Playing US and European DVDs

Question

Level 1

9 points

Playing US and European DVDs

I have spent the morning reading through this site trying various options... but have not been able to piece together an answer to what I need to do...

I have a G5 imac and I have DVDs from Europe and USA. DVD player says that I have 2 times left to change the region code ... this is a pain. I simply want to be able to play the DVDs I have without restriction.

I read through the discussion threads and I have downloaded VLC to try - it didn't work, I don't want to run a program that risks locking my drive forever or decreaing the quality of my DVDs, I don't want to buy an external DVD player - I should be able to do that on my imac.

I don't care about why this historically has been a problem...... I just want to play my DVDs ... simple as that.

My drive details are :
Manufacturer: MATSHITA
Model: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-825
Revision: DBN7
Serial Number:
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Apple Supported/Shipped
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal

What do I have to do that will work?

I hope soemone can help.

Bill Mullen

Posted on May 21, 2005 6:07 AM

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Answer 1

jintymac

Level 1

5 points

May 21, 2005 10:28 AM in response to Bill Mullen2

Hi Bill,

Before you try to play dvd with different region encoding you should do the following:

Open system preferences
Click on Cds & Dvds
Where it says "When you insert a video DVD"
select Ignore.

This is very important as the Apple dvd player checks the disc for it's region every time you insert a new dvd but this step will be ignored if you selct the settings above.

You can now try VLC or XinePlayer (which you can get from versiontracker or Macupdate). These programs don't do anything to your hardware to change the region encoding on your your dvd drive. They are software solutions.

I play different region discs all the time so hopefully this should work for you.

Best wishes,
Janet

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Answer 2

Bill Mullen2 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 22, 2005 9:03 AM in response to jintymac

Hi Janet, Thanks for replying... I did what you said & downloaded XinePlayer (I already tried VLC)... Xine Player played the intro to the DVD I want to watch - but when it finished playing the intro, it stopped with the message "XinePlayer could not open 'dvd:///dev/rdisk3'. The error reported was number 7" it has one button "skip movie" which you have to click to continue... it doesn't do anything after that.

I went into the preferences and changed the region codes in the DVD preference and tried again... but it made no difference.

VLC comes back with an error " access outputfile: cannot open `'
stream outstandard: no suitable sout access module for `file/ts://(null)'" - I played around with various options like playing the video_ts folder... but nothing worked.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Bill

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Answer 3

jintymac

Level 1

5 points

May 23, 2005 3:44 AM in response to Bill Mullen2

Hi Bill,

Sorry that you're still having problems with this. My drive is set at Region 2 (as I live in the UK) and I have no problems playing dvd the way I described in my previous post. I play Region 1 and 3 discs all the time without too much trouble. I put a region 1 dvd in to play this morning and I got it working fine with both VLC and XinePlayer so I don't know what your problem could be I'm afraid. VLC is being actively developed and the osx version of XinePlayer is quite new so can be a bit buggy.

My combo drive is a MATSHITACD-RW CW-8123

I'm on a G4 1.2 Ghz iBook and I also own a 1Ghz emac which I also watch multiregion discs on. Perhaps it is something to do with your hardware configuration and the way these programmes play the discs.

The only other solution I can think of would be to use mactheripper to copy the disc to your hard drive (this will remove the region encoding), but this is a pain when you should be able to watch the films you want without having to change anything.

Sorry to not be of any further help. Maybe there is someone else with the same setup as yourself that has tried what I mentioned?

Best wishes,
Janet

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Answer 4

Jul 3, 2005 3:30 PM in response to Bill Mullen2

Hi Bill,
I'm having the same problem as you are. Did you find any answer? My driver is exactly the same as yours and I am about to give up on it.

Are you also having problems erasing CD-RW? This function is just not available! I'm using disk utilities to burn data onto CDs and when I want to erase something I have to mount an image of the file and then, before clicking on "burn", I have the option to erase the CD. A real pain.... I asked a sales rep and also chatted with Mac Support, but they had no idea why it was happening. Any idea?

Elisa Bailey

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Answer 5

Jul 4, 2005 10:11 AM in response to Bill Mullen2

According to the users who post on the Mac section of the Firmware Page (http://forum.rpc1.org/viewforum.php?f=30) VLC will not play out of region DVDs on the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-825. Also, there is no firmware patch to render this drive region-free or to reset the drive's firmware to another region. Messing with a drive's firmware can result in an inoperable drive if an incorrect firmware patch is applied or applied incorrectly. Probably the best solution is to get a copy of MacTheRipper from www.Versiontracker.com or www.ripdifferent.com and use it to strip the region code from the DVD while it copies it to your hard drive. You can then play it from the hard drive using DVD Player. This also works if you have a portable and want to watch movies during a trip without bringing the originals along. IMPORTANT: Don't forget to change "CDs and DVDs" in System Preferences to "Ignore" when inserting a video DVD.

