playing dvds from different regions on osx?

MichaelHo · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:37

I have a macbook and would like to play DVD's from different regions, atm the region is set to 2 and I only have 4 more changes left, is there a way to have unlimited changes??

Thanks.

z0mbi3 · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:39

Probably a firmware flash you can do.

I can't say for sure but you should definitley give VLC a look as a player, might circumvent the region crap.

MichaelHo · 12 Oct 2006 at 19:34

I have been researching this and apparently with notebooks i.e. macbook/pro, you cannot flash the firmware. What someone recommended macbook/pro users to do was to either as you said use VLC or play the dvd via windows (bootcamp etc.).
Ive tried using VLC but it doesnt play :S

Moredhel · 14 Oct 2006 at 21:37

Careful, the limit is firmware locked, not software, even if you use windows to change it the limit of changes on the drive will go down.

There are sites that offer firmware flashers for OSX. I've done it succesfully with my 17" G4 powerbook, however apparently the new macbooks are impossible.

What you may be able to do is buy a drive that can be flashed and swap them over. I'm not sure where you'd buy a replacement drive from though.

MichaelHo · 14 Oct 2006 at 22:53

replacing a drive abit too much hassle for me, i always thought the region lock was software locked

mortals · 14 Oct 2006 at 22:57

I use VLC, seems to be region free for playing DVDs on OSX :confused:

Altho it maybe the drive I guess

I remember I had to edit the firmware for my first DVD-ROM drive so it was region free

Big-Mac-Please · 15 Oct 2006 at 00:03

VLC will play any region DVD as it ignores this. It should work fine it does for me

z0mbi3 · 15 Oct 2006 at 11:21

Big-Mac-Please said:
VLC will play any region DVD as it ignores this. It should work fine it does for me

With that in mind perhaps the OP is using it incorrectly.

BeatMaster · 15 Oct 2006 at 11:37

VLC might be region but if you have to change the drive to different regions then you'll only have 5 attempts at changing it. So technically that's not going to work too long

If you have a another machine set that to Region x and the other to Region x and just rip the movie using whichever one is appropriate

Hope that helps,

BeatMaster

Una · 15 Oct 2006 at 11:55

Try find a firmware flash for the drive, there is usualy one out there. What drive they got in?

Edit: Gah seems there is none for the new macbook one.

Hodders · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:20

This is one of the most frustrating things....

Several years ago I was travelling to the US for a few days at a time. A work colleague in the US signed up to video rental store so that I could watch films on my laptop in the evenings in my hotel.

V.quickly I realised that this was rapidly hosing my DVD drive in terms of the number of region changes.

So in summary, I wanted to watch legitamate DVDs and couldn't. The only solution would have been illegal.

The movie industry really are their own worst enemy....

MichaelHo · 18 Oct 2006 at 16:26

I have changed to dvd/cd settings to just mount the dvd when i insert a dvd movie so that it does not load dvd player. i then open vlc and try to open the dvd, it tried to open it but fails to.

Has anyone got vlc to play different region dvds on a macbook?

z0mbi3 · 18 Oct 2006 at 18:42

MichaelHo said:
I have changed to dvd/cd settings to just mount the dvd when i insert a dvd movie so that it does not load dvd player. i then open vlc and try to open the dvd, it tried to open it but fails to.

Has anyone got vlc to play different region dvds on a macbook?

Apparently not.