Region 1/NTSC DVDs on my G4 (UK)

[Blue Velvet]

Not sure whether this should be in the software section but here goes...

I'd like to buy a Region 1/NTSC DVD set (Larry Sanders Show).

But I live here in the UK where it's another region with ummm... PAL (?)

Will these play on my G4 1.4, OS 10.3.4 with a SVGA monitor?
Or are there any probs with this?

I don't have a DVD player as such (yet) & my small TV is certainly not NTSC-compatible.

Any UK/EU forum members that have done this?
Or any US fellas with the gos?

[evil_santa]

you should be able to play it using the VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) you will get the region warnings but if you ignore them and close the apple DVD player VLC will play your DVD. Or you could use Handbrake (http://handbrake.m0k.org/) to rip the DVD to MP4 file and play it from your HD.

[hvfsl]

They might play if you use Videolan www.videolan.org. Although it won't allow you to play DVDs from other regions on all Macs. I would see if you can find a cheap region 1 DVD (like on ebay) and see if it plays before going out and spending lots of money on US DVDs.

[boskie]

Your comp spec is fine for playback of PAL or NTSC DVD's. What you might (or could but would break warranty of the device and might cause problems) is find out if you can flash the firmware for the dvd drive with an RPC-1 (region free) version for your particular drive.

Firstly, check what Drive you have in Apple System Profiler (inside the utilities folder), this will also tell you what your current firmware is.

Second, Go to Mac DVD Resource (http://www.wormintheapple.gr/macdvd/download2.html). Read through the site so you know what the consequences are, and once your sure you want to do it find the relevant firmware to unlock the region on the drive (and possibly more ;) ).

Voila! you'll never have to worry about any region problems ever again...


I have done this to both:
Superdrive in TiBook - was RPC-2 1xDVD/8xCD burning, Now RPC-1 2xDVD / 16XCD Burning
DVD-ROM in Cube - was RPC-2, Now RPC-1

[Case]

Here in KC (Kansas City), I (my kids) use VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) on a G3 iBook to watch some dvds from Greece which is region 2 and are PAL disks. Just cancel when the Mac's dvd player complains about the invalid region and use VLC. No problems. Plays NTSC dvds as well.

Case

[Blue Velvet]

Thanks guys -- I'll see if I can borrow somebody's US discs of something to test it on.

[Blue Velvet]

This is the drive, I'll check it on Mac DVD Resource. Cheers, Boskie.

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105:

Manufacturer: PIONEER
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105
Revision: A506
Serial Number: BLDL010354WL
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Apple Supported/Shipped
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal

[wrc fan]

There is a region free firmware for most Pioneer drives, and a Mac OS X based utility for flashing it. See here to download the firmware and get the Mac OS X Program (http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=299) and here for a handy program that will set up the flash for you (http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=27749&highlight=flashit) (so you can't screw it up).

Unfortunately for me my new G5 shipped with a LG drive! Why Apple, why? We were so happy with the Pioneers!