Making Matshita DVD-R UJ-846 Region free...

No, that won't make a difference. Making the drive region free would require region free firmware for the drive, and I don't think anyone has made or released such firmware. And if they did or do, installing it will probably void warranties and such. Just so you know 🙂 ...

Read this Knowledge Base article from Apple Computer;

DVD Player: About DVD-Video Regions

A so-called all Region disc is "all region" because it does not have region data encoded on it, the region code is set to zeros.

You drive is locked on the region code for the first DVD you put in the drive. You have four times to reset the regional coding until it's locked for good.


Just in case you're thinking of venturing down another route:

I don't think the right idea is to try and experiment and flash the drive with some sort of hack, which is where you'd have to look to really get something working.


You can use a little trick with Windows XP on the dual boot and VLC player to play whatever regions you want without having to use up your precious region code changes.


Or you can just make your DVDs region free before hand.*



*Disclaimer: Legally purchased for personal use only. Please don't start up on the DMCA stuff.

Unlikely ...
VLC and MacTheRipper don't work with RPC2 drives like the matshita 846 .. so ..
You simply don't watch DVDs ..

So can I use my Mac to watch DVDs?
Only the on efrom your region otherwise after the 5th you have to buy a new one ..

So basically an answer close to the no!

Unlikely ...
VLC and MacTheRipper don't work with RPC2 drives like
the matshita 846 .. so ..
You simply don't watch DVDs ..

Huh??? ALL DVD drives made in the last ~5 years have been RPC2, and so far as I know VLC, etc. work fine with all DVD drives that Apple has released as original equipment since the switch from RPC1 to RPC2 happened.

The drive being set to a certain region happens only when you are using the Apple DVD Player to play the DVD (as opposed to using it to play a VIDEO_TS folder from your hard drive) -- all you have to do is change the default in System Preferences to keep the Apple DVD player from being launched automatically when you insert a DVD in the drive.

Ted

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Mactheripper works fine and can make a region free DVD disc. I've been using it for years on my G4 and now on my Intel iMac Dualcore 20".

Huh??? ALL DVD drives made in the last ~5
years have been RPC2, and so far as I know VLC, etc.
work fine with all DVD drives that Apple has released
as original equipment since the switch from RPC1 to
RPC2 happened.

They are not. If you have an iBook with a Matshita 8165 (or 8163 can't remember) or an iMac Intel with the UJ-846 and let say the DVD drive is set to Region 2, you can't use VLC or MTR with most of Region 1 DVDs. Well, most of them, but some may work.

The UJ-846 is a crappy drive...

From what I gather you can't make the firmware region free.

I was worried about my Matshita UJ-846 firmware settings getting fixed so have stopped using Apple DVD player (you disable it from starting automatically in System Preferences > CDs & DVDs > choose "Ignore" from the drop down menu "when you insert a DVD").

As an alternative player I've used VLC media player, version 0.8.4-test 2, with DVD's with region codes 0, 2 & 4 with no problems. You just drag the DVD icon from your desktop onto the VLC play-bar and it starts up, you can select items on the screen as with any DVD player, adjust the volume and hit the apple-key & "F"-key together & it goes full screen. Bingo! Seems to be a region free way to play DVD's. Not sure if it works with other regions than the ones I've mentioned. Good luck.