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WHY can you only reset the rigional code 5 times?
- Thread starter angro86
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CoMpX – I think I'm right in saying that angro86 is referring to Apple's DVD drives, which can only switch regions five times before they become locked. Basically, it allows the film studios to control their releases (including things like content, date of release and price) on a region-by-region basis. Otherwise, there would be no way to stop people buying DVDs abroad, either to save money or to get their hands on a title that hasn't been released in their home country.
Soo... shouldn't there be a (likely illegal) software workaround?
Gosh, I hope the motion picture industry doesn't become as greedy as the RIAA.
Gosh, I hope the motion picture industry doesn't become as greedy as the RIAA.
Kingsly said:
haha too late they already have.
I personally think the funniest they do is those anti-piracy notices at the beginning of movies...in theaters and official DVD releases.
Like "Ok, let make some anti-piracy ads, then we'll show them to people who have already given us money to see the movie! it's genius!"
There are firmware workarounds for most drives so that you don't have to be stuck with VLC. Manufacturers aren't allowed to support flashed drives because of their license agreements, so you are on your own if you decide to flash.Kingsly said:
For the most part, they are the same companies.
Its insane what greed will do to people. As if they are not already making multi digit profit on movies and records. 
(P.S. I am able to live in my house and eat good food and have a Mac because of the RIAA, and they still make me mad)
(P.S. I am able to live in my house and eat good food and have a Mac because of the RIAA, and they still make me mad)
dornoforpyros said:
Which is particularly funny - as anyone ripping the DVD or filming in a theatre (it happens!) will likely strip the warning off later. The only people likely to see those warnings are saps like me who go out and buy the DVD and have to wait twiddling my thumbs for the movie to start because the Menu button won't work.
eva01 said:
BUT, as I unhappily discovered, if you're dumb enough to use up your 5 times (like I was), VLC will only play discs in the region to which you are locked.
Bummer.
And as of today, there's no firmware flash for my optical drive.
what's REALLY funny is when people release them on the internet with the anti-piracy warnings LEFT INwhooleytoo said:
howesey said:
This is not entirely true. It depends on the generation of firmware in the DVD drive. The earlier generation allowed direct hardware reads of the disc to bypass the region check. The newer generation disabled this. See the details at VLC's website:
http://www.videolan.org/doc/faq/en/index.html#id278373
I'm not sure which Mac drives use RPC1 and which use RPC2.... I'm pretty sure this works on my iBook G4 Rev. A. I haven't tried anything like this on my iMac G5 Rev. B....
I know that MacTheRipper also used to be able to defeat region encoding. But it seems that it also doesn't work on RPC2 drives that prevent direct reads before region checking.
VLC seems to work fine on all combo drives, and early superdrives. Newer superdrives can cause headaches though...
I can't get VLC to work on my intel mac at all yet...
I can't get VLC to work on my intel mac at all yet...
This is true. I recently had to change the region on my PB super to UK because inspite of having VLC, the drive was still locking up wouldnt play UK DVDs. I upgraded my VLC and as soon as that didnt work, I just went ahead and changed the region on the damn thing. Couldnt be bothered to spend any more time searching for a workaround.howesey said:
You should be able to get an Apple store to reset it. As far as I recall, you are allowed five hardware resets, but from this website, Apple are more restrictive than they have to be.annk said:BUT, as I unhappily discovered, if you're dumb enough to use up your 5 times (like I was), VLC will only play discs in the region to which you are locked.
Bummer.
But you could try it and see what the Apple store says.
Edit: actually I just reread that article (initially I was going on memory), and there's a hardware restriction built in that prevents it being reset, so the Apple store couldn't change it even if they wanted to. Sorry.
devilot said:
I'm pretty sure that's how it works, that's my experience anyway.
Can't believe I was so stupid - I was happily using VLC to watch absolutely everything, then I carelessly used DVD player one too many times, and the damage was done...sigh...
*goes off sadly to look at her no-longer-playable DVDs*
I have a pal who locked his (on the PC side) because a mutual friend who made his own DVD menus managed to burn them all as Region 1 when, of course, the UK is region 2.
It really is a stupid rule to apply to computers these days when the majority of stand-alone DVD players are multi-region or can be 'hacked' with a remote control press. And it's easier to buy a pirate movie on a local region disc in your own country than order an overseas one
It really is a stupid rule to apply to computers these days when the majority of stand-alone DVD players are multi-region or can be 'hacked' with a remote control press. And it's easier to buy a pirate movie on a local region disc in your own country than order an overseas one
Yep, this is really something to consider if you need multiple regions. You can pick an off-the-shelf DVD drive based on what has region-free firmware available and is easy to flash on a Mac (Pioneer drives, for example, tend to work out well). Best, there is no worry about voiding the computer's warranty.Kimi said:*Pats external DVD drive*
Use a program called AnyDvd by Slysoft, it'll take the region code out of the dvd and let you play it back (without ripping it to your hard drive)
oh right, i thought there was an open source mac version out there though. Maybe it was just a rumor
(I dual boot and i only run AnyDvd and some other programs on windows)
(I dual boot and i only run AnyDvd and some other programs on windows)