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DVD zones, the never ending problem ...

E

elrafo

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi there,


I am French but live in canada, I have a collection of DVD Zone 2, but also rent a lot of Zone 1...
The thing is, on my MacBook pro, on both OS (I use bootcamp) I can only change my zones 5 times, after, the Zone will be locked ...

is there any tool or DVD player that is more Open to the World !! 😉

thanks!
 
elrafo said:
Hi there,


I am French but live in canada, I have a collection of DVD Zone 2, but also rent a lot of Zone 1...
The thing is, on my MacBook pro, on both OS (I use bootcamp) I can only change my zones 5 times, after, the Zone will be locked ...

is there any tool or DVD player that is more Open to the World !! 😉

thanks!
Click to expand...

Check out this web site first:

http://www.zonefreedvd.com/

Also do a Google search for zone free software. I've come across several free utilities which will set your DVD player's zone count to 0 any time you wish. Those utilities were for Windows. Since you're dual booting you can run one of them when in Windows.
 
elrafo said:
Hi there,


I am French but live in canada, I have a collection of DVD Zone 2, but also rent a lot of Zone 1...
The thing is, on my MacBook pro, on both OS (I use bootcamp) I can only change my zones 5 times, after, the Zone will be locked ...

is there any tool or DVD player that is more Open to the World !! 😉

thanks!
Click to expand...

VLC Media Player, one of the finest media players on any OS, totally ignores region coding allowing you to play whatever you want, whenever you want.

Cheers.
 
Also you could check out VLC an app for playing DVDs - it plays almost anything thrown at it.

Edit: You just beat me to it SaSaSushi 🙂 My interweb is really slow at the minute!
 
riscy said:
Also you could check out VLC an app for playing DVDs - it plays almost anything thrown at it.

Edit: You just beat me to it SaSaSushi 🙂 My interweb is really slow at the minute!
Click to expand...

Hehe, this is rare as I'm usually the one that double posts. 😱

VLC is definitely essential equipment for all Macs.
 
Agreed, I use it for music, videos and all DVDs as well - it is so great, it just needs to deal with flv files better though 🙁
SaSaSushi said:
Hehe, this is rare as I'm usually the one that double posts. 😱

VLC is definitely essential equipment for all Macs.
Click to expand...
 
riscy said:
Agreed, I use it for music, videos and all DVDs as well - it is so great, it just needs to deal with flv files better though 🙁
Click to expand...

For me it's the playback of H.264 HD content (especially 1080p) still being choppy and unwatchable that I'm waiting for them to fix.

I've been using OSXBMC for that in the meantime which handles the HD perfectly and is a decent Front Row alternative.

Not to hijack this thread but just to agree with you that as good as VLC is it isn't 100% perfect.

It does do region-free DVD playback flawlessly though. 🙂
 
Just to agree with all that has been said about VLC so far - ideal for what you want.

Just leave your Apple DVD player set to Region2 and use it to watch those dvd's and then use VLC to play the Region1's. Easy.
 
I'm puzzled, because I thought that there is also a hardware setting in the drive itself that restricts region playing. This setting can only be switched a few times until it permanently locks - unless you hack it with firmware.
 
Fixer said:
I'm puzzled, because I thought that there is also a hardware setting in the drive itself that restricts region playing. This setting can only be switched a few times until it permanently locks - unless you hack it with firmware.
Click to expand...

Yes that is correct if you use Apple's dvd player to watch your dvd's.

VLC simply ignores the region coding and so you can happily watch any region dvd's without using up any of your 5 lives on the region setting. Very handy.
 
logana said:
Yes that is correct if you use Apple's dvd player to watch your dvd's.

