Comments for My Journey to Macintosh

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Pierre

Pierre — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:51:39 +0000

I have not set the DVD region for my Macbook Pro bought in 2009. However it assumed a region 2 setting for itself when I inserted a region 2 dvd. it now is locked in region 2 a refused to play anything else. So do not bank on being able to play multiple region DVDs by not setting the region in firmware.

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Steve M

Steve M — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:30:15 +0000

Can someone advise how to “not set the dvd region”?

I was under the impression that the first time you played a DVD, it set the region to the one of that disc.

Maybe I should make the first disk I play a region free one?

Or just never use the Mac DVD player – always use VLC?

I’m about to take delivery of a new Mac Mini and would really like to leave it region free if possible….thanks.

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:02:07 +0000

If you wan to directly play your dvd movies from dvd disc, first you need to copy the dvd to dvd player media, which can be playable on Apple DVD Player.
Resource: http://www.mac-dvd-software.com/tutorial/dvd-to-playermedia-mac.html#131

Comment on Flickr Interestingness Widget by Chris

Chris — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:37:40 +0000

this is really cool, i’m going to check it out. thanks!

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by NewMBPowner

NewMBPowner — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:34:24 +0000

I have a new Macbook Pro. As one of the previous commenters recommended, I hadn’t set the dvd region and so have been able to play multi-region dvds via VLC.

Not sure what others who have nominated a region already can do.

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Aho

Aho — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:42:38 +0000

I have a Mac. I love my Mac. It, and by extension I, are better than PC users. Unfortunately, I have to keep going back to my PC whenever I wanna do something other than karaoke on my beloved Mac.

Comment on Beta Testers Needed! by Leonardo Ruiz

Leonardo Ruiz — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:02:50 +0000

Great!!!, Interesting !!!… let me be part of your testing …
I have Mac’s from:
Macintosh Classic, passing PowerBook, Power Mac G5, iMac core 2 duo, mac mini, iPhone, iPod, and my latest acquisition

8 Core Mac Pro …

I love Apple …
Think different…

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Herchu

Herchu — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:35:50 +0000

Here’s my notebook:

MacBook 13.3 OSX 10.5.6 2.4GHz Intel Core Duo

Vendor: OPTIARC
Model: DVD RW AD-5960S
Firmware: 1APF
RPC-2 (region locked)
State is NOT SET
4 vendor resets left
5 region changes left
No region set

I would like to be able to view region 1 and Latinamerica’s DVD. In summary, what option do I have (with or without losing warranty?

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:15:47 +0000

Not foolproof but for those wary of flashing firmware. Allows you to watch and record simultaneously.

This worked on my intel iMac.
Use a virtual machine… I use Fusion…
Install Linux of choice as a virtual machine
Use mencoder (part of mplayer) to rip the DVD to a shared folder…

Back on the Mac use mplayer to open the file.
(Its not finished, but the linux VM will keep writing sequentially and the Mac will keep reading the file as its written)
On a decent machine its written faster than you watch it but you might want to wait 15 mins or so …

The irony… I only wanted to watch the freakin DVD not copy it but hey.. once I copy it I might as well keep a copy!

The Whole DVD encryption and region codes just gets me making ‘illegal’ copies… instead of just watching as I’d like!

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Bison

Bison — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:21:23 +0000

Hi folks,

I’m new to this apparently old problem, and find this thread incredibly interesting. I’m running a MacBook Pro 3.1 (summer 2007) and am too newbie to even know what my internal DVD hardward actually is…
I don’t mind the idea of an external drive for the express purpose of establishing a run-around and was thinking of doing this.

I’ve heard a couple of suggestions about getting cheap external DVD drives — is it literally the case that anything will work? Or have you had better luck with anything specific? I’m sure Apple has some tricks up their sleeve for foiling my effforts…

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Michael

Michael — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:52:18 +0000

Just joined the club. Damn you, so-called-alternative-to-Big-Evil-Microsoft.

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by David Greer

David Greer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:25:01 +0000

Im working along admin@nelsoncommunitylaw.org.nz
please wright to them and ask for free halp on The DVD ZONE and the prolbems on how you have been riped off just say you brought it form the where house And that will make a big diffrance for me taking thess barstards to cort or medation it dose not mater what county your from thats why we have the inter net!

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Luna

Luna — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:15:21 +0000

I don’t understand your guys problem

insert your DVD
- leave the bugging region change window open als it appears (favorite region already once set)
or
- disable auto start for DVD

open your movie with your favorite application/player:
Mactheripper, VLC, Xineplayer…

only everything shipped with your OS won’t work for the original discs, but for any ripped to your harddrive ;-)

Comment on Beta Testers Needed! by Patrick Braga

Patrick Braga — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:21:17 +0000

This seems interesting. I would like to help with testing.

MacBook (Late 2006 model): 2GHz Intel C2D with OS X 10.5.5

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Al

Al — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:28:29 +0000

You don’t even need a Windows machine. I use VLC on Linux. Both Linux and VLC are free!

