So by far the most popular post on this blog over the last 2 years was my post on region free DVD on my MacBook Pro. In total it has been viewed 109,000 times and has 182 comments which is impressive considering that the blog as a whole has only had 314,000 hits!
What is ridiculous about the situation is that we are in the same position today as we were two years ago so I thought I would post a summary on where things are right now from the comments on that post and my experiences with my Mac’s.
MacBook Pro (Manufactured Feb 2006)
This is my original machine that the post was made about and so naturally it has the same old problems as before and nothing really works for off-region discs. The region is set to R2 and that is all it will play, R1 discs will not play in DVD player or VLC and Handbrake can not rip them.
Mac Mini (Manufactured Jan 2008)
This is pretty much a brand new machine and it has exactly the same problem as the MacBook Pro from 2 years ago. I set the firmware region to R2 when I bought it and that is all it will deal with. No exceptions.
Aluminium iMac (Manufactured Mid 2007)
This is where the story gets a little more positive! I have the firmware region set to R2 and so obviously it plays R2 discs through DVD player without any issues. R1 discs fail in DVD player but play just fine in VLC. I am also able to rip any region of DVD using the latest handbrake. I am going to put this down to the iMac using an “OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A” drive over the “MATSHITACD-RW CW-8124” in the Mac Mini and MacBook Pro.
There is talk in the comments of the previous post of a solution to this being to never set the region code of the drive, apparently this allows VLC to play off-region discs. Unfortunately as all of my drives have a region set in firmware I am unable to test this. However it is unclear from the comments if this actually applies to the Mac Mini and MacBook machines as the only confirmation of it working comes from an iMac which as we can see from my tests above is not plagued by these problems due to the Optiarc drive.
If anyone can confirm that this method works on the Matshita drives in the MacBook or Mac Mini, please let us know in the comments.
My Journey to Macintosh 
Thank you for both postings. I commented on the previous one to explain why all the work-arounds that people proposed would not work for the Matshita drives in the MacBook Pro. Since then I am glad to say that a solution has been found by a certain ben11 who managed to crack the encryption. I have successfully followed his procedure for a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857D Revision: KCVB. I have tested it out and it seems to work fine. I am still a little nervous about whether FrontRow and the Apple DVD Player are still going to cause problems as they apparently ignore the fact that the drive is now region-free and will insist that you can still only change it five times. I understand that you can deal with this via an appropriate build of Region X (http://xvi.rpc1.org/) which allows you to reset that number after you change region (as long a your drive is region-free). Please note: you follow these approaches at your own risk , and you will probably be voiding your warranty for the DVD drive.
This page is fairly comprehensive and appears to be updated fairly regularly: http://www.powerbook-fr.com/dossiers/dvd_region_free_en_article30.html
More information: Search on http://forum.rpc1.org (appears to be down at present).
PS Can I suggest that you also add a correction to your original posting at the top (rather than just in a comment at the end), because it still appears quite high up in searches and not all users may think to read to the end. Perhaps just add a link to this revised posting at the top.
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Thanks for the feedback Andrew, I have posted back to the new post from the original post.
Just bought a macbook pro and am still in shock at the region code nonsense. Thanks for your blog – will keep reading before I’m forced to try the firmware alteration!
The idea – voiced by various posters in the original page – that Apple is a helpless victim of the brutal DVD drive manufacturers is nonsense.
Apple must be the biggest customer for its component manufacturers. It’s the one that calls the tune. This is Apple’s decision.
I’ll probably just buy a region-free external DVD drive that can play DVDs from different regions, but I resent Apple for making me have to do so and clutter my desk with more machinery.
I also have a macbook pro purchased in 2006 and today have uploaded vlc foolishly thinking this was the solution to all my region specific woes. Have not had to worry about this until now due to the fact that all DVD’s I’ve had are region 2 is as my drive setting. What an utterly ridiculous situation that apple are happily perpetuating. Looks like I’m also going to have to get that external drive in order to play other region DVD’s. Come on apple I thought that you if any company would rise above such pathetic machinations that cause your loyal users so much pure headache.
Come on Apple sort it out, I never believed that you would cause your loyal users so much pure headache as that which I discovered today when trying to play a different region DVD on my Macbook Pro. What a joke.
i just spent about an hour and a half reading all of these posts from 2006 up till now. why in the hell is there no sure fire way of making these stupid matshita drives multi regional. bastards at mac are making a fortune, how much could they possibly loose from having multi region dvd players in the god damn computers….wankers
Hey, came her looking for a solution for a friend of mine.
I can confirm that I never set the region code on my PowerBook’s Matshita CW-8123, and am indeed able to play all region codes with VLC.
Good for you Jules. Sadly however many of us remain bogged down in the fixed region quagmire, ie macbook pro users.
