Changing DVD regions

[ebonics]

What happens once you've used up all your DVD region changes?
Is there a way to reset it?
Or are you permanently stuck on the region?
Will changing your disk drive fix it, or is it a software thing?

Also more specifically, I got my Macbook Pro in America and changed in to the Australian region. I've done a few changes and only have one left. If I reformat my computer, will it change back to the America region and then not allow me to change back to Australia's DVD region?

Sorry for the myriad of questions, thank you to anyone who can be of assistance. 🙂

 

[JediMeister]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2397
As it says you can only change 5 times and after that you're done.

 

[hvfsl]

Have you tried using videolan (VLC)? It should be able to bypass the region coding.

 

[ebonics]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2397
As it says you can only change 5 times and after that you're done.

Yes but if I got a new disk drive would that give more changes? Or is it a software thing and changing the disk drive doesn't matter?

If it's a software thing does reformatting the hard-drive and reinstalling MacOSX reset how many region changes you can have?

Or is it permanent despite doing any, or both of these things?

MY main question though is, if I reformat my hard-drive does it change back to the original DVD region and count as one of the 5 region changes?
Please help.

 

[numlock]

Yes but if I got a new disk drive would that give more changes? Or is it a software thing and changing the disk drive doesn't matter?

If it's a software thing does reformatting the hard-drive and reinstalling MacOSX reset how many region changes you can have?

Or is it permanent despite doing any, or both of these things?

MY main question though is, if I reformat my hard-drive does it change back to the original DVD region and count as one of the 5 region changes?
Please help.

pretty sure a reformat does not reset the the count.

But of course if you change the drive you could get one that accepts all regions

 

[cube]

No current DVD drive is sold being multiregion. If you don't agree to comply with the region scheme, you don't get licenses to the required patents.

It's the drive's firmware which implements the lock.

 

[ebonics]

It's the drive's firmware which implements the lock.

So is the lock absolutely permanent and there's NOTHING you can do?

I've only got one change left, so I just want to be cautious.

 

[Aeolius]

You could always Handbrake the movie, removing region coding.

 

[ebonics]

I know there's things I can do like that, but now not having a definitive answer is making me curious just to know for the sake of finding out if there's anything that can be done at all once all the region changes have been done.

 

[Guiyon]

Once you use all the changes your only option is to flash the drive's firmware to a version that has been patched for RPC1 support to make it a multiregion drive (more accurately, RPC1 drives just ignore the region coding) or replace the drive. Be warned, though, the RPC1 flash will only work IF there is a patched version of your drive's firmware. If no one has patched a copy of it you're SOL.

 

[ebonics]

Thank you.

 

[Let's Sekuhara!]

I hate region codes. Half my DVDs are region 2 and half are region 1, so no matter what I'm always screwed. Therefor I'm HandBraking everything and getting rid of DVDs altogether.