VLC simply ignores the region coding and so you can happily watch any region dvd's without using up any of your 5 lives on the region setting. Very handy.
Click to expand...

i'm having issues w/ that..i put in my region 2 dvd and set apple's dvd player not to automatically start when inserting dvd but it didn't work the region setting thing popped up anyway..and i have no clue how to get VLC to start automatically playing dvds when i insert in my macbook...
nevermind i had to remove VLC from my comp...it wouldn't work and kept showing there was an error...strange....so oh well.
 
newbie2008 said:
i'm having issues w/ that..i put in my region 2 dvd and set apple's dvd player not to automatically start when inserting dvd but it didn't work the region setting thing popped up anyway..and i have no clue how to get VLC to start automatically playing dvds when i insert in my macbook...
Click to expand...

System Preferences > CDs & DVDs > Open Other Application

Then point it to VLC. Personally, I don't like my Mac auto playing DVDs but to each their own. 🙂

nevermind i had to remove VLC from my comp...it wouldn't work and kept showing there was an error...strange....so oh well.
Click to expand...

Gee, I couldn't live without VLC and it runs fine here. Can you be more specific with the error it shows you and perhaps someone could help you sort it out?

VLC is an incredible media player.
 
SaSaSushi said:
System Preferences > CDs & DVDs > Open Other Application

Then point it to VLC. Personally, I don't like my Mac auto playing DVDs but to each their own. 🙂



Gee, I couldn't live without VLC and it runs fine here. Can you be more specific with the error it shows you and perhaps someone could help you sort it out?

VLC is an incredible media player.
Click to expand...

okay an error box popped up and had this written in it:
vcd: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
vcd: failed to get the TOC
vcd: no movie tracks found
access_file: file /dev/rdisk2 is empty, aborting
cdda: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
cdda: failed to get the TOC
cdda: no audio tracks found
main: no suitable access module for `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk2'
vcd: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
vcd: failed to get the TOC
vcd: no movie tracks found
access_file: file /dev/rdisk2 is empty, aborting
cdda: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
cdda: failed to get the TOC
cdda: no audio tracks found
main: no suitable access module for `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk2'
Click to expand...

so it doesn't ignore region codes...b/c i put in a region 1 dvd and [had it open w/ VLC] my region setting on my MB is region 2.
so it was aware and couldn't read region 1 disc as my MB has region 2 set at the moment...
 
SaSaSushi said:
I'm not sure exactly what is going on with your drive but you may find some useful information in this thread at the VLC forums discussing the same error.
Click to expand...

yea i read the replies on that forum. so getting VLC is pretty much pointless. it seems w/ the new macs it's impossible to have region codes overlooked...oh well.
 
If you're mainly watching DVDs at home then an external drive may be the easiest solution. I have my internal drive set to region 4 and my USB drive set to 1 and it works perfectly.
 
hey there,

each time I try to play a Zone 2 DVD with VLC player, I have this error message:

vcd: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
vcd: failed to get the TOC
vcd: no movie tracks found
access_file: file /dev/rdisk3 is empty, aborting
cdda: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
cdda: failed to get the TOC
cdda: no audio tracks found
main: no suitable access module for `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk3'

seems like VLC is not zone free!
 
Something I have done before is open the DVD in Finder so that I see the Audio and Video folders, then open the Video folder and drag the vob files directly into VLC, they then play fine for me.

It just means no pretty menu screen etc, but I get to watch the DVD 🙂
 
elrafo said:
hey there,

each time I try to play a Zone 2 DVD with VLC player, I have this error message:

vcd: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
vcd: failed to get the TOC
vcd: no movie tracks found
access_file: file /dev/rdisk3 is empty, aborting
cdda: search for kIOCDMediaClass came up empty
cdda: failed to get the TOC
cdda: no audio tracks found
main: no suitable access module for `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk3'

seems like VLC is not zone free!
Click to expand...

Yes, as was established above it appears Apple has "fixed" the region-free VLCability in their newer Superdrives.

I ended up flashing my external Firewire DVD-RW with an RPC1 firmware. That worked. Depending on which Superdrive model your Mac has you may be able to find an RPC1 firmware to burn it if you want to risk it.
 
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