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63dot

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
5,269
339
norcal
From time to time I get Japanese TV shows burned from a Mac in Japan and I can't play any of them in the US on my Mac.

They work fine on Macs and PCs in Japan but won't play in the United States.

Help!
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Get a region free DVD disc drive, as Japan is in a different DVD region than the US is.

400px-DVD-Regions_with_key-2.svg.png
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,632
3,987
New Zealand
It's extremely rare (but still possible) to find region protection on a DVD-R. Do you get a particular error message when you try to play it? Does VLC work?
 

63dot

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
5,269
339
norcal
Thank you all.

It's a different DVD region, made in separate areas due to control of pricing. That makes sense. I found a business that often converts stuff across regions.
 

fa8362

macrumors 68000
Jul 7, 2008
1,571
497
From time to time I get Japanese TV shows burned from a Mac in Japan...

If you rip the discs with RipIt, you won't have that problem. I never play discs. I rip them and play the rip.

The only potential downside is you'll have to switch the Mac's region and you only get 5 region switches before the Mac is locked to the last region used. So if you switch for the Japanese disc, then switch back, that's 2 switches. So don't switch back, or just use a different Mac when you need a different region.
 

63dot

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
5,269
339
norcal
If you rip the discs with RipIt, you won't have that problem. I never play discs. I rip them and play the rip.

The only potential downside is you'll have to switch the Mac's region and you only get 5 region switches before the Mac is locked to the last region used. So if you switch for the Japanese disc, then switch back, that's 2 switches. So don't switch back, or just use a different Mac when you need a different region.

My parents are too lazy to learn how to use new software like that. They already put in the hours and learned a lot about iMovie and that's about if for the comfort zone. It's pretty amazing for elderly people to go even that far into stuff beyond just the operating system.

If the transposition of the Japanese news program is cheap enough (under $30 dollars) they will go with the service, but if it costs too much they will forget the whole thing and not even look at learning new software that converts stuff. They don't get enough region 2 Japan/Euro DVDs to justify learning the software.
 

63dot

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
5,269
339
norcal
RipIt is easy. Start RipIt, put in disc, click "rip." That's it.

That's great and I will tell them. It's just that the people sending disks from Japan just copy stuff onto the regular region 2 and it won't read in USA. I have seen region free DVD players and they are as cheap as regular DVD players and that may be their best option.
 
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