DVD region

S

StarLee

Registered
Hi,

just wondering which region is the DVD on ibook G4 in australia? i played region 1 DVD and it can play but it said I can only change the region 4 times ... is that mean that when I change region 1 to 4 to 1 to 4 again and it will stay in region 4 or i can be flexible with the region on the DVD?

Pls enlighten me ... thank you!!
 
when you insert a movie dvd the first time, your mac asks if you wnat to set it to that region. if not, it ejects the disc. if yes, you have 5 changes.

1 is US, 2 europe (pal) and japan (ntsc) .. i don't remember the others - 0 is universal, played everwhere.

there are firmware hacks out there that enable you to change the region more than those times - but they can screw your mac as well. do you know if the world (all-region) dvd players are sold in australia? and how much would htey be? e.g. in UK the cheapest ones (in amazon uk) start like at 30 - 40 uk pounds, and that's a lot cheaper than potentially damaging your hard drive with the firmare hack gone wrong.

i live with your problem tough. i have europe coded movies, my bf has us coded ons. my pb is set to region 2 = europe, his mac to 1 = usa. so his movies are seen on his mac, mine on mine. i know what we need is the world player.

my advice on firmware hacks (google, or search here) for dvd region codes - not worth. potentially they can make you break your warranty, and fixing your mac costs more than a cheap all'region player.

gia.
 
Giaguara is right, this DOES invalidate your warranty. Hardly worthwhile, i would never run unofficial firmware hacks on my machine- especially since i've got the applecare extended warranty and i may as well throw it away if i mess with the firmware.
What i don't get is why they did the region coding anyway. The NSTC/PAL thing was about dif fps rates (27.5/25 i think), but this just seems silly, means companies have to make 3 different dvds for every title- doesn't that cost them more money? I would think the irritation of judging how many of each region to make would be far more difficult than making it multi-region.
Is particularly irritating since there are a couple of US region film i would love to buy on DVD, as are unavailable elsewhere (esp. Bottle rocket). I wonder- if i bought a US DVD, could i rip it to a VOB or something and play it that way? Would be legal i figure as i would own the dvd, and only be ripping it to watch rather than distribute.

ora
 
I believe they put regions onto DVD's to try to control distribution. You can't just buy a movie on DVD in the States and take it to another country where that movie hasn't even been released to theaters, for example. It's a stupid ideology, and it's all about control.
 
Regions were developed ensure bigger profits for movie companies. I.E., a movie is released in the US (Gladiator) and then comes out on DVD 5 months later as a region 1 DVD. However, the movie hasn't even been released in theaters in China until after the DVD in the US has been released. Now, if you could rent the DVD before watching it in the theaters, what would you do? I (being a cheap bastard) would just rent the DVD. But, since the DVD is only a Region 1 and China is region 3 (could be wrong) you can't get the DVD, legally anyway. I think the system is obsolete due to the internet and sophisticated pirating techniques, but you can understand where they're coming from, right?
 
ora said:
What i don't get is why they did the region coding anyway. The NSTC/PAL thing was about dif fps rates (27.5/25 i think), but this just seems silly, means companies have to make 3 different dvds for every title- doesn't that cost them more money? I would think the irritation of judging how many of each region to make would be far more difficult than making it multi-region.
Is particularly irritating since there are a couple of US region film i would love to buy on DVD, as are unavailable elsewhere (esp. Bottle rocket). I wonder- if i bought a US DVD, could i rip it to a VOB or something and play it that way? Would be legal i figure as i would own the dvd, and only be ripping it to watch rather than distribute.
Click to expand...

The region codes were created because of movie industry('s greediness). Movies are released in diffrent time in different countries. In USA and South America Disney animations come out in june/july, for example - in europe those same movies are out in cinema only for the next christmas. so i could buy a legal dvd here before you had it in the cinema in europe. and some movies do it the opposite way - 28 days later was being sold in dvd in uk before it came to cinema in us. IF all the movies were region 0 (which they should be imho) anyone could buy the movie they want - from where they want. Like the cds. So, seeing a movie you like in us/europe/japan/australia/brazil/anywhere you want, would be no problem.

There are more that 3 possible coding versions for every dvd. But 1 combination per country; eg europe gets region 2 and pal - japan gets region 2 and ntsc, us gets 1 and ntsc and so on. in total 8 region codes, of which 0 is the universal, that should play anywhere - but even the region 0 is still either pal or ntsc. To this there are the multi-region dvd players, which are wanted to be made illegal. I don't like that idea. I want to be able to buy any movie that i want, where ever it comes from (coding and ntsc/pal). Some region free players also can choose whether to send out signal in pal or ntsc. -- definitely less hassling getting a cheap all-region player. if you have a firmware hack on your mac, and something blows .. to have the apple technicians have a look on your drive costs more than you'll pay for the dvd player, so i would not suggest hassling with the possibility of breaking the apple.

If you have a dvd and rip it to a format that you can see, of course it should be legal. You own the dvd, so if you have to use a complicated way to view it I guess it's not your fault butt the movie industry's. As long as it is just you viewing the copy, it should be ok.