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Answer 6

Jul 15, 2005 3:33 AM in response to Bill Mullen2

Hi guys,
I have the same problem as all of u with the $#@$@*&^ matshita uj-825 dam 5.i have tried mac the ripper as suggested but it doesnt work with the dvd if its region is diffrent from the drive's.any other suggestions?i was told that i could take the drive, put it on a pc, flash it, then put it back on apple: can it be done like this?would it work?
thx.

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Answer 7

Jul 30, 2005 10:26 PM in response to Bill Mullen2

I believe Pioneer DVR-K04 or K05 does not have these problems.

You could change drive for about $100

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Answer 8

Jul 30, 2005 10:40 PM in response to Bill Mullen2

I mean it will work with MTR and VLC

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Answer 9

Jul 30, 2005 11:19 PM in response to Jeffry Herwig

Look, though these restrictions are BS, as a responsible company Apple has no choice but to comply. You're not the only one annoyed by this, search ing for answers,but that's life.

Wouldn't it be great if there was some kind of firmware patch that could maybe reset the region codes on a combo or superdrive?

Well, wishful thinking i guess.

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Answer 10

Sep 1, 2005 11:27 PM in response to Bill Mullen2

I think Apple is just living with the arm twisting realities of life. I hope it doesn't bother you that there are people in the world that like to and can get around these limitations. I personally don't think you would call these people irresponsible. Apple isn't going out of there way to be "responsible". The real responsible parties for these limitations are more likely the media (TV, Movie etc) industry. ( The first concern of all large organization is to protect there organization/profits/power. All other values and interests come second. Ex: Organized Religion )

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Answer 11

Mr B

Level 1

0 points

Sep 5, 2005 5:36 AM in response to Bill Mullen2

I also have this problem. No answers, but to say 'live with it' is NOT an acceptable answer. There is no infringement of copywrite in seeking to play DVDs purchased in different zones. Multi region read only DVD players are the norm. If Mac are going to play honest, they should admit upfront that their machines are limited functionality, not let you discover it after spending the bucks.

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Answer 12

HollyS

Level 1

4 points

Sep 11, 2005 4:22 AM in response to Mr B

I agree with Mr. B. Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect apple to point out the limitation to everyone, but I think this result is totally unacceptable. I was using VLC just fine on my ibook, but now that I purchased a new powerbook, it does not work with region 2 dvd's. This is unbelievably frustrating. I am in the UK right now, and cannot watch any of the region 2 dvd's I purchased here or elsewhere. One of the reasons I spent sxo much money on the 17" widescreen model of the PowerBook was to watch DVDs, so I am pretty outraged by this limitation. Any new fixes out there?

I should mention that my drive is MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845E (NOT 825). Anyone else have this problem with the 845?

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Answer 13

Sep 12, 2005 8:12 PM in response to HollyS

I also have the 845E and am having the same problem. (15" Powerbook)

These are legitimite multi-region DVDs I pruchased while studying abroad and now I cannot watch them. It is extremly frustrating and region locking is not right. There should be a update to allow playback of any region.

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Answer 14

HollyS

Level 1

4 points

Sep 12, 2005 8:54 PM in response to Kevin Hickey1

As an update, this evening I downloaded Mac the Ripper, and have tried ripping 3 different DVDs (all region 2) and each one produces the same result: the rip is complete, but there are "bad sectors". If they play at all, it is choppy & incomplete. Anyone aware of something I may be doing wrong with Mac the Ripper? My DVDs are also all legitimately purchased by me while abroad, and all I want to do is watch them. Thanks for any suggestions. --Holly

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Answer 15

Sep 14, 2005 4:42 AM in response to HollyS

HollyS, ur not doing anything wrong: the dvd drive needs to do a physical "check" on the dvd movie inserted in order to match it with the drive's region.Since, obviously ur drive's region is set to region"1", inserting a dvd zone "2" simply won't work with mac teh ripper since this excellent software needs to compare the region of the dvd inserted with the drive's region and since they do not match, u get "bad sectors".
I'm sorry to say that unless someone makes a patch for the drive, u will b stuck "same as the rest of us" with the drive's limitation.

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