DVD regions

M

mbahundra

Registered
Apologies if this is in the wrong place for this question, but I've just bought a new MacBook Pro with 10.5.7 and put in a DVD - and got the "change region" prompt.

Having lived on and bought region-specific (because I had no choice) dvds on at least three continents, I can see that I will soon find myself unable to watch dvds on my laptop.

Surely there must be a way to unlock the drive? I don't want to buy an external drive. I'm even surprised this region business still exists. Presumably it's a way of forcing consumers to download pirated copies of movies once their drive has locked?
 
Thanks. Problem is, of course, that since I travel I need to be able to watch dvds on my laptop. Carrying region-free players or several laptops isn't really an option :) I'll look at VLC, although I found it very buggy on 10.3.

The Apple link is interesting. A couple of things - they say that "users with administrative privileges aren't prompted to change the region the very first time a DVD-Video disc of a single region is inserted. Instead, the region of the DVD drive is automatically set to the region of the DVD disc that was inserted." I didn't get that - I got "Your region is set to region 6, do you want to change it?" Does this mean someone in a Chinese MacBook factory has been watching dvds on my laptop before shipping it?

Second, is this a software thing or not? Apple says "DVD Region Manager software works with the DVD Player application to implement them". So is there a way to get into the software and reset the counter (I seem to recall this being a solution years ago). If not, how about if I do a clean re-install? Or is it really "burnt fuses" as per the thread?

As I say, this seems absurd. I move a lot, living and working in different countries and have almost always legally bought my dvds in the country in which I live (although occasionally, for professional reasons, I have to import dvds because they aren't available in the country in which I live). The industry is now telling me I have to throw them all away and buy new copies? And they're trying to fight piracy...?
 
It's kind of controlled with software - you set the new region with software - but if you have used e.g. 4 switches and then do a clean install of the OS, you still have used 4 switches, that won't reset it. At 5 changes the drive will lock. (I only set the region once or maximum twice as I do plan to usually sell the Macs when I upgrade)

The default nowadays is that the admin user is prompted to change the region if it's set.
Depending where you buy the Mac, it may be set to the region it was to be sold (US = 1, Europe = 2 etc), or it may not have been set at all. If yours say it has 6 now, it must have been inserted a region 6 (China) commercial movie DVD at some point of its life.

What I used before and it used to work for me was this:
1. When the Mac is new, insert a movie DVD of the region I will plan to use
2. Set or confirm the region for DVD player
3. In System Preferences, set CD&DVD to have movie DVDs be set to Ignore.
4. Use VLC from this point on for all movies from DVDs
This didn't work unless the code was set for the first time, AND the movie DVDs were set to be ignored. I also hear some people don't get VLC to work with movies but I'm not sure if they do it with same steps and same order.

Yep, it sucks. Other option would be to ask someone in the region you are in to rip it (e.g. with HandBrake) for you which would also help you get rid of those annoying anti-piracy ads in the beginning (which VLC also skips..).
 
Thanks for all that, seems like a workaround. I'll try vlc.

Interesting what you say about the region being set on 6 - this is a brand new laptop, I bought it 2 weeks ago and the first dvd I inserted was region 2. That would seem to mean that my laptop wasn't quite new after all and someone's watched a Chinese dvd on it?

I ask because I've had serious problems with it - two system failures in the two weeks since I've bought it requiring clean reinstalls and I'm about ready to call in the waranty and hand it back. If someone in China had it from the factory before me, that might explain something...
 
Hm. It should not be set to any other region before it was sold. Of all the Macs I've bought the drives have either not had any region set at all, or it has been set to appropriate region. I'd investigate the history of that Mac deeper.
 
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