Life's No Good with Windows Live

LG units with network features enable streaming of videos and audio from your home computer via a feature known as Home Link. A lot of people have been having problems with the CIFS login, used to access Windows computers (myself included).

The problem I was having, was that even though I shared out my folders with “Read” access for “Everyone”, I still got prompted for a CIFS username and password. So, I first tried to create a new user with a password on my Windows 7 computer, but to no avail.

LG support could not solve the problem (maybe not talking with their engineers much?),  but after a little Googling the cause and solution to the problem surfaced:

My computer had installed the “Windows Live Sign-in Assistant” via Windows Update.

After uninstalling it via “Programs and Features” and rebooting my computer, the problem was solved!

Contrary to what we’re used to with DVDs, far from all Blu-Ray movies are region code protected.

There’re a lot of Blu-Ray player owners (read: PS3 owners) out there, but most don’t know what movies are region free, and many don’t even know that this is as common as about 50% of all releases!

Well, thanks to the Lies Inc Blu-Ray blog you can find out exactly what Blu-Ray titles should be safe to import for your HD viewing pleasure.

Quick reference guide to Blu-Ray Regions:

• Region A: North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
• Region B: Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
• Region C: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mainland China, Pakistan, Russia, Central and South Asia.

AnyDVD HD enables you to watch your Blu-Ray movies region-free and over a digital display connection without HDCP compliant graphics card and HDCP compliant monitor or flatscreen TV.

The creators of AnyDVD recently released a new version of AnyDVD HD which enables support for movies with the latest security measures, such as the Transformers HD-DVD, as well as touting the ability to ”Playback your discs on your PC with PowerDVD Ultra, which otherwise do not run (titles released by Studio Canal, The Weinstein Company, Kinowelt, Optimum Releasing)”, as one of the key selling points of their latest version.

Probably the most popular feature however, is decryption of Blu-Ray movies. This enables ripping your movie titles for safe storage or to convert them into smaller size portable versions.

Click here to download the latest version of AnyDVD HD (beta) from Free-Codecs.com.

Below is the official feature list:

Features HD-DVD

• Same features as regular AnyDVD
• Removes encryption (AACS) from HD-DVDs
• Watch movies over digital display connection, without HDCP compliant graphics card and HDCP compliant display.
• Playback of discs on the PC with PowerDVD Ultra, which otherwise do not run.
• Removes user prohibitions, you can select the language and subtitle track without going through the disc’s menu.
• Removes parental restrictions.
• Allows you to remove or skip Studio Logos and warning messages.
• With “magic file replacement ™” you can remaster any commercial movie disc using simple XML scripts.
• The “must have” utility for the serious home theater enthusiast using a media center / home theater PC.
• Includes a UDF 2.5 file ripper, no need to install 3rd party UDF 2.5 filesystem under Windows XP.

Features Blu-Ray

• Same features as regular AnyDVD
• Removes encryption (AACS) from Blu-Ray DVDs
• Removes region codes from Blu-Ray DVDs
• Watch movies over digital display connection, without HDCP compliant graphics card and HDCP compliant display.
• The “must have” utility for the serious home theater enthusiast using a media center / home theater PC.
• Includes a UDF 2.5 file ripper, no need to install 3rd party UDF 2.5 filesystem under Windows XP.

Official Home Page of SlySoft, the makers of AnyDVD HD (external link).