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Can a US MacBook Pro's NTSC DVD drive be converted to PAL?

C

CCAALL

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2008
5
0
Im heading to the US at the end of the year and was thinking about buying a new MacBook Pro while over there, seen as the prices here (in Australia) are outrageously high (they are AU$550 cheaper in the usa for the exact same machine!!). Obviously the drives used in those machines will be NTSC so being able to convert it will dictate if ill be able to possibly buy one. So does anyone know if it can be changed to PAL permanently or even temporarily?
Or any other possible problems i might have?

much appreciated!
cheers.
 
The drive itself is not encoded to be NTSC or PAL. It has a region coding that limits the areas of the world it can play DVDs from. The US setting is Region 1, but you can change it.
 
r.j.s said:
The drive itself is not encoded to be NTSC or PAL. It has a region coding that limits the areas of the world it can play DVDs from. The US setting is Region 1, but you can change it.
Click to expand...

Do you know what to do when those five times are up? Or is it a bust then?
 
so you saying it wont be a problem? all i have to do is change the region coding and it'll be fine?
 
It used to be that VLC would just ignore region codes, but I believe that was only on PPC. Hopefully someone can test it for us on an Intel machine.
 
Tallest Skil said:
If it isn't the unibody MacBook Pro or the last pre-unibody Penryn, you can flash the firmware to make it region-free, but you could bork it.
Click to expand...

yeah ive done that to an old powerbook before, but id like to eliminate the risk though. can anyone guaranty a solution?
 
CCAALL said:
yeah ive done that to an old powerbook before, but id like to eliminate the risk though. can anyone guaranty a solution?
Click to expand...
If you're using it in Aussieland anyway, just put in an Aussie DVD and you will be prompted to change the region code. Once it's been set, it's the same as if you had purchased the computer there. Any region-changing would need to be done for both computers for the purpose of watching DVD's from around the globe. Don't bother messing with the firmware since there isn't even RPC-1 firmware available (yet) anyway.
 
Bill Gates said:
If you're using it in Aussieland anyway, just put in an Aussie DVD and you will be prompted to change the region code. Once it's been set, it's the same as if you had purchased the computer there. Any region-changing would need to be done for both computers for the purpose of watching DVD's from around the globe. Don't bother messing with the firmware since there isn't even RPC-1 firmware available (yet) anyway.
Click to expand...

oh cool thanks for your help man, i thought that might have just been the solution but i wanted to make sure. Also thanks for spelling aussie right too! lol

cheers
 
CCAALL said:
yeah ive done that to an old powerbook before, but id like to eliminate the risk though. can anyone guaranty a solution?
Click to expand...

There is no guarantees in flashing firmware; if you want to avoid any risk, just use VLC; it ignores region codes.
 
alphaod said:
There is no guarantees in flashing firmware; if you want to avoid any risk, just use VLC; it ignores region codes.
Click to expand...

Sometimes this method does not work. I've seen it happen more often then not on many machines.

Depending on the model of your super drive you may or may not be able to unlock it. Do a search on google for "region free " and then the model of your drive.
 
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