked on my old dvd region free player so it should not be RCE.


I also tried again to remarry the BD drive with eid0 and eid5 set to 84, the remarrying process goes well but it still says that the region code is not correct...
Now have patience with me guys because I'm not a developer and maybe I'm talking nonsense but from the post by @sandungas I understood that region settings are stored in eid2 and eid4, and I thought they would be automatically changed in the remarrying process based on the information stored in eid0 and eid5 but I'm probably missing something here...
Is there an easy way to change the region settings in eid2 and eid4 for a non-developer noob like me? Or maybe an homebrew that allows me to do that?

 

[mrwho]

Fellas, I need to bring this back from the dead because I can't seem to get it working either. I had tried all kinds of the more recent firmware versions up to 4.88.2 EVILNAT but doing both fake region + cobra region change via WMM doesn't change anything.

I know the DVDs I'm trying to play from Japan aren't enhanced. I got them running on my PS2 + freemcboot.

Any insight is appreciated @Joonie @aldostools

 

[purplesky]

I would have thought that you can't make the DVD drive region free to watch films from any region. Isn't the DVD drive hardware locked to a single region, that region being the territory for which the PS3 was purchased? If that's the case, no software will help.

 

[Coldheart2236]

@purplesky It's definitely possible, since it's one of webMAN MOD's features - which is a homebrew plugin available for both CFW and HEN. While DVD and Blu-ray regions are locked corresponding to the PS3's region, it can be overcome with wMM as mentioned - there might be other homebrew out there that can achieve it, but I honestly don't know.

@aldostools is the developer of webMAN MOD, so he is the ideal person to ask. @sandungas is also highly knowledgable regarding the PS3 so he might also be able to shed some light on how DVD/BD region unlocking is achieved.

Also, welcome to the forum.

 

[mrwho]

@purplesky It's definitely possible, since it's one of webMAN MOD's features - which is a homebrew plugin available for both CFW and HEN. While DVD and Blu-ray regions are locked corresponding to the PS3's region, it can be overcome with wMM as mentioned - there might be other homebrew out there that can achieve it, but I honestly don't know.

@aldostools is the developer of webMAN MOD, so he is the ideal person to ask. @sandungas is also highly knowledgable regarding the PS3 so he might also be able to shed some light on how DVD/BD region unlocking is achieved.

Also, welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the welcome! I've been using PSX Place as a source of reference for quite some time now for my psp, ps2 and ps3 shenanigans but this is the first time I've had to reach out to somebody to figure out why this feature doesn't work. I stumbled across a youtube video of a user able to pull it off via multiMAN and HEN on 4.88 but I have no clue why it won't stick for my CFW console... It's driving me nuts!

Link to youtube video mentioned above: (9) Best Region Free Bluray Player, many already have it at home!!!!!!!!!!! - YouTube

 

[bguerville]

Thanks for the welcome! I've been using PSX Place as a source of reference for quite some time now for my psp, ps2 and ps3 shenanigans but this is the first time I've had to reach out to somebody to figure out why this feature doesn't work. I stumbled across a youtube video of a user able to pull it off via multiMAN and HEN on 4.88 but I have no clue why it won't stick for my CFW console... It's driving me nuts!

Link to youtube video mentioned above: (9) Best Region Free Bluray Player, many already have it at home!!!!!!!!!!! - YouTube

If I am not mistaken, the region codes are set up in the xRegistry.sys file.

There are various keys for Regioning and Languages such as:

/setting/bddvd/dvdRegionCode
/setting/bddvd/bdRegionCode
etc...

You can find an exhaustive list of keys with possible values for each key at
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/XRegistry.sys

The xRegistry.sys file can be found with any decent file manager or via FTP at
/dev_flash2/etc/xRegistry.sys.

The keys can be edited with stoke25 xRegistry editor on PC, you should be able to download the app from our resources section.
They can also be edited with a webMan-MOD web command (check the wMM web commands thread's OP for the syntax) through any browser on your LAN or in PS3 browser.
Very soon, the PS3 Toolset will offer a fully fledged xRegistry editor directly in the PS3 browser.

Remember to reboot after an edit if you want to be sure to apply it system wide but always double check any edit you make before rebooting.

 

[sandungas]

Yeah, there is many people that thinks the region of the PS3 is a single setting, but are a lot
And honestly i dont know how many there are, his location, which ones can be modifyed, etc... is a mess