I use AnyDVD, which works transparently. It's available as a free trial, which is useful for testing since it won't work with some Matsu!!!!a stuff, because M goes above and beyond in defending the region lock. AnyDVD also stops data tracks on audio CDs from running, and works with HDDVD and Blu-Ray.
An alternative would be to reflash the firmware in your DVD drive. There are various sites that have third-party firmware for the more popular drives.