I want to buy a combo drive that is both a CD writer and a DVD ROM; And a blue ray drive. Can it play US-region DVDs?
Hello Patrick,
The answer to your questions would actually depend on where you purchased the Optical Disk Drive. Technically, the optical disc drive is programmed to the region it is to be sold to. Typically, DVD optical drives are set to Region 1 by default which is for United States, Canada Bermuda and U.S. Territories.
There are over 6 official regions and 2 informal variations.
For you to know what region your new Optical Disk Drive is set to, you can check the stickers underneath the device itself or install the device to your pc and then go to Start (right click) My Computer on XP or Computer for Windows 7 (left click) Manage (left click) Device Manager.
Scroll down the devices list and hit the plus (+) sign beside DVD/CD-ROM drives.
Hover down to you optical drive name, right click on it and left click on Properties from the options.
Now, the optical drive properties page should pop-up by this time.
Click the DVD Region tab and there you would find your optical drive's regional settings.
For Blu-ray Players (BDP), the region code (A,B, or C) will be marked on the package box itself or at the back/rear of the blu-ray player itself. Blu-rays are NOT region free by default; however, the regional settings and or definitions are not that significant anymore unless you swap BD disks (i.e. between Europe to U.S.).
If you stick to a single place, then this shouldn't be much of a problem. But if you travel a lot all over the world say, U.S to Europe or to Africa, then you need to change the region settings on the pc when you purchase a blu-ray disk from that place (i.e. B for Australia).
The Blu-ray Drive or Blu-ray Players (BDU) regional setting is defined into 3:
A – North America, Central America, South America, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia
B – Europe, Middle East, Australia, Africa, New Zealand
C – Russia, India, China, Rest of the world.
The country of sale (not manufacturing) will usually stand for the region.
An optical drive you want for your computer is a Blu-ray ROM/DVD-RW which is the combo that you can usually buy in the store. Wherever you look, Blu-ray is expensive whether brand new or used. Check this one out on eBay: LG WH14NS40 14X Blu-ray SATA. This is brand new for $66.95 plus $28.34 shipping.
Item is located in Cerritos, California, United States and ships to the United States and many other countries including Asia. Click “See details” for a complete list of supported countries. Note: this is an internal optical drive. Another one to check is LG Electronics WH16NS40 16X SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter. This item is also brand new for $80.49 plus $28.70 shipping.
Item is located in San Jose, California, United States and ships to the United States and many other countries including Asia. Click “See details” for a complete list of supported countries. Note: this is an internal optical drive.
