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Thank heavens for Dell

I never thought i would ever say that......

Well it looked like an external drive solution & then I came across a mention that Dell will be using the same drive as the MBP SR - HL-DT-ST GSA-S10N. The MBP firmware is encrypted but it is unlikely that the Dell will be - allowing a 'dump' of the firmware which could be patched by someone. Here's a couple of Dell documents dated 9th August:

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/P161782/en/index.htm
http://support.dell.com/support/sys...aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~cat=7&~subcat=162
 
Has anyone tried using the many available region free software (for Windows) within a Parallels or VMware Fusion Windows session?
 
EDIT: Well, I had to do it... AND IT WORKS! Just read the whole thread and make sure you download the correct patcher and for God's Sake! BE CAREFUL!

Glad it worked out for you! :p I noticed that they are talking about Matshita drives, yet this thread mentioned the same drive (LG?) that I have - the HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N.

My firmware version is AP09. What was your model and version #? Do these region free tools work on this drive as well?
 
Glad it worked out for you! :p I noticed that they are talking about Matshita drives, yet this thread mentioned the same drive (LG?) that I have - the HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N.

My firmware version is AP09. What was your model and version #? Do these region free tools work on this drive as well?

Sorry. The patcher is only for the four MB/MBP Matshita drives whose firmware was updated by Apple recently.
 
... drive (LG?) that I have - the HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N.

That's exactly the one I have as well in my SR MBP, 15'', build week 29. I wonder when they started putting these LG drives in. Oh well, no unlocking for us.
 
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 you’re running. My MacBook is running HBEA so that's THE ONLY ONE I CAN CONFIRM WORKED – EVEN ONCE.

2. If you haven’t 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 I’ve 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 you’re 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 don’t worry about changing the region (as it doesn’t 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 didn’t 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.
 
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