Are the optical disc drives on the MacBook Pro 13" multi-regional?
I have a UK MacBook 13" with a disc drive, I was wondering whether or not Region 1 DVDs would work in the disc drive?
Thank you.
The DVD drive (the drive itself) is multi-regional in the sense that its region code may be reset up to 5 times before it becomes locked on the 5th setting.
Each time you try to play a DVD that has a region code different from what your DVD drive is set to, you will be prompted to change your drive's region setting. Each time you do this, however, it uses up one of the 5 possible region setting changes for that drive.
However the drive's region setting only matters if the specific DVD you are trying to play is itself locked to a specific region code. Many DVDs are "multi region" in the sense that they are either coded as Region 0 (aka region free) or ALL (all eight region flags are set) - in this case the DVD will play regardless of the region the drive itself is set to.
Unfortunately, however, most commercial Region 1 DVDs are locked to Region 1. The "region type" is usually printed on the packaging.
