Superdrive on MacBook Pro

Nevermind, I just found out which drive is employed: It's the Matshita UJ-857. Since it is a Matshita drive it will unfortunately most likely not be firmware-hackable for those of us who - in perfect accordance to the law - purchased DVDs with different region codes. I know, some people hold a bit of a different view on the subject and it has been discussed through many times, but I still find it a pity to having to resort to aquire movies through other channels just because they have not been released in my particular region (yet). Region codes are not about copyrights, they're about restricting the free market. :rolleyes:
 
then you've lived on a different planet. ;) ... my PB has a drive that can't be re-firmwared currently, but I have no problem at all playing the occasional rc-1 (North America) disk in VLC - www.videolan.org -, while my drive is set to rc-2 (Europe/Japan). Just use VLC. No big deal.
 
As far as my information goes the VLC work around does not work reliably or at all with some more viciously enhanced MatSHITa drives. Believe me, I live on the same planet as you.
 
Hm. Haven't really heard of that. It works veeeeeeeeeeeeery fine for me. All of the 200+ DVDs I own. No problem at all.
 
Well that seems to depend on the drive. I have repeatedly read in the rpc1.org forums that some drives even beat software solutions like VLC. Look at the first post of this thread for example. Well anyways, I'm hoping for VLC to work with the UJ-857 even though VLC does have trouble on my current PB and on my GF's iMac G4 with certain discs when it comes to DVD menus. This problem never occurs hen I use the Apple DVD Player.
 
Ah. Maybe I should have specified that I haven't heard of problems with VLC and Matsushita drives in _Macs_. These problems with VLC/DVD and Matsushita drives seem to be PC-related.

The DVD menu problems of VLC, AFAIK, have long been solved. I _do_ see that Apple's DVD player gives a much nicer interface. But even if the menus _wouldn't_ work with VLC, I still wouldn't care much as long as I can at least watch the actual _movie_ with all languages and subtitles available...
 
Guys,

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Doemel. I have been trying to debug a problem my grilfriend has with her MBP. It does have the UJ-857.

The problem is that VLC does not want to play any DVD other than ones of the same region code as set by Apple DVD Player (currently set to Region Code 3).

I have verified that the DVD player is indeed working properly. I have tried placing a Region Code 2 DVD into the MBP and DVD Player does ask if I want to change the region code of the DVD player.

I then started VLC to see if I can play the RC2 DVD, but VLC only recognize the movie name and then does nothing.

Although, if I repeat the test with a RC3 DVD (the current Region Code of the internal DVD player), VLC would play the it without any problems.

I have tested the same 2 DVDs on an Intel iMac at a local Apple Store with the same results.

Since the behaviour is what Apple expects, I have now no one to complain to, except to wait for VLC to come out with a new version.

-- Vinko
W: www.vinko.com
 
The beauty of market protectionism. Free trade my a$$!

I've ordered my 2.0 GHz Intel Powerbook 10 days ago and I will sure as hell throw that gawddamn MatSHITa drive out of the window as soon as there's a replacement drive (different brand) available.

Just wait and see how much they (Movie industry) are going to screw us once HD is established. Now before the MPAA apologists cry foul, please do give me one (1) valid excuse for region codes. I do not steal movies, I BUY THEM. But obviously not all in my home region. Some movies just aren't available in R2.
 
OK, I got my Intel PB yesterday and I have just tried to play several DVDs I own with different regions (0, 1, 2, 4 and 9) using VLC. The drive seems to be set to region 2 (which makes sense since I live in Europe). I got a RC9 and all RC2 discs I tried to play but nothing else. Seems like I'll have to rip them on my GF's G4 iMac and reburn the whole collection. This sucks. Until I have a better solution the movie industry once again doesn't want me to buy all the movies I would like and forces me to resort to not-quite-legal means to aquire some movies I can't get in RC2.
They had their choice when deciding to create protected markets and now I am having my choice.
 
Hi Doemel,

Your findings is exactly the same as I'd found on my girlfriend's MBP.

BTW: you do not need to rip the non-RC2 DVDs on your girlfriend's G4 iMac. You can do it on your own MBP. I had found that HandBreak is able to read DVDs of any region. Also, HandBreak seem to be able to rip at least 5 times faster than my PowerMac G4 Dual 500.

Regards,

-- Vinko
 
This is getting weirder every time I try. Now I played another RC4 movie (Paul Morrissey's "Heat") and It played fine. I then tried a RC0 disc ("Hotel Splendide") that didn't play the last time I tried and It did play but the picture was all garbled and it crashed VLC after about 5 seconds of playback. Right now I'm trying to rip that movie using Handbreak and I'll report back with the results.

My rating of VLC on the new MatSHITa drives is now changed to UNPREDICTABLE.
 
I was in fact able to rip "Hotel Splendide" without any errors. Quite fast, too (I got 45fps encoding to an MPEG-4 file with a 1000kbps rate). I'll do more testing when I find the time, using other apps (MacTheRipper, OSEx etc.) on other DVDs and post the results here.

One thing I don't understand is why on earth VLC can't handle a DVD that Handbrake can handle... VLC is supposed to be the gold standard here, right?
 
My girlfriend's MBP also burnt on average 40fps within HandBrake.

I can understand why it works in HandBrake and not VLC, since HandBrake is just trying to duplicate the tracks and VLC is trying to go around the Region Code restriction to play the movie.

Of course I have tried MPlayer too and the results there is worst.

-- Vinko

W: www.vinko.com
 
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