My new MBP's supderdrive was already set to region 6

[PDE]

To my surprise, when I put in a DVD in my brand new MBP, it told me that the drive is set for region 6 and that I only have 4 more changes to make. After switching to region 1, I now have 3 more changes. I hate this dvd region thing and having one less switch makes me mad out of principle. It's never been a problem, but who knows what hte future holds as I do travel quite a bit.

Anybody else experience this? Can the new superdrives be unlocked/hacked?

 

[EricNau]

Where did you purchase the MBP?

 

[PDE]

Where did you purchase the MBP?

It was brand new from amazon. On the box I even have the original tracking number from China to amazon.com - signed for on July 18. I ordered it on the evening of the 18 and received it on the 20, yesterday. So it is brand new and nobody has touched it except the factory workers in region 6 = China. Maybe one of them decided to watch a DVD after they finished building it?

It's not really an issue now, but it would be nice to know that I have the switches I'm entitled to in case I need them in the future. I travel between the U.S., Taiwan/China/HK and Europe but usually don't rent/buy locally. This whole DVD thing is infuriating regardless of how many switches one gets.

 

[cluthz]

What's really up with this regional locks on MBPs?
Atleast here (in Norway) you get all DVD-players multi regional,
so why shouldn't a $2000 laptop be able to play more than one region?

 

[PDE]

What's really up with this regional locks on MBPs?
Atleast here (in Norway) you get all DVD-players multi regional,
so why shouldn't a $2000 laptop be able to play more than one region?

You can play more than one region, but you're only allowed 5 switches before it locks into one region. Yeah, it's total BS and incredibly anti-consumer given that we paid so much for the laptop and can't used legitimate and legal DVDs from other regions once we've exceeded that limit. Not to mention the ever-interconnected world and a fluidity of international travel and work.

 

[bartelby]

and can't used legitimate and legal DVDs from other regions once we've exceeded that limit. Not to mention the ever-interconnected world and a fluidity of international travel and work.

Erm, technically using DVDs from different regions from where you are based is against copyright laws. So they cannot be legitimate and legal.

It is the movie studios who want these kinds of limits enforced, not Apple.

 

[PDE]

Erm, technically using DVDs from different regions from where you are based is against copyright laws. So they cannot be legitimate and legal.

It is the movie studios who want these kinds of limits enforced, not Apple.

Like millions of people, I'm based all over the place and move quite frequently. Is it against copyright laws to use a legitimately USA-purchased DVD in England? I cannot believe that, but maybe that's what the world has come to....copyright laws are not made by movie studios, but who knows how they pushed this through as it has nothing to do with protection of the copyright owner's material.

 

[polishmacuser]

man the whole world is crazy if its not the music company then its the movie studio. The question why in the world cant we watch movies from different countries wtf or at least five times wtf!!! Well the good thing at least its not just us mac users hahaha

 

[cluthz]

Erm, technically using DVDs from different regions from where you are based is against copyright laws. So they cannot be legitimate and legal.

It is the movie studios who want these kinds of limits enforced, not Apple.

How come if i go to my nearby electronic store and buy a DVD player it is multi regional? It's ages since i saw a region locked DVD.

 

[killerrobot]

When I got my MBP, it was also at region 6 and I had to change it. All I could figure was they tested it out in China first before shipping.

This whole thing used to piss me off a lot more, but I just realized that I'm never going to use up all the changes no matter how hard I try. I've switched it from 6 to 1, 1 to 2, and I'll switch it back to 1 sometime in the future.

If I really need to watch DVD from other regions, I'll buy a real DVD player. But yeah, it is stupid that a $50 DVD player can, but a 3k computer can't.

 

[FuzzMunky]

Im not sure about this on a mac, but on a PC its very easy to get a frimware upgrade for most if not all DVD-drives that will unlock its region specificity. Perhaps Microsoft should start making some I'm a PC and I'm a Mac adverts too?

PC: "Why are you speaking Spanish?"
Mac: "Mi región de DVD se ha trabado a España!"

Or

PC: "Mac, why are you so yellow? Do you have jaundice?"
Mac: "No, this is normal. I am the most expensive high production laptop and with that we get new yellow faces."

Could go on and on...

 

[RichL]

Anyone ever heard of this?
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Region-X-Download-4308.html
Supposedly you can set the number of times allowed so reset so that = infinite resets.

Also, I was hearing something about turning off your iDVD or whatever macs use for playing DVDs and letting the disc mount as a data file and opening it with VLC player. I'll have to try those when my new MBP comes in a couple days. Let me know if they work.

Edit: Rofl @ FuzzMunky

 

[chabig]

I was surprised the discover that my brand new MacBook shipped with the drive set to region 6.

 

[Stella]

RegionX. I used to use it when I made my iBook DVD player region 0.

Unfortunately your DVD drive needs to be region free for it to work and reset the change count....

DVD regioning is pretty ineffective these days because most DVD players can easily be changed to region 0, ( aka region free 0 ) if they aren't already.

Anyone ever heard of this?
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Region-X-Download-4308.html
Supposedly you can set the number of times allowed so reset so that = infinite resets.

Also, I was hearing something about turning off your iDVD or whatever macs use for playing DVDs and letting the disc mount as a data file and opening it with VLC player. I'll have to try those when my new MBP comes in a couple days. Let me know if they work.

Edit: Rofl @ FuzzMunky

 

[GoxKok]

...or you could just use VLC to play your movies,

its good to have anyways.

 

[WildPalms]

Anyone ever heard of this?
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Region-X-Download-4308.html
Supposedly you can set the number of times allowed so reset so that = infinite resets.

Also, I was hearing something about turning off your iDVD or whatever macs use for playing DVDs and letting the disc mount as a data file and opening it with VLC player. I'll have to try those when my new MBP comes in a couple days. Let me know if they work.

Edit: Rofl @ FuzzMunky

Excellent tip! The region changes are occuring in software not hardware until the final choice - dependant upon the hardware. Some DVD drives are region free, like the Pioneer range and a few (not many these days) are region locked.

 

[localoptimum]

handbrake

On mine, it was the same nonsense.

However, I did what any sensible person would do with "their" possessions, and fired up handbrake and ripped it. Handbrake sees the disk just fine, even though the disk region has been set by china. And to be honest, if I was an abused peasant who worked 19 hour days for a salary in rice and my co-workers were committing suicide, I'd set the region to "china" as well. The enemy here are the people who dreamed up DRM and regions in the first place.

 

[Macsavvytech]

On mine, it was the same nonsense.

However, I did what any sensible person would do with "their" possessions, and fired up handbrake and ripped it. Handbrake sees the disk just fine, even though the disk region has been set by china. And to be honest, if I was an abused peasant who worked 19 hour days for a salary in rice and my co-workers were committing suicide, I'd set the region to "china" as well. The enemy here are the people who dreamed up DRM and regions in the first place.

You realise this thread is over 3 years old?