Region 1 DVD

[ThatGirl]

I am not sure where I should post this, so I appreciate your patience if this is the wrong place.

I have an iMac G4, on Jaguar. I received a DVD, and when I put it in, I got a message window that said I would have to change the setting to Region 1. Will that screw up everything? Is it reversible?


Also, on the same note, if I were to purchase a movie on DVD from somewhere in Europe, does that mean that it will not work in my computer, because of that same Region 1 issue?

Thank you.

 

[jsw]

That's odd - I would have thought it was preset for Region 1 - is this the first time you've used the DVD Player? If so, that might explain it. Is this the first US/Canada disk? Also would explain it.

DVDs are sold for, I think, 5 different regions. You can only reset your player so many times (5, I think...), so switching between US and European DVDs is something you cannot do often. I'm sure there's a hack around this - but I don't know it. Also, you can copy the DVD to your hard drive and remove region encoding with something like MacTheRipper (free), but that's a pain.

Perhaps someone else knows of a hack around this?

 

[Kingsnapped]

Is this your first time using a DVD in there?

When you first use a DVD in OSX, it'll ask what region you want. You can only change it five (?) times. Set it to region one (America) and don't import DVDs from other regions.

If you have played DVDs in there before, ignore my post, because those are weird circumstances.

 

[ThatGirl]

Hi. Thanks to both of you for responding, so quickly.
No, I have played many DVDs in this computer, and burned a couple also. This may be the first that came from somewhere outside of the U.S. I'm not sure.

Sounds like I should just forget trying to view it.

Which one is Region 1? Is that America?

 

[Kingsnapped]

0: No Region Coding
1: United States of America, Canada
2: Europe, including France, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan and South Africa
3: Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo and Indonesia
4: Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America
5: India, Africa, Russia and former USSR countries
6: Peoples Republic of China
7: Unused
8: Airlines/Cruise Ships

What region does it say on the back of the Disc's jacket?

edit: helpful link

 

[YS2003]

If you have DVD from different regions (Region 1 from USA/N. America and Region 2 from Europe), can you just buy an external DVD player you can plug in via firewire or USB2 and set that external one for either region and keep the internatl DVD player with the other region? I want to make sure the internal DVD does not change the region if you change the region for the external DVD to Region 2. An external DVD player (or burner for that matter) are getting cheaper and buying an extra DVD player for other region would be better than hacking your internal DVD.

 

[Kushiro]

Nope...

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall, there are two places checking the change--the DVD player itself and the DVD player software on the computer, and both are limited. So buying an external player and setting it to a different zone won't work just like that.

But there are workarounds--there are firmware patches (of questionable legal status) that you can use to set the player itself to zone 0 (uncoded--or rather, it won't check), but you also have to get another program to reset the software counter. So, I suppose the options are:

A) download both and use the internal DVD player for all regions
B) get an external drive and only switch the software limit when switching between them
C) go buy the cheapest DVD player you can (come on, the base models can be had for under 75 Francs (65 USD or so) here in Switzerland if you look, so I'm sure you can beat that in the US).

One last thing: READ THE WARNINGS--if you do attempt (A), trying to patch the firmware can go badly wrong, making the player unusable.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Hello, there is a program that can help with both internal and ext. drives for dvds. I don't have a need for this but try this link and go to the Mac forum as there are some threads about this very problem. A side note most use this with their PBs but it also works with everything else.
www.videohelp.com
Just remember to go under the Mac forum and all is good...

 

[JzzTrump22]

The dvd should have come preset to region 1 because thats English/U.S. i believe. If it's a foreign film i can see why.

 

[spacepower7]

Region Coding

I hate region coding. I got my Powerbook Pismo in 2000. I moved from US to Europe for almost 2 years. Besides paying 35-50USD for DVDs, they woun't work in the US. Of course their are workarounds, firmware and software.

VLC won't force you to change you DVD drive's region, so use that for European (or other non-region 1 DVDs.)

If I buy a music CD anywhere in the world, it will work on any CD player in the world. If I buy a movie DVD, it is region protected. The movie studios don't talk about this much, bc it affects a very small amout of DVD consumers. I understand their motives to control licensing and distibution, and to some extent that is fair. But their control should be limited to regions of sales, not regions of playability.

I could rant for days about this subject, and their increasing corporate control that violates consumer rights.

One fair compromise would be letting all portable media players, such as laptop computers, be exempt from region coding requirements.

 

[moot]

Also, you can copy the DVD to your hard drive and remove region encoding with something like MacTheRipper (free), but that's a pain.

If you are only going to use DVD's with a different region code to the one that is set for your hard drive then using MacTheRipper is a good option.

I have my region code set to 1. But occasionaly I want to play DVD's from other places. It's not often enough to justify changing the setting on my mac so i just rip the thing on to my hard drive. (and I dont consider it morally bad as I dont burn and copy it but delete it from my hard drive after watching it )

If you are often watching DVD's from many different regions then this wont work for you. (too much effort)

 

[ClarkeB]

The dvd should have come preset to region 1 because thats English/U.S. i believe. If it's a foreign film i can see why.

English is region 2
US is region 1