I have seen some of the dvds that play in all regions. I like them. Some smaller companies make those so they can sell the movie everywhere - e.g. some small european companies that sell to us as well, or e.g. here i've seen many Bruce Lee films in region 0.


- oh by the way - when you buy a NEW MAC it has no region set. so you set it the first time you insert a coded dvd etc. so thatswhy my pb is region 2, even when bought in us. so it's up to you what region you set it. ;)
 
I'm for freedom, baby, here. My iBook's DVD is "region-free" since the day I had it in my apartment. Why? Because European Code 2 disks often come out much later. For example, many anime series don't come out for us. Unless we either buy Chinese versions (Japanese and Chinese soundtrack with English subtitles are often seen, which is good) or US versions. So, if I want to _legally_ watch these movies and series, I have to buy the DVD in a different region setting. And I certainly don't want to buy three or four DVD players and be unable to watch most of the DVDs on my iBook...

However, if you _don't_ want to apply a firmware-patch, you can use VLC to watch DVDs of a different region-code than the one your drive is set to. (Just make sure DVD Player isn't launched automatically.)
 
Fryke,

Thanks for that tip. I've got several region 3 DVD I bought, um completely legally, in China but didn't want to change my region on my U.S. iBook. This rocks, I can finally watch my copy of "Bring it On." Stop laughing. Thanks again.

Sam
 
vlc media player: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14738

i would NOT trust that it does not read the region code. the region setting is buil to the drive - so in worst case it READS your dvd, and does NOT tell you it changes the code. the dvd palyer at least asks you if you want to change the region. i haven't tried the vlc on different region dvds yet - i talked about the topic tonight for a long time with some people who know how the system works better than i do. if you have more than one dvd of a region you like, i sugggest getting a cheap all region dvd player. nothing would suck more than having your region set permanently to the wrong one (e.g. if vlc changes it without asking you first to read it).
 
I bought myself a region free DVD player on-line for 120 bucks, here in the US it's not as easy to find region free DVD/VCRs and TVs that are PAL/NTSC compatible as it is in Europe. I guess there's more of an market in Europe for that then here. You can go to a local electronic chain and pick one up but I still haven't fund a store here in the US that have region free TV/DVD/VCR.

Viktor
 
In UK amazon sells them, and many elctronic stores do as well - or they will tell you how to make the player region free.

In US, Amazon has or had some models. Then, at least in bigger cities, worth having a look in little China, or India. Indian electronic stores more probably have them - e.g. for the city I live in that's a sure place to find them.
 
In my experience, VLC does not do anything to your DVD Region settings. Apple has always used a software based DVD player (decoder at any rate) and as such it it would make sense that software could also have a built in workaround. If anybody dares remember back to the OS 9 days, before 9.1, the DVDPlayer didn't check for a region. I played region 1,2, and 3 DVDS going back and forth willy-nilly, no warning. Then, through a system update that included a DVDPlayer update (but no firmware update) it magically began checking for regions.

However, I checked out your hypothesis of VLC secretly changing regions, didn't on mine. I played a region 3 DVD in VLC, and it didn't tell me it was going to do anything. Then, I put in a region 1 DVD and opened Apple's DVDPlayer, and it simply played the DVD without asking to change the region, it was still at region 1.

Having said that, when I have the money, I'm going to invest in a cheap region free DVD player.
 
umm... if i reinstalled the mac os x will it give me the 5 change again or i'm just dreaming? :p
so ... is vlc good or bad? i just dont want to wreck my sistem ...

thanks guys!
 
you won't get other 5 changes by reinstalling OS X. once you have used the 5 changes, the region freezes to whichever it is, period.

amazon.com before had multi region dvd players. now they seem gone. but i found www.dvdoverseas.com - they have a pretty good selection. shipping to anywhere in us, or if you are in chicago, they have a store too, in woodfield. i guess i might visit it sometime soon. :)
 
I too have DVDs purchased when I lived in the US which I can't watch now that I'm in the UK. I've never been able to play a DVD with VLC. Most of the time it does nothing, but sometimes it will play to the main menu but then go black and do nothing. Ugh. But you can use DVDInfo X to find out if VLC is switching your Regions on you. It isn't on my powerbook for those few that play to the main menu.
 
Retrotron, you are lucky to live in UK.

I'd suggest eitehr getting a cheap world/region free player (amazon etc etc) - or many stores in UK sell normal dvd players and tell you which is the trick to make them play any region .. and then switch .. and switch again to another region.
 
Yeah, I love it here in the UK. :)

I suppose I'll have to get one. It'd be so nice to watch these things on your own pb though. ;)
 
Will have to try the VLC, thanks for the heads up Fryke. I get most of mine from the US, but since I have to Asia for work, I get my DVDs there because of the lower cost. Makes more sense having a laptop if you can watch DVDs from wherever you are.
 
VLC's pretty good. I didn't know about it being able to read different DVD regions. I use it mostly for divx as it's better that Quicktime player for stuff like that. If you're in the UK, Richer Sounds are good for cheap DVD players and other hifi stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top