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DVD Region

R

RobHague

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 8, 2005
397
0
So unfortunatley when i played a DVD for the first time i got asked what Region i wanted, and told that i could only change it 5 times max.

I really want some Region 1 DVD's but obviously its set to Region 2. So is there anything out there to let me bi-pass the region protection on the drive? I'm sorry i dont see using DVD's ive bought from other contries as a 'crime' that should be stoped. Half of the stuff wont even make it to the UK anyhow, and such an expensive system like a PowerMac, i kinda hoped it to have a Region 0 drive but then thats what hope got me. ;)
 
only way I know is you can rip the dvd with something like mac the ripper...it ignores the region codes I believe.
 
Vlc

Using VLC doesn't work for me, neither on my powerbook nor my iMac. The dvd just doesn't play. Cool if it works for others, but I'm not sure that you can count on it. It's my understanding that the region coding is in the firmware of the drive, so no software can bypass it.

I also can't rip DVDs if they're not region 1. The best solution is a region-free DVD player, which you can pick up pretty cheap, around $40 here in the US.
 
huck500 said:
Using VLC doesn't work for me, neither on my powerbook nor my iMac. The dvd just doesn't play. Cool if it works for others, but I'm not sure that you can count on it. It's my understanding that the region coding is in the firmware of the drive, so no software can bypass it.

I also can't rip DVDs if they're not region 1. The best solution is a region-free DVD player, which you can pick up pretty cheap, around $40 here in the US.
Click to expand...
You'll have to set the DVD player to whatever region initially, no matter what. If you're going to put a different region disc in, make sure you have set under System Preferences to ignore DVD (under the CDs & DVDs menu). Then open VLC and go to open file and open up the appropriate files. Otherwise, if you can't get VLC to work do the same as above but then rip it with MTR and set the Region coding as indicated in the MTR info manual.
 
neocell said:
You'll have to set the DVD player to whatever region initially, no matter what. If you're going to put a different region disc in, make sure you have set under System Preferences to ignore DVD (under the CDs & DVDs menu). Then open VLC and go to open file and open up the appropriate files. Otherwise, if you can't get VLC to work do the same as above but then rip it with MTR and set the Region coding as indicated in the MTR info manual.
Click to expand...

My powerbook is set to region 1, and I absolutely can't use VLC to play a region 3 disc. I have the system set to ignore the DVD, I use VLC to open a VOB file, and it reports a read/write error. On my desktop, which is set to region 3, I can play the disc and the files with no problems.

Also, if I try to rip the disc using a ripping program, it just doesn't work. If I do it on my desktop, it's fine.

Are you saying you can bypass the set region code with VLC or Mac the Ripper on your computer? None of my (4) Macs can do it.
 
huck500 said:
My powerbook is set to region 1, and I absolutely can't use VLC to play a region 3 disc. I have the system set to ignore the DVD, I use VLC to open a VOB file, and it reports a read/write error. On my desktop, which is set to region 3, I can play the disc and the files with no problems.

Also, if I try to rip the disc using a ripping program, it just doesn't work. If I do it on my desktop, it's fine.

Are you saying you can bypass the set region code with VLC or Mac the Ripper on your computer? None of my (4) Macs can do it.
Click to expand...

On most of the new Macs, pretty much anything released in 2005, the loophole that allowed you to use VLC to play other region DVD's without changing the region of the DVD player has been closed. This means you cannot rip other region DVD's with MactheRipper also.
 
huck500 said:
My powerbook is set to region 1, and I absolutely can't use VLC to play a region 3 disc. I have the system set to ignore the DVD, I use VLC to open a VOB file, and it reports a read/write error. On my desktop, which is set to region 3, I can play the disc and the files with no problems.

Also, if I try to rip the disc using a ripping program, it just doesn't work. If I do it on my desktop, it's fine.

Are you saying you can bypass the set region code with VLC or Mac the Ripper on your computer? None of my (4) Macs can do it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this works no problem on mine, see sig. I'm sure it says on the MTR site that it doesn't need to scan the disc to get the macro and CSS codes so you don't need to have the appropriate region setting for the disc. I think you just need to disable the pre-scan in the file size calculation in the preferences. Since it works on my systems no matter, I can't check this hypothesis, maybe Mac killed this option as well.
 
well

well well u know i flashed my imac g4 drive and no prblems i think u can reflash to apple original firmware aswell and i can play any region dvd's as long as i use dvd region x to reset counter to correct region and 4 fine so

although the drive spins constant when playing a music cd the apple firmware does not do this but a very small price to pay for region free capabilities !!!!

what version is ur drive there may be firmware flashes available but this is at your own risk !!!!

vlc works on some dvds but not others i.e the burbs region 1 works, bad boys region 3 does not work !!!

any answers to that !!
 
Gokhan said:
well well u know i flashed my imac g4 drive and no prblems i think u can reflash to apple original firmware aswell and i can play any region dvd's as long as i use dvd region x to reset counter to correct region and 4 fine so

although the drive spins constant when playing a music cd the apple firmware does not do this but a very small price to pay for region free capabilities !!!!

what version is ur drive there may be firmware flashes available but this is at your own risk !!!!

vlc works on some dvds but not others i.e the burbs region 1 works, bad boys region 3 does not work !!!

any answers to that !!
Click to expand...
Don't want to steal the thread, but how did you flash your drive? I've been looking for a means to do my G4 iMac without success
thread
 
swiftaw said:
On most of the new Macs, pretty much anything released in 2005, the loophole that allowed you to use VLC to play other region DVD's without changing the region of the DVD player has been closed. This means you cannot rip other region DVD's with MactheRipper also.
Click to expand...

I thought this was only applicable to MATSHITA UJ-825 and later drives. Not all Macs have those models. If you have more info than this I am interested to learn.
 
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