Apple, are you just going to remain motionless on the sidelines and watch your former friends slowly sinking into this slough of despond?
I have now been using my flashed Matshita DVD drive in my MBP for a while, and I find I can change region with RegionX and then play any region DVD that I want to using either FrontRow or the player (see my comment at top for more details). If I use VLC, then I don’t have to bother with “officially” changing region using RegionX.
I agree with a previous comment that Apple knew what they were doing when they chose to use Matshita drives. Shame on you Apple! All my DVDs were bought legally when I lived at different times in Europe, the US and Asia, and I don’t see why my computer should be crippled in this way.
Anyway, at least there is now a solution for many Matshita drives. I am puzzled why comments above this appear to have missed my previous comment, but perhaps they have drives that are not covered by this fix.
Being not such a computer buff, I had hoped to avoid the work-around methods I found described around the Internet by “simply” buying an external DVD player. When the first one didn’t work and I was instructed to get a LaCie I then realised that my LaCie was a similarly handicapped piece of equipment as my Mac…
Can ANYONE help me make the LaCie region-free?????
I don’t understand why everyone is having so many problems with this. (of course I’ve only used region 1 and 2 discs, so I don’t know what would happen with media with other encodings).
When using VLC on the new (I have a late 2007 MacBook Pro, and an upgraded PowerBook G4 Ti) MacBook Pro I have not encountered any problems with region restricted playback.
Additionally, because I purchased a €69 Lite-On external DVD recorder, I have found that there seem to be no problems with any programme (read as: VLC, or FrontRow (apple dvd player)) playing DVDs via the external player. There are a few region 1 discs I have to monkey with to get to play in Front Row. For those few I must create an alias of the DVD in the Movies folder in order for them to play in Front Row (I still haven’t figured out why this is).
Generally I don’t use the internal optical drive on any notebook I own unless I’m on the road with it
First off, I’d like to thank the blog’s author and excuse for my poor english. I recently purchased a Mac Book Pro, and found inside this beautiful MatSHITa uj-867 which I finally blocked on zone 1, since my best wish is to leave this unfortunate country struggling for reforms that will never come, France (zone 2). Despite what “perplexed” has written, going external is not an obvious thing to do. If I wanted to go external, I’d have bought an iMac, not a laptop. Obviously, we don’t want to have a lot of equipment laying around our desktop ; obviously giving away 69 euros is a commercial failure. I’ve sold all of of my DVDs zone 2, which are american movies after all, and decided that I will never – never – never – ever – buy a zone 2 dvd. And also, will not respect this most stupid invention ever produced by a herd of bozoheads from the movie industry, by going aMule, all the way. Fekk ’em !!!
P.S. In case you don’t know what to do exactly : 1) choose a definite zone for your player ; 2) see if the other DVDs you own can be played with VLC (last version – check it) – certain can ; 2) you’re left with a pile of useless DVDs : my advice is go to a friend’s PC, copy them using DVDshrink (free), then sell the originals ; this way you still keep those movies and you can read them ; 3) tell your friends and family never to offer anything but zone X (the one you’ve chosen) DVDs.
anyone know if you can rip a Region 2 DVD on a MacBook set to Region 1 by using HandBrake?
i’m going to try it.
handbrake can’t read it, thinks the blocks are dead
Hi
I’m looking for Firmware or Software that will allow my DVD player to be Region Free. I have the MATSHITA UJ 85 J , and using Vista on my Mac.
PLEASE HELP !
Thanks
Mark
Andrew,
I’m posting this in response to your latest post from the 25th of March where you say:
“Anyway, at least there is now a solution for many Matshita drives. I am puzzled why comments above this appear to have missed my previous comment…”
Firstly thanks for referencing to the Ben11 fix which I agree seems to be the biggest breakthrough so far. However please correct me if I’m wrong but I get the impression that the simple act of even ATTEMPTING this fix can lead to ones macbook’s optic drive becoming as useful as a chocolate teapot.
This is a warning that you make yourself in your post February 24th where you say
“Please note: you follow these approaches at your own risk , and you will probably be voiding your warranty for the DVD drive.”
This point is made somewhat more succinctly in other pages citing Ben11 as is the case in the blog FlashGen –
“IF YOU DO THIS, YOU RUN THE RISK OF PERMANENTLY DAMAGING YOUR DVD HARDWARE. TO THE POINT THAT IT WILL NO LONGER WORK. APPLE WILL NOT COVER IT UNDER WARRANTY AND IT WILL COST A LOT TO REPLACE.”
