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Play Region 4 DVDs?

*beaten to the punch with a far more informative post by risc*

VLC does work very well though...
 
ThatGirl said:
Can I play Region 4 DVDs on my iMac G4, running Tiger?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You can also change your region a limited number of times, but then you become stuck with the final region you chose. So in the long run using VLC would probably be better.
 
Thank you, so much, Everyone, for the information!🙂

barneygumble: There is a movie I want to buy, and it is only sold in Australia. That is exactly why I was asking this question. I didn't want to buy it and find I can't play it!
 
I downloaded VLC and used it. That part was great. However, my Photoshop CS program suddenly won't work anymore. Are those two things related?

When I try to open a tiff that I made in Photoshop originally, I get the following error message:
"Could not complete your request because of a program error."

I have restarted a few times. I have repaired permissions. None of that has made a difference. Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but it was working before I used VLC.

I would really appreciate any help, anyone can offer, with this problem.
Thanks. 🙂
 
Although nothing's impossible, there's a 99% chance that your broken Photoshop is unrelated to VLC--VLC simply doesn't do anything to the OS that I can see affecting Photoshop. It's just an application and wouldn't change any files that Photoshop uses.

Can you think of anything else you might've done around the same time? Things I'd try as far as a fix goes would be deleting Photoshop's preference files in your home folder's Library, and if that fails reinstalling it.
 
Hi, thanks for answering! No, I can't think of anything else. It was fine before I used VLC, but I understand that it must be something else. I'll try deleting the preferences file. Thanks!
 
taeclee99 said:
Yes you can. Download a software media viewer called xineplayer. It lets you watch movies from any region without having to change the actual region setting of the drive itself.

Download it here.

http://xineplayer.berlios.de/
Click to expand...

I downloaded both Xineplayer and VLC. Both said I had to change the region code of the drive. What will that do to the drive? Will I be able to change it back?

Thanks.
 
There is firmware on the drive itself that allows only a certain number of region changes before it becomes fixed. When this happens it is possible for an engineer (or anyone with the knowlege and/or equipment) to reset it, allowing you to switch regions again for a limited number of times, but this reset is also limited.

You have two options: flash the firmware with a region-free version (google your drive make/serial number and region-free firmware). This carries risks – if anything interrupts the flashing process then your drive will be dead and the warranty voided. Or you can buy an external drive and use that for another region. That is what I did – I wasn't prepared to risk my superdrive and the associated costs of repair should anything have gone wrong.
 
That's an interesting idea. So, you can buy an external DVD drive and set the region? Is there a limit on how many times you can change the region for an external drive?
Thanks!
 
ThatGirl said:
That's an interesting idea. So, you can buy an external DVD drive and set the region? Is there a limit on how many times you can change the region for an external drive?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

I figure its the same as for an internal drive (they're practially the same anyway). It just makes it possible to use one drive for, say, zone 4 and one for zone 2.
 
ThatGirl said:
That's an interesting idea. So, you can buy an external DVD drive and set the region? Is there a limit on how many times you can change the region for an external drive?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

I think most external drives will have firmware that will limit the number of times they can be changed. However, just as with the internal Apple drive, the external drive's firmware can be flashed to make it region-free. If you need to play DVDs from more than two regions (one region for the internal drive, one for the external) then flashing the external drive is less of a risk as it is easier/cheaper to replace should anything untoward happen.

Note that many people successfully flash their drives to make them region-free. I imagine that it is only a very small number that experience problems as a result. But there is a risk and you have to decide whether the risk is worth taking.
 
DVD drives have some internal flash memory (like the stuff in a memory stick) that essentially contains the drive's operating system. You can replace this software with a version that doesn't check the region code.
 
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