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how to change dvd player region code more than five times

I have been watching some Region 2 dvds and have been switching back and forth between Region 1 and Region 2 without knowing that I could only do this 5 times. Now when I put in a US dvd, it says that I cannot change the region. Does anyone know a workaround to allow changing of regions more than 5 times?

Posted on Feb 12, 2012 11:24 AM

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62 replies

Aug 6, 2017 5:21 PM in response to littlebirdelt

This response is to a very old question but wanted to get the answer out to the masses for future encounters. YES, YOU CAN UNLOCK dvd player. I have an external apple dvd player. Didn't realize I only had 5 times to go back & forth so it locked on a non-US region. FIX: put a music cd into the dvd player. After it recognizes the cd & begins to play, pop it out & put your dvd in, and VOILÀ, it works!!!!

Feb 12, 2012 1:34 PM in response to buttelax95

It is a firmware issue, which has nothiing to do with the OS, so updating it or reinstalling isn't going to solve your problem. What you need is a way to change the firmware, which might be possible, but if it is, it's at your own risk, and you would definitely void your warranty.


The first step is to know your exact Mac model and the installed CD/DVD drive, which you can find in System Profiler.

Feb 12, 2012 1:53 PM in response to buttelax95

Regretably, no. Only by replacing the DVD drive.

As you've found this a firmware issue with the drive (insisted on by the same companies who like suing downloaders). There's no fix via the OS, and no region hacks like you can get on some standalone players.


You can try the following - go to System Preferences > CD & DVD and set the DVD option to ignore. That will stop DVD Player automatically opening it (and then telling you it can't).


User uploaded file


You can then try to open it with VLC or another third party player.

Feb 12, 2012 1:58 PM in response to noondaywitch

Regretably, no. Only by replacing the DVD drive.

Sorry, that's not true. It's been done before by many people with great success. Even Apple can do it, if they choose. But before we can determine if it can be done for his model, we have to know what model it is and the installed drive.


VLC works by ignoring any reference to region coding, but that requires a trade-off in terms of application stability, and somewhat jittery playback, which I can't stand, so I don't use it.

Feb 12, 2012 4:49 PM in response to kurt188


kurt188 wrote:


It's been done before by many people with great success.


Pls post link to someone who did this on current or recent Macs.

VLC works by ignoring any reference to region coding

From


<http://www.videolan.org/support/faq.html>


Does VLC support DVDs from all regions?


This mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses libdvdcss and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with those drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that do allow raw access, it might take VLC a long time to crack the key.


From


<http://wiki.videolan.org/FAQ_on_MacOSX_only_issues>


Why won't VLC play DVDs from a region other than what my drive is set to?


Many people try to use VLC to play DVDs from regions their drive is not set to. However, the DVD drives on most new Macs have region lockout on the hardware level, so VLC will not necessarily be able to play discs from multiple regions. You may be able to play the disc by opening it as a Video_TS folder instead of a DVD, or by changing the method used by libdvdccss to decrypt DVDs (go to Preferences->All->Input/Codecs->Access Modules->DVD without menus->Method used by libdvdcss for decryption). If you play a lot of DVDs from different regions your best option is to buy a USB or Firewire external drive that you can set to the region you require.

Feb 12, 2012 4:58 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:


I've never understood why Apple still uses drives with region settings.

Because it needs good relations with Hollywood. (Check the membership of the CCA.) Why? Well, guess who owns the copyright to the entertainment Apple sells through the iTunes Store. Incidentally, that's also the reason why Apple removed from Disk Utility the ability to rip audio CDs, which it had in early incarnations of Mac OS X (ripping with iTunes is not quite the same thing).

It's actually difficult to find one that has region limitations.

Are you sure about this? AFAIK, Sony and Fujitsu laptops have exactly the same region limitations issue; but maybe I'm wrong.

Feb 12, 2012 5:43 PM in response to buttelax95

Okay, I cannot play any region 1 dvds, but I can play any movie dvds that I have burned with the computer. I think that just means that I have burned them to play in all regions. I went into System Preferences and set the DVD player to ignore DVDs when I put them in. VLC player will recoginize them, but will not play them. As for voiding the warranty with any solution, my laptop is no longer under warranty, so that is a non-issue.


I have a MacBook Pro 6.2 laptop with Intel Core i7. I am willing to try any solutions - although I am resigned to having this now be our region 2 dvd player.

Feb 12, 2012 6:37 PM in response to fane_j

Are you sure about this? AFAIK, Sony and Fujitsu laptops have exactly the same region limitations issue; but maybe I'm wrong.

By that, I meant if you were online to purchase an external, or a non OEM replacement internal drive. They're pretty much all region free.


For instance, the Apple installed drive in my Mac Pro insisted on a setting an initial region any time I put a commercial DVD into the drive. The Blu-ray read/write drive I put into the second bay has no restrictions. OS X doesn't pop up any kind of question about setting a region no matter what disk you put in the drive.


But you're right, Sony and Fujitsu (and probably Dell and any other well known maker) seem to use region specific drives. Which begs the question; if you can buy region free drives yourself while not committing any type of crime against the movie industry, why do makers such as Apple bother to use region specific drives?

Feb 13, 2012 8:13 AM in response to buttelax95

Yes, that's the right info. If you want to try flashing the firmware on that drive, start by carefully reading, and re-reading the information given here on this site: http://forum.rpc1.org/viewforum.php?f=30 Ask questions in their forums if you're unsure about anything, before you do it.


and the section for firmware flash of your specific drive is here: http://forum.rpc1.org/search.php?keywords=hc09&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk= t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search


It does seem to indicate that (at the time of writing) that particular firmware flash only worked properly if you did it from a Windows installation on your Mac, and on 10.6.7. so you may want to use Boot Camp and install Windows XP SP3 for that.


Remember, your mileage may vary.

how to change dvd player region code more than five times

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