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Drive Region Code?

N

Nekkid Fish

macrumors member
Original poster
I just inserted a DVD, which I'm going to move into iMovie ... but a box popped up that says "Since this is the first use of a DVD disc, the drive region code must be initialized before playing. You can only change the drive region code 5 times."

I don't have a clue what this means, and the Help section didn't make any sense to me either?

Can someone tell me what this is, and what region code I'm supposed to pick? 😕

Thanks bunches! Jules
 
DVDs often have region codes to link them to a geographic area...the US and Canada are Region 1, Europe is Region 2, etc. DVD drives also have region codes and can only play DVDs from their region (as well as region-free discs). However, you can change the region on your DVD drive five times. But once you run out of opportunities to change the region, your drive is locked to the last region that was set.
 
swiftaw said:
You mean, after you have changed it 5 times and it becomes locked?

I think apple can do it for you, but they wont. I also believe that reinstalling the OS wont help either.
Click to expand...

Yeah. The thing is that I travel often back home in Italy where it's region 4. I already change it 5 times and now it's back on 1. I can definetely live with the DVD region locked, but it would be nice to get it region free.
 
It's locked in the drive's firmware. Search the forums for region dvd and you will find a solution but it will only worked if you haven't picked a region code yet.
 
FYI if you just want to play DVDs (won't help in iMovie), VLC can break past the region lock.
 
Firstly, i think Italy is region 2 not 4. (I am in a similar situation, I live in the US but all my family is in the UK)

I think you are out of luck. Depends on what Mac you have. If you have a on older mac you used to be able to get around the region encoding by using VLC to play the DVD. New macs closed that loophole.

apfhex said:
FYI if you just want to play DVDs (won't help in iMovie), VLC can break past the region lock.
Click to expand...

Only on older hardware, that loophole was closed a while back.
 
I think I found the right thread, though it's saying that the new MB/MBP are very hard to get unlocked. Anyway I'll look into it, thanks!

swiftaw said:
Firstly, i think Italy is region 2 not 4. (I am in a similar situation, I live in the US but all my family is in the UK)

I think you are out of luck. Depends on what Mac you have. If you have a on older mac you used to be able to get around the region encoding by using VLC to play the DVD. New macs closed that loophole.
Click to expand...

I meant 2, I don't even know why I wrote 4. Anyway. I'm waiting for my MPB. I guess I'll keep region 1 and foregt about it. Thank you all! And Nekkid Fish sorry if I "stole" your thread.
 
There is software that you can use to reset your DVD drives region code.

However, sometimes it will hose a drive. YMMV.

Some options stated above. Here's some others:

Option A is to have an external DVD player for your home region, and then use your MB/MBP DVD player when traveling.

Option B would be to copy (backup) your personally owned DVDs and make them region free. That way you don't have to continually reset the Region Code. Of course there may be copyright issues depending on your country.

Option C would be to backup your DVDs to your MB/MBP HD or an external that you carry. That way you can just watch your DVDs via HD. Of course there may be copyright issues depending on your country.
 
I found that the VLC works for DVD's without asking for the region code - just avoid using iDVD and you won't have to worry.
 
Hello. I am still a bit confused. Could somebody please verify?

We know that US uses region code 1, Japan uses region code 2 and Korea/Hong Kong use region code 3.

If I buy a MBP in Korea/Hong Kong, I can play the DVDs bought there as many times as I want as the default region code is 3. However, if I want to play the DVDs bought in Japan, I just change the region code to 2. Once I have done it, I can play different DVDs from Japan as many times as I want until I change the region code to, say 1. I can then play different DVDs from the USA as many times as I want until I change the region code again later. I can do this 5 times in total. The last region code I change will be the one the DVD drive can play for the rest of its life. Am I correct?
 
hajime said:
Hello. I am still a bit confused. Could somebody please verify?

We know that US uses region code 1, Japan uses region code 2 and Korea/Hong Kong use region code 3.

If I buy a MBP in Korea/Hong Kong, I can play the DVDs bought there as many times as I want as the default region code is 3. However, if I want to play the DVDs bought in Japan, I just change the region code to 2. Once I have done it, I can play different DVDs from Japan as many times as I want until I change the region code to, say 1. I can then play different DVDs from the USA as many times as I want until I change the region code again later. I can do this 5 times in total. The last region code I change will be the one the DVD drive can play for the rest of its life. Am I correct?
Click to expand...

via dvd player, yes.
 
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