Panther DVD player region bug?

[eva05]

Strange situation here...

We've been using our g5 1.8 to view region 1 DVDs for sometime. The other day we needed to view a region 2 disc.

As usual with past DVD players, we slapped in the DVD got the message about changing regions and how the OS could only do this 4 more times before it would lock in, etc.

This morning we tried to load a region 1 DVD in again and the Apple DVD player tells us the disc is the wrong region?!

It plays, opens in a variety of other applications such as VLC, DIVX and MPlayer with no problems. We tried trashing the app prefs and no dice. Anyone have any ideas, suggestions or have you ehard about this an official bug?

Much thanks in advance.

j

[SilentPanda]

You can only change your region so many times (5 or so I believe) before it will lock it as a certain region (region 2 in your case). Not exactly sure how you'll be able to change it back to region 1. Changing your region over and over again is a bad thing generally (not that the computer cares but it does get locked down).

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60183

edit: hmmm... after re-reading your post it appears you had 4 more times to change your region... weird... you might just call Apple and see what they can do for you.

[eva05]

Thanks much

I actually was trying to find if the DVD region control pannel thing even existed.

Will prob call Apple too though ^_^

j

[jaw04005]

Had a similar problem with my Powerbook 12". The DVD player would not change the region back to 1 and gave me some sort of error (when I had 4 changes left). I called Apple and spoke to them for an hour or so about the issue. I was transferred up to Sr. Product Specialist, where she had no idea how to fix the problem either and had to call me back a few days later. She did call me back, and just offered to have my Powerbook's SuperDrive replaced. She said it wasn't a widespread issue that they were aware of, but if you search Apple Discussion Boards you will find a few people had the same problem. No word on if any of them got it corrected without sending there computer in for repair.


Josh

[1macker1]

I you have the hard drive space, just save it to the hard drive, with regions off, so you can play it without the switching worries.

[jaw04005]

Newer DVDs have some sort of new protection scheme that won't allow DVDBackup to rip them unless your in there designated region code. Example: The West Wing Season 1. And my Powerbook's SuperDrive doesn't allow for raw access, so therefore VLC can't play region free.

[Nermal]

Here's what normally happens when you try to play a DVD:

- Player looks at the DVD to see what regions it supports
- If your current region is supported, the DVD is played
- If your current region is unsupported, the DVD doesn't play and you are prompted to change your region code

However, some DVDs, such as Final Fantasy R1, do this:

- Player looks at the DVD to see what regions it supports
- DVD supports all regions
- The player starts playing the DVD
- The DVD asks the player what region it's set to
- DVD player reports "1"
-> DVD plays
- or DVD player reports anything else
-> a special "wrong region" screen is displayed
-> as far as the player's concerned, it's playing the DVD, so doesn't ask you to change the code

I don't know whether this is what is happening to you, but it could be the cause of your problem. Try a different R1 DVD and see whether you are prompted to change region code.

[Sabenth]

this isgoing to sounds daft i know but why have regions at all. If i buy a cd in the usa and bring it home to either the uk or australia i can play it without issues..

i feel the same should be for DVD but on the topic again cant you just put another region 1 dvd in and change the region over if it asks sorry if you have tried this

[Dreadnought]

This is mostly done because of prices. In one country/region, a dvd is much cheaper then in another. So, even if you buy your dvd from another region legit, you can only play it a couple of times before it locks up.

BTW, I read something about this in a Macmagazine here in the Netherlands, some guy was having the same problems. I think they recommended some program that can put the counter back on 0. But this was more then a year ago, so it's not for X.3. Maybe it also works with X.3. Goodluck!!

[huntsman]

Originally posted by Sabenth
this isgoing to sounds daft i know but why have regions at all. If i buy a cd in the usa and bring it home to either the uk or australia i can play it without issues..

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.10

It's all about control really. More control for them means more profit. They want to take advantage of globalisation, while preventing consumers doing the same.

It's seems as though DVD regions might finally just fade away, though. A few years ago here in Australia, after-market multi-region modifications were popular. Following that, there was a flood of cheap Chinese and Taiwanese players that were multi-region out of the box. Then everyone on the 'net started publishing remote control codes that would make the major brands' players multi-region. And most recently, some of the major brands (e.g. Panasonic) have just been shipping their players multi-region out of the box.

A few weeks ago, there was a story about Blockbuster, a powerful butthole of a company, calling for the end of DVD region coding:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr...ent_id=2047010

Hopefully, one day, our Apple computers will ship with region-free drives and we won't have to take risks with modified firmware. Maybe writing to them and expressing your irritation will hurry them up.

[Nermal]

Yeah, I just got a brand-new Philips player for Christmas, and it plays all my DVDs (regions 1, 2 and 4) straight out of the box without any problems whatsoever. It's gotten to the point where you can go into town and buy DVDs from R1, even though we're an R4 country. However, they usually only do this if the R1 version is cheaper or has more special features or whatever.

[Sabenth]

Blockbuster is doing away with VHS and replacing it all with DVD. local store got box after box of dvds and there slowly making everything DVD.

I dont have an issue with DVD i just feel players in computers should be region free .or set to 2 regions maybe. region you live in and region 1 maybe or what ever you decided the region should be.