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by AceLondon

AceLondon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:14:59 +0000

if any are interested in possible fixes to this problem see the following link:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=347949

I have not yet tried this, but looks promising.

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Also Annoyed

Also Annoyed — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:54:14 +0000

I agree with many about the piracy of movies. Until I actually get what I pay for and can play a movie in any drive and any region I will not ever purchase another movie. If I am going to throw down 20+ bones on a movie, it better damn well have no advertisements, trailers or any other bullshit besides the movie itself, allow me to make backup copies and use it anywhere I want.

If Hollywood is going to complain about losing money, then maybe they should reconsider the ridiculous wage that the actors/actresses are getting paid. I’m sorry, but most people work harder than anyone in the movie industry making over 6 or 7 digits.

I do support companies like Netflix and Quickflix for rentals, but until the aforementioned is cleared up, I vote for movie piracy and the hacking necessary to make things work like they should.

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by julles

julles — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:58:31 +0000

My gear:
Macbook 2.1 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
OS X 10.5.2
Matshita CW2881

European expat in HK here…so I spent last 3hrs researching the issue, looks like no hope for me.

And you know what? Personally I don’t give a shit!!! Why should I? Instead, I downloaded a torrent client…

f**k the league of morons!

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by Wot's, uh..the deal?

Wot's, uh..the deal? — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:32:00 +0000

Mac OS X
Version 10.5.4
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo

Model: MatshitaDVD-R UJ-875
Revision: D809

I’ve looked thu many pages trying to find out if it’s possible to ditch the region settings, or use another program (like VLC). Most posts deal with 857 versions of the Matshita DVD player.

Is there a suitable replacement for MY Matshita that I can buy and install? Or would using a program like VLC be the best way? I’ve had my iMac for about 2 months and this is the first time I’ve tried to play a DVD that is not Region 1. My old Dell laptop played them with no problem, if I am unable to find a solution, I will be forced to sell my Mac are revert to a Windows based machine.

Oh yeah, I’ve tried using Handbrake to copy the DVD with no success.

Any insight, or info is appreciated, and BTW great site.

Comment on Beta Testers Needed! by Kent

Kent — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:04:55 +0000

For the beta I could test on a:

24″ iMac 2.1Ghz Intel
Titanium Powerbook G4-400 PPC
e-Mac 1Gz PPC

Comment on Beta Testers Needed! by Arcterex

Arcterex — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:33:43 +0000

Sure, I’ll jump in too. Fully updated mbp 2.2/2g.

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by luxurycat

luxurycat — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:23:11 +0000

cos – a clear case of Apple/McShita over-enchantment with your 857E…requires some serious voodoo science. thing is, some RPC2 drives don’t allow raw access to the drive until the drive firmware has done a regioncheck and some do! from what i read elsewhere, try uninstalling VLC and reinstall again with a latest nightly: (http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/macosx-intel/?C=M;O=D). make sure Home/Library/Preferences/VLC folder is gone before reinstalling since your old VLC files may be the reason for not opening. failing that seemingly means your drive is fubared and doesn’t allow raw access.
forgot to mention, on mine i still haven’t set a region at all when prompted to do so, may have something to do with this if yours has been locked after 5 changes. strangely, on similar machines people get different results sometimes.
if you’ve played with many apps looking for an answer and still can’t break this spell, maybe it’s time to install a new drive like Pioneer DVR-K09 and flash it(or again try FairMount etc) if you want to keep your UJ–857E RPC2 for some reason(you can always put it back), though trawling through RPC1 forums, i’ve seen that your drive been successfully flashed by others. you don’t have much to lose really, apart from a dodgy cheap drive should it all go wrong and a lot more to gain so maybe start looking in that direction. good luck

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by cos

cos — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:52:58 +0000

Luxurycat, I tried out your suggestion but once I drop the video_ts folder into VLC and hit play, nothing happens. I’ve tried a couple of dvd’s and none work. Any suggestions?

I’m using a macbook, osx 10.5.4, Intel core 2, and have the matshita UJ 857E drive (flashing not an option.)

Thanks,
Cos

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by luxurycat

luxurycat — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:48:11 +0000

hi all, it’s been mentioned few times elsewhere and it worked for my MBP, Leopard, McShita UJ-867(HA13). if you don’t fancy flashing the drive, download FairMount (http://www.metakine.com/products/fairmount), in CD/DVDs preferences choose FairMount ‘When you insert a video DVD’. after inserting a DVD wait until it mounts, then right click on a movie icon, click Open, then drag Video_TS folder into VLC cone. voila!
if it works for you, rejoice and donate to an animal charity!
p.s. why is it most, if not all, porn is region free?!…hmm…some food for a deep deep thought here, it seems :D x

Comment on Region Free DVD on Mac’s by linda

linda — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:30:03 +0000

can anyone help. i am in south america, zone 4. my mac computer is from the states zone 4.
if i change the zone and use it only for zone 4 10 times does it count as changing as i am only using it for zone 4. i’m so confused, don;t want to screw up my drive downhere