Can I play an All-Region DVD on my MacBook Pro?

DVD Player: About DVD-Video regions - Apple Support

Sure it does, it states

"

If the disc supports more than one region, or is region-free, the below dialog appears asking you to choose a region for your DVD drive.

"

Yes it is probably set to 1.

That information indicates that it will ask you for a region. If you select "1" I don't think that will count as a change of region.

It must be a super stupendous DVD to be worth $50.

Here's my variation on the idea: My wife is from Japan and would like to watch both Region 1 and Region 2 DVDs on the same MacBook. I would be very willing to buy two external players if the region is stored on the drive, not the Mac, reserving one drive for each of the regions. What do you think?

Glenn

Have you tried to use VLC Player? I think there may be an option to switch back and forth between regions. VLC player is by far the best media player (IMHO) on any operating system.

Normally, DVD Player (the app) lets the dvd player (the hardware) do the decoding, which gets validated thru the regionalization mechanism so you won't dare play something you are not allowed and interfere with the all-important revenue streams. VLC taps the raw data before that point and does the decoding by software. The downside, besides making industry fat cats poorer or so they say, is that you might get choppy video or audio and possibly lose access to some multimedia features.

And to n00b2MaC, thanks for the suggestion. I found VLC just Googling but I didn't see anything about specifically this in the description, but the price is certainly right.

Much appreciated,

Glenn

Hello Glenn, there is a video on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1SrwcHOMcA