DVD Region Free

Yes I agree with you 100%.

But thanks to the MPAA and all the other greedy movie studios, DVD and other corporates that dictate when and how we should watch movies, we don't have many other option left.

In the PC world, you can find region free firmwares for almost any drives but in the Mac world, since Apple controls the hardware, it's harder to find. I never found one for the 3 years old iBook I had before this MBP.

I doubt I will ever find one for this MBP.

I got XP running in my macbook pro... VLC doenst works even in XP... Sometimes I'm able to play the menus of some dvd's, but the movie itself doesnt play...

I goona get anydvd, a region free software for xp and give it a try... I keep you guys in the loop...

The MatSHITER (Matshita UJ-825) CAN’T be made region free.

BUT... instead of buying a new Apple Computer (and keep supporting this Bull#%/&#) you can just buy a new DVD drive for your current PWRB ; )

I read somewhere that you can just get a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K05 and go region free (free firmware patch for this drive in Mac OS X can be found on google) for the cost of around $75-85.

So I thought to myself... "ok, hmmm... save upp for a new Mac (what, around $2500), that IS going to be RPC-2. And that I won't be able to hack. OR do a google search for PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K05, and change it myself??"

Well, that was a simple choice. I bought the PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K05 online, got it a couple of days later. Opened my PWRB, changed the drive... and now... I enjoy DVD's from all around the world on my PORTABLE PWRB! No external xtras or anything like that.

TWO NOTES:

1. This should only be done by someone who has some experience in handling sensitive electronics and knows what they are doing. It's not hard, it's just that you have to be VERY careful. Or you might just end up HAVING to buy a new computer anyway. So if YOU don't know how to do it, check around and see if you can't get someone to help you out... OR, if that isn't an option, there are a lot of sites out there (google) that will walk you through the process of opening and changing things in your computer yourself.

2. THIS ONE WAS VERY DISTURBING TO ME! When I first read about this I went around trying to find somewhere to buy this drive. Well, good luck... after hours and a couple of stores, no luck. So I went to the Apple store. Where this sails guy tells me that "Oohh, no, you can't change a drive in the PowerBook, it's not compatible, blablabla. BULL#€&""#)€! " ... Well I have had some bad experiences with sails people that just talk alot of crap... And I was right in being suspicious this time as well. Because when I got the drive IT WORKED JUST FINE! Even though it wasn't "Mac recommended". I went online and did a search for it, took the store that had the best price and bought it.

The real reason I wanted to change drive wasn't actually to play region free DVD's on my Mac. That was a dream I hade since LONG given up (after having spent countless hours on the internet trying to find out how to make the built in MatShiter RPC-1).
No, it was because I needed to burn a DL (DualLayer) DVD. Which the crappy MatShiter couldn't.
Sooo, good news, NOT ONLY will you be able to watch DVD's from all around the world, you'll now also be able to make DL DVD's. All for the price of a nice set of speakers (or some other xtras for you computer), compared to a brand new Mac (which would be cool though. It's just a little TO expensive, considering I don't NEED to be able to run Win XP natively on my Mac. Virtual PC works fine enough for my "needs" there). =)

Hi there, I just bought MacBook Pro and I've used bootcamp public beta to install window xp + service pack 2. The XP works fine for a good month now, and I install alot of applications for my studies and they all work fine.
Now about the dvd region free, I tried playing a music video (dvd0 that i bought from asia under the mac osx and it ask me to change region. Then i tried it under windows and it worked and i didn't have to chose a region (same DVD).

Note; I installed k-lite codec pack in windows on my macbook pro. I use the classic media player that came with it.

with DVD0, do you mean Region zero?

MacOS normally always asks for a Region the first time you play a DVD. Region 0's still can be played all the time though, as 0 is all regions.

You are correct '0' is No Region Coding, and the apple dvd player (what ever its called) should not ask you to change dvd region if the movie is dvd region free.

Has anybody tried mplayer? This is a free (GPL) multimedia player originally written for linux, but it works also in macosx. There are two versions compiled for osx:

http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/
http://www.haque.net/software/mplayerosx/cvs/

I use it in linux, and it plays all DVD's, it is region free. (DVD drive on my Compaq is not region free! I can't play all dvd's in windows, but in linux all works with mplayer).

I have not tried it in MacOSX, but It must work.

It is a very good media player...

ibook g4 1.33 512 MB RAM, Compaq evo n800v p4-M 2.0 GHz 512 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) and Linux on my compaq 😉 Unix rules... 😉

ibook g4 1.33 512 MB RAM, Compaq evo n800v p4-M 2.0 GHz 512 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) and Linux on my compaq 😉 Unix rules... 😉

I know it should not, since it theoretically does not need to be set, if the Disk does not require a region in the first place.
Still - if you run the application the first time, it asks you. That's how it's set up. I don't know why, I can only say what it does, and did on all of the machines I had.

What I do on mine is rip it to the HD and then play
it from the HD.

Not on a MacBook you don't.
Nor a recent iBook or PowerBook.
That's the whole point.

The matSHITa uj-825 and similar models do not allow this, unless you change the Region code, which you can only do a few times.
After that, you can no longer watch OR rip most DVDs.
In Canada, almost all DVD's are region 1, so the few changes may last a long time, for locals who don't travel.

In Mexico, and here in Taiwan, Macs are a joke. They just don't work.
No one except a few misguided foreigners uses them.
Only the biggest cities even have stores that sell them.

Here is an example:
The BlockBuster in Pachuca Mexico rents both Region 1 and Region 4 DVD's. My wife's new iBook lost the ability to watch DVD's after one month in Mexico. Still no firmware upgrade after a year. DVD's here are mostly Region 3 with some Region 1. Her iBook is glued to Region 4.

Betty,

I don't have a MBP right now but while I did, I did rip one rented DVD to my HD making it region free with Mac the Ripper, and then watched it from the HD. I've also been doing that with my dad's new Intel iMac.

I'm curious also by what mechanism Macs stop working in Mexico and Taiwan... Doesn't make much sense.

Sorry i took so long.. forgot i'd said i'd do this!

DVD Genie works fine... install it remove the need to reset the region count and off you go... however i would say that any solution to enable region free in OS X is better as i really miss the remote and iDVD

Why do you have to pay 80 bucks?

I found this Firmware flasher for DVR-K05 and OS X:
http://lasvegas.rpc1.org/

And the Firmware Patch here:
http://tdb.rpc1.org/

Use these two together and your drive is region free 🙂

READ the manuals VERY carefully!