Apple lets me down, for the first time

DoctorIt

This weekend gus let me borrow a few dvd's to watch and tuesdays are just about the slowest night on Oz TV, so MrsIt and I got ready to pop one in... we're trying not to accumulate junk down here, so since we got an LCD TV with a PC input, my MacBook Pro is serving duty as our DVD player.

So anyway, pop it in and Mac tells me I have to change my region code and that I can only do this 4 more times. "Hmmm," I think to myself... that sucks, we brought a few of our favorite dvds with us from home, obviously can't go switching back and forth.

I knew this existed with home DVD players, but I was pretty sure that region codes in computer DVD drives had gone the way of the dinosaur. I googled away and got some more info, read here if you're curious.

In summary, the DVD drive physically sets the region via firmware. Most drives, in this modern world economy, especially ones meant for laptops are region-free (hey go figure, mobile computing). Those that aren't could be "hacked" fairly easily. Steve Jobs, however, has found one maker, Matshita, that has written their firmware such that region unlocking is impossible.

So I'm upset, apparently Apple doesn't think world economies are a good thing, and that people with powerful mobile computers shouldn't really travel to different countries. I'm no advocate of piracy and dvd ripping, but if I pay for (or in my case physically have a copy of) a DVD, whether in the US or Australia, I want to be able to watch it on my MacBook!!!
:wxwax

thebigsky

The whole DVD region thing was always a load of nonsense with DVD players available almost immediately with multi-region mods.

Do you have much free disk space? Maybe you could use Mac the Ripper to rip the DVD contents to your drive, removing the region specific encoding and play them from there to save using up your region switches.

Charlie

DoctorIt

Hey Charlie, thanks, M-t-R is discussed in that forum I linked in my first post. From my read, the MBP even makes that slightly hard, but indeed possible. Problem is, it's such a time-saving crutch of a solution, and I really don't have that much free space since I also bought a few seasons of our other favorite TV shows from iTunes (oh, the painful irony!!!) before the move down here.

ziggy53

Your best bet is to either purchase an external DVD ROM/reader for the Mac which supports the second region, or simply purchase a stand-alone DVD player which supports the second region.

gus

ziggy53 wrote:

or simply purchase a stand-alone DVD player which supports the second region.

Yep. They are $30 & i have 2 that just wont die.

DoctorIt

ziggy53 wrote:

...or simply purchase a stand-alone DVD player which supports the second region.

Yeah, I know, and they are very cheap, but I'm really trying to minimize the amount of junk we acquire down here. I hate to say I'm such a tree-hugger, but you know that in 2 years a cheap DVD player will just go into the dumpster when we move back to the states.

I have to try the latest version of VLC, which I'm told works for some MBP drives (although according to that other forum, not all). fingers crossed.

DJ-S1

DoctorIt wrote:

I hate to say I'm such a tree-hugger, but you know that in 2 years a cheap DVD player will just go into the dumpster when we move back to the states.

:nah Here's another way to loook at it. That DVD player already exists, you aren't commissioning someone to build it for you. It already has a predestined future in the landfill whether or not you buy it and use it; may as well give it a useful life.

You don't have to chuck it when (if) you move. Just pass it along to someone else to use.

wxwax

Doc, that's insane. What a drag.

Is that restriction on all the news Macs too?

DoctorIt

DJ-S1 wrote:

You don't have to chuck it when (if) you move. Just pass it along to someone else to use.

Yeah, I know. I'm actually looking into whether an xbox360 or PS3 bought here would work in the US. Power is via adapter, so that's easy, just have to check if the games have regions on them... then at least I'll have something multi-useful (or at least that's what I'm telling MrsIt!!! )

DoctorIt

wxwax wrote:

Doc, that's insane. What a drag.

Is that restriction on all the news Macs too?

Not sure, but it's all based on the drive that Apple started using with the introduction of the MacBook lines. It's a: Matshita UJ-xxx

patch29

wxwax wrote:

Is that restriction on all the news Macs too?

I think all macs ask to set the region when you first put in a DVD.

Do PC/windows computers not have region specific DVD drives?

Umax

It's the same on pc's but it's the software that plays the dvd not the drive that is requesting the region. There are numerous ways around this. Software that runs in the background will stop this. Do a search on the net and you will find something.

DoctorIt

patch29 wrote:

I think all macs ask to set the region when you first put in a DVD.

Do PC/windows computers not have region specific DVD drives?

No, the majority of them have region-free firmware, so did most Macs until the MacBook intro - in the powerbook, it's as easy as a simple software tweak, no risk to firmware being mangled and your drive not working. Also, even basic DVD players in this day and age are region-free, at least here in Australia.

If you read the link in my first post, you'll be reminded that Mr Jobs has a controlling stake in Pixar (right?)... so methinks he's going out of his way, a bit. A search of just hardware will show most DVD drives have region-free firmware, in other words, the hardware doesn't care. This Matshita drive actually has a fundamentally different firmware/interface so that it can't be "fooled" by software. That's just plain old malicious.