How to play DVDs from anywhere in the world on your MacBook
This is how I did it and links to the software I used. Special thanks to the guys at RPC1.org for making this possible, especially Ben11 who did all the hard work.
Copy this at your own risk but it worked for me.
1. Go to Apple>About This Mac>More Info>Disk Burning to check what Firmware version youre running. My MacBook is running HBEA so that's THE ONLY ONE I CAN CONFIRM WORKED EVEN ONCE.
2. If you havent been applying the updates, you can go from HEB4 to HEBA using
http://rapidshare.com/files/49498342/SuperDriveFWUpdate.dmg.zip.html
3. Download the software you need. These are the ones Ive found so far:
http://rapidshare.com/files/49183102/UJ-857-HBEA.zip.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/49183983/UJ-857D-KBVB.zip.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/49185713/UJ-857D-KCVB.zip.html
4. Apply the flash AT YOUR OWN RISK. Do not interrupt the installation. Restart the computer.
5. Use DVDInfoX to confirm that youre flash worked. You can find it at
http://rapidshare.com/files/49643080/DVD_Info_X.app.zip
When I did the check, this is what it showed:
DVD Info X v1.0.1, by xvi (xvi@rpc1.org)
WARNING --- DVD Info X will only list DVD drives that have some WRITE
capabilities, like combos, DVD-R, DVD-RW, etc...
DVD-ROM-only drives will NOT be listed.
WARNING --- You also must eject any inserted medium to list the drive.
Vendor: MAT****A
Model: DVD-R UJ-857
Firmware: HBEA
RPC-1 (region free)
6. Set and change the Region using (the Intel updated) Region X 1.1.2 which you can get from
http://rapidshare.com/files/54224585/Region_X_intel_rebuild.zip
7. You can use DVD Player to watch your region free movies and reset the region as need be (using Region X) or use VLC and dont worry about changing the region (as it doesnt set a region).
8. Tested with Lock Stock
.The Complete TV Series (UK Region 2) and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (US Region 1). Both played flawlessly. Burned a DVD using Toast Titanium 8.01 at 5x speed.
Thanks to all that helped make this possible. 20 minutes of downloading, reading and installing and I finally have the computer I had hoped for. Region free is THAT big a deal for me. I put this together for anyone else interested in all the links.
Addendum: I also have Kill the Ripper (came with the link for Region X). I didnt need to use it to make everything work, but you might.
Addendum II (and the edit): I didn't upload any of the files above but I made a zip of all the ones I used which can be downloaded from
http://rapidshare.com/files/56467045/Region_Free.zip.html.