DVD Region Setting On The Superdrive

Your fundamental proposition is false. As shipped from the factory, the DVD player can play ANY DVD region. You are allowed to play DVD's from other regions, switching a limited number of times (3, I think), and then it will lock on the 4th region played.

Just shove a UK disk in there an OS X will ask you if you want to use the region setting on the disk. Click OK and you're done!

The only way to get around this is to rip the DVD to your machine, or "back it up" using the region free setting. I'd just rip it to the computer as it's less noisy when actually watching a movie and saves battery life on the go.

Also, try using VLC since it does not care about the region and won't lock out after so many plays...

Bob

Carl is not exactly correct.

He is correct that the Apple DVD Drive/Player is capable of playing DVDs from any region out of the box.

This region code is set when you try to play your first DVD. Then you have 5 more times to change the region code.

On the 5th time the region code will be lock to the Region you have set it to.

Detail explanation can be found in Apple's Support Article: " DVD Player: About DVD-Video Regions".

Your alternative is to use what Bob Maher had suggested, the program called " VLC Media Player" or " MPlayer

I hope this helps.

-- Vinko

G4 Dual 500MHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 2G iPod Mini 6GB

unfortunatly, the VLC option doesn't seem to work with the MacBook Pro's I'm in the Region 1 section of the world, but I do have one or two Region 2 DVD's shipped over from the UK for shows we don't get here in Region 1 format. I even tried rippign the files using MTR using the region free option, and it didn't work on my Region 2 DVD's while it did work when I tried it with one of my Region 1 DVD's. I'm hoping the next version of VLC will fix this problem, or that the people that make the Region Free program I use on my PC will make a Mac Port, cause I want to be able to see my movies that I legally paid for.

VLC works with the Macbook Pro. You do need to use the Intel builds though. Here is a link to the Nightly Intel builds. They are very stable for basic Video playback

http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/macosx-intel/

Macbook Pro 1.83 1GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.6) 500 MHz Tibook

Whatever these people are telling you, you cannot play a DVD from the US on a region 2 MacBook Pro. VLC does not work either on a PB or MBP (it does work on my iMac), I have tried it. If there has been a new build that does work and you are going to try it please let us know if it works.

I have been searching for a way to do this for years, on my PB and now on my MBP as I travel a lot and have numerous R1 disks. It's just not possible.

I even tried using DVD region free and DVD region master on XP under Bootcamp and it still wouldn't work. The region was not changed but the disk would not play properly.

BTW - In answer to your other locked post, I am from London, live in Bedfordshire and am moving to Sydney at Christmas (R4 luckily!).

It's important to get that there are 2 issues here. The region set in the drives firmware (as others have described) and the ability of the DVD player to play different region DVD's. VLC is region agnostic but depends on the drive (obviously). OSX DVD player is region sensitive. The drive is unfixable - you get 5 goes only

I don't think there's a simple way round it unfortunately.

Neil

Great time to move to Sydney. Last time I was there the temperature in the high 80's F. Waterside living. Just perfect.