It seems to me that if we do follow Ben11’s fix than we are inadvertently entering into a game of Russian roulette and one which will not necessarily leave us all sitting round the table with big smiles on our faces by the end.
i’ve just bought a macbook and was as shocked and incredulous as everbody else to find that my dodgy old PC is wildly more liberal when it comes to playing any old dvd from any old zone.
sheesh.
well, i pulled out an el cheapo god-knows-what-brand hard drive purchased in hong kong ealier this year and plugged it in to the mac.
voila, as they say.
i can now play zone 1 on the external and zone 4 on the mac itself.
having two is better (twice as good in fact) than being stuck with one forevah.
yes, it’s a drag and it’s a bitch.
and it still gives me an error message (just to mess with my head) before it grudgingly plays anything on either drive.
but at least it covers the two zones i use 99% of the time.
i am too chicken to run the ben11 firmware.
admittedly the extra drive is messing up the zen minimalism of my desk and it’s.just.one.more.thang.to.drag.around…..but it isn’t voiding my warranty.
imperfect….but that’s life, i guess.
Thank you for this very informative post. Any idea if this issue is being addressed for the upcoming new line of Macbooks?
%^&* region codes. Who thought of this tripe? I live in Sydney, Australia and the Blockbuster down the road rents multiple region DVDs.
Brilliant. Now I cannot watch the DVDs on my MacBook because they are all different regions – why do the Blockbuster rental people rent these if I supposedly live in a particular region. Mental. So annoyed. Luckily I have an old G5 iMac that already has a flashed DVD drive but this is just lame and outdated. It is why they call it a global marketplace…
I can use VLC Player, but is not stable. Freezes if I fast-forward.
Wikipedia has an article on regions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
I can use VLC Player, but is not stable. Freezes if I fast-forward.
Wikipedia has an article on regions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
Not sure if this is answered somewhere else but my fully spec’d MBP is on it’s way next week and i’m wondering if it’s best to WinXp using BootCamp, run something like DvDAnywhere/DVDShrink to rip them to VIDEO_TS folders then burn then back as region free discs in OSX? Am i missing the point or is this possible. Just weird going to be able to run Win os’s on a mac!
I have a mac book pro with a drive UJ-867. The drive is set to region 1 but I could watch most region 2 DVDs I have with MPlayer (a couple failed though):
mplayer dvd://n
where n is the title number
Mplayer now compiles without a hitch (at least on intel platforms) so it might be worth trying.
I don’t get people who are blaming Apple… Obviously the ones who add region coding to the DVDs are responsible… Any Mac will play a region free DVD perfectly fine. Think about it for a second…
My solution is a little more extrem but it works well: don’t buy DVDs anymore :) Use MacThe Ripper to copy a “movie only” version so you don’t get all the crap they’re trying to force feed you before the movie you paid for and you can remove any region code at the same time.
They complain about pirates and illegal copy but you know what? I”ll buy DVDs again when:
1. I can play it on whatever player I want
2. I’m not forced to sit through previews because of a disabled “skip” button.
3. The DVD i BOUGHT is littered with freaking commercials.
When that happens, I’ll consider buying DVDs again… Until then: Netflix + dual layer burner is the only way to experience DVDs in a comfortable manner.
I’m brand new with my Mac. Is the first one I ever buy. I had before an HP laptop, and I think the Mac is a lot much better. It is a Mac Book Pro with UJ-867. I haven’t set any region on the computer because a friend warned me, so I have the 5 times free. It seems the VLC is the solution for me, but what is VLC? Is that a software? Where I can get it?
As a general comment, it would help if posters provided the name of the drive that they have and whether it is rpc-1 or rpc-2 – “DVD Info X” should help with this.
@At a Loss – yes the warnings are there because something can go wrong, and the consequences are tricky (probably replacement of the drive). What I did was to do some web-searching to read about other people’s experiences. I don’t remember coming across any “bricking”. Let’s not forget that MacD warns you that coffee is hot and that it could burn you! In the end you have to do a risk-benefit analysis (which you do every time you cross the road).
@Benji – you need to let people know what the actual piece of hardware is inside your external drive – is it a Matshita drive, for example? If you go under the Apple menu there is something that should allow you to get info on all the hardware (can’t remember what it is offhand, as I am at a PC just now). Alternatively find “System Profiler” using Spotlight and run that.
@Perplexed – you haven’t let us know what drive is inside your machine, so your comment is not helpful. Unless your machine has one of the Matshita drives, then there is nothing perplexing about the fact that your machine works using VLC. The same is true of your external drive, some of which also contain Matshita drives. The one I bought did, but happily it was already set to rpc1. Thanks for the tip on getting Front Row to work, though.
@dude – you haven’t let us know which drive you have – without this your posting is not particularly useful.
@Mark – do a search for UJ85J on forum.rpc1.org. I have done that and I found a link to http://www.sophieburns.com/UJ85J/ which may help you.
@EOLake – yes, VLC is often unstable, but it is free, and it works most of the time…
@DundeeSnowboard – I think you will find that these Matshita drives do not work on PCs either. Read my response to Yann for the reason.
