View DVDs from other regions on MacBook Pro

[siseo]

I know this question has been asked and answered hundreds of times, but none of it has worked for me, so here's another go:

I'm planning to travel overseas and want to be able to buy and watch movies on my laptop. I don't want to buy an external player, or even another disk drive, because 1) I want to stay portable, and 2) I want to play several different regions, so getting another drive to set to a separate region isn't feasible.

I have tried various players, including VLC and MPlayer/UMPlayer. I also tried to rip the DVD itself onto an external HD with Handbrake, MacTheRipper, Ripit, and Xilisoft, but the problem appears to be the inability to read directly from the drive.

I would prefer to be able to rip the DVD and keep it on my external hard drive, as I do with many of my shows so I can take them around easily. I'm not completely opposed to flashing my drive, but I'm worried that something will go wrong. In any case, I did check out the PowerBook (FR) site that lists all the firmware updates. Mine is on there, but apparently it wants me to use some Windows program. I don't use BootCamp/Parallels/whatever, so I can't run Windows files.

I'm on a 13" MacBook Pro, LG GS23N SB00. Every question and tutorial I've looked at deals only with the Matsushitas.

In order of preference, I would:
1. rip the DVD
2. find a media player that will read DVDs from other regions
3. flash my drive

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea what else to do.

[Satcomer]

Use VLC to watch DVDs from other regions instead of the DVD player.

Then after installing VLC get the free HandBrake to archive DVDs.

[siseo]

Satcomer,

Sorry, my last post was kind of long, so maybe it wasn't totally clear.

I have tried VLC and other players, which haven't worked. I also tried several rippers (including HandBrake), which also don't work.

The problem is obviously not the programs. They all recognize a disk is there, most even show the title, but they can't access it to use it.

Thank you for your reply, however.

For future posters, here's a list of the programs I've tried.

To play:
- VLC
- MPlayer
- UMPlayer
- DVD Player (obviously could have worked, if I felt like using up my region changes)

To rip:
- HandBrake
- MacTheRipper
- Ripit
- Xilisoft DVD Ripper Standard 6

As well as:
- mounting the disk and accessing the VOB files directly through Finder

[siseo]

Ah, as well as flashing my drive, where I ran into issues with the PowerBook site telling me to use a Windows program (MCSE) to flash.

[Doctor X]

Goeth thou to rpc1.org and read ALL the stickies, read the relevant threads. Flashing the drive is the easiest way to go--I just did my new one in under 30 seconds

--J.D.

[siseo]

Hi JD,

Thank you for the link. I don't suppose you'd remember any threads in particular that were helpful? (I know you probably read a lot of them, but if you could remember anything about them, I'd be grateful.)

[Doctor X]

Goeth thou to that section--the Mac section and search for your particular brand and firmware of your drive. This information you will find clicking the "More info. . ." button in "About this Mac" under the http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7_Hvxi9mxo...Logo-Small.jpg up on your toolbar.

--J.D.

[siseo]

J.D.,

Thank you so much! I finally got it to work! You are my hero.

For anyone else who happens to have this problem, go here:
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=46137

and for dummies, skip to page 8, where there are some very detailed step-by-step instructions.

For me, it didn't actually look like I'd cracked my drive; it still said RPC-2 region locked, and Region X wouldn't accept it, but I went on VLC and played the DVD, no problem! HandBrake seems to work as well (I didn't try ripping, but it loaded the DVD up and was ready).

J.D., I can't thank you enough.