@egon – now *I* am perplexed… please could run “DVD Info X” to find out if your drive is rpc-1 or rpc-2? It may be that your drive is already rpc-1, or else it may be that the DVDs that say they are Region2 are actually RegionAll. I am not an expert, but when I have read postings from people that are, it seems that there is no simple way round the Matshita security without doing the firmware flashing. I am glad to say that I have heard that Matshita have now stopped taking this approach – forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/936129.html.
@Yann – if you have one of *those* Matshita drives then (unless I am very much mistaken) you won’t be able to run MacTheRipper. This is because the there is some built-in checking in the drive (with some encryption) that stops you reading the DVD in the first place. So, the question is (again) “which drive do you have?”.
@Gerardo – if you google vlc, the software appears as the first item – it is a media player. It is free, but not as polished as the Apple media players. Of course, if you are not going to set the region, then you can’t use the Apple DVD Player or Front Row to play DVDs, which seems to go against the whole “it just works” principle.
@Apple – (in case you take any notice of what people write about you) please stop doing this… please stop using Matshita drives or set them to rpc1 in the factory. Your customers deserve better. Why can’t it “just work”? I shall be discouraging friends from buying Macs on these grounds.
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
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
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
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
You don’t even need a Windows machine. I use VLC on Linux. Both Linux and VLC are free!
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 ;-)
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!
Just joined the club. Damn you, so-called-alternative-to-Big-Evil-Microsoft.
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…
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!
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Hey, I had exactly the same problem, I live in Europe, bought my Mac from the states, and this machine can’t read the DVD disk from my home country, I’m so sick of it that I’m considering buying a PC instead. I you find a solution, please post it here on this blog, I’ve made you my favorite, and going to check up on you in a month, or so.
I have a MacBook and unfortunately travel a lot – I’m Australia, but now live in France and am currently in Canada till July. Yes you can already see my problem – all are different regions and I didn’t realise this when buying various DVDs wherever I am! Now my computer has had its 5 changes and is stuck on Region 4. I am looking at buying an external DVD player that links easily to my MacBook so I can carry this with me. However the Mac accessories Air Superdrive only works with a MacAir (so no good for me – thanks to the reviews!) and there doesn’t seem to be anything else available in Mac/Apple. Has anyone bought or know of anything that will work on my MacBook that is region free and relatively compact for travel? I’d really appreciate any suggestions / experience. I also can not just walk into a store and try it out as I am not living near a ‘big city’ in Canada I will have to buy online and have it posted. Thank you for this blog – an any assistance.
PS Don’t bother trying to use the Apple DVD player as suggested above by Anon – it doesn’t work either. It certainly wouldn’t allow me to copy a Region 2 DVD across – just said it couldn’t be read incorrect region.
Any other suggestions? It is most disappointing as I really like everything else with my Mac and have been a Mac user for years (since first Mac SE – yes long time). Tis even a shame that Mac couldn’t make the Mac SuperAir for all Macs not just the MacAir – cause it looks perfect. They have everything else going for them these days with iPhone, iPad etc – surely a simple region free DVD player wouldn’t be that difficult if PCs have them – one wonders how much are Apple being paid by others to maintain this outdated DVD in their computers??
For RPC1 patched Matshita firmwares have a look at http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=46116
I am really annoyed by this behavior, I am also wondering if it is legal. The same thing happen with MS-Windows, I am still using XP (actually I have all three, Linux, MS, Mac, so no problem to see the DVD on Linux) and the solution they give you is to buy some software. Apple does the same for i-tunes, even worst, if you try to buy music from a store outside the country you are in is not possible. But if you buy DVDs from Canada, as I just did, which is legal, it is a problem to view them. I was wondering if it could be possible to file some “gazillion dollars” court case against them perhaps in USA or in some court in Europe.
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In case anyone thought this issue had been resolved – it hasn’t. My work requires me to use a MacBook Pro 15, I think it was built in 2011, has Core i5 2.3GHz. DVD hardware is Matshita UJ-8A8 firmware rev HA13.
Today I tried playing a DVD movie for the first time. Not only do I get the message that I have to set the region because it’s the first time I’ve played a DVD – I get that _same_ refusal message when I connect an external DVD player via USB! So, it isn’t just the Matshita hardware. Something in the software prevents DVD Player from operating when _any_ DVD hardware unit is attempted for the first time.
Why is this of particular concern for me? Because my machine is admin locked by our IT department – even setting the stupid DVD region requires their logon/password. And it’s a weekend. And I need the machine for a Monday morning flight.
Tried something called DVD Region Code Unlock that’s supposed to let non-admin users set the DVD region on first use without requiring admin access. But when I run it, and it gets to the “installation” step – I’m asked for admin approval.
I just want to watch freakin’ movies man. If I can’t get IT to help me over the weekend, guess I’ll take my personal Windows machine. Win7 never fails me.