Unable to change Drive code Region

Once you change it 5 times you cannot change it again. You can't put in new software and there is nothing you can do about it, as I understand it. Please, someone, correct me if I'm wrong, but if that was your last change and your DVD player is now coded for region 1, I don't think there is a way to change it back.

That's why I use VLC instead of DVD players for DVDs outside of region 2.

Is your macbook a refurbished one? Perhaps someone had changed it 3 times before you got it?

And the only advice I can give you (and I learned in another thread that this doesn't work for everyone, though it works for me and I'm not the only one) is download VLC and see if you can play your region 2's in that.

Just rip your dvds with mac the ripper then you don't have to worry about region codes. I do this for the odd ball ones I get.

Mort

Insert a DVD which is set to play in exactly one region; there are DVDs which will play in some but not all regions, and if one of these is inserted when there is one change left on the drive, that error message will be produced when trying to change the region.

(18764)

If all you need is to have some DVDs play in another Region and you wish to be able to switch between 2 different Regions often, then get a second DVD-ROM if you can afford it. I got a Mac compatible Plextor External DVD+-RW that uses either USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 ports to connect (its kinda on the large size though) for about $70 from TigerDirect back in Sept.

Just as some people with Desktops might have 2 optical drives (a DVD+-RW and a DVD-ROM) and might set up one as one Region (I would keep the DVD-RW as your own Region # where you live) and set the other ROM one as the other Region (so you can have both a region 1 and a region 2 with your system), you can do the same, but just have the External be your second Region Device. Choose the built-in one either as your (location) Region or the Region # for DVDs that you would use most, and the other External as your "Backup" so you can always play those other DVDs still and just simply attach/connect it to your laptop when you want to use it.

I find it can always be a good thing to have an External DVD+-RW with multiple connection types handy to help trouble shoot any problems etc, and they can be used for all of your systems you may have if specs say so (we have 2 Windows Desktops, a Windows laptop and 2 Mac OSX laptops in this apartment now -for me and my roommate- and I can connect the External to ALL of them whenever I need to). I upgraded the firmware on it (which gets saved onto the device), and there are no drivers for either OSX or Windows XP so its a simple unplug, bring to other system and plug in step to move it around.

Once you change the Region code 5 times (Which is bad) you cannot change it again. I don't know why but you can ask Apple about it.

From my understanding this is controlled by International LAW and has something to do with Trade Agreements so that countries who can make a DVD and sell it for half the price as another country, cant intrude on their profits.

Also i have heard it has something to do with Copyright protection but that dont make much sense to me.

Oh and also Release Dates for Movies too.

There you go 3 reasons that i know of, but im more sure on the first and third reasons.

From my understanding this is controlled by
International LAW and has something to do with Trade
Agreements so that countries who can make a DVD and
sell it for half the price as another country, cant
intrude on their profits.

It is not a matter of law (except that it occurs in the general framework of contract law).

The cartel that controls the rights to produce DVD players requires that its members agree to implement these region controls.

Region controls serve no useful purpose; once upon a time in a conference room somewhere, it was imagined that they would control the flow of grey market DVDs across international borders, but that's been so laughably ineffective that the idea has been dropped from the next generation DVD platform.

It's quite annoying for consumers, so many DVD manufacturers make it very easy to defeat - and many "unauthorised" manufacturers, principally in China, don't bother implementing it at all.

But boy oh boy does Matsushita (Apple's Superdrive vendor) implement it. They go above and beyond any other manufacturer to make sure nobody who travels internationally will be able to get any use out of their DVD drive. And I am very annoyed with Apple for not warning us about this before selling these useless drives.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4)

I agree entirely with this post.

Panasonic is the retail arm of Matsushita and I actually boycott Panasonic products because of this issue. There's no reason for the amount of controls they've put in the DVD drives shipped to Apple. It can't be a DVDCCA requirement, since Pioneer don't do it, and it can't be an Apple requirement, since Sony and Pioneer drives are shipped with some systems, and they don't do it either. Unfortunately, only Matsushita and LG make 9.5mm optical drives, so for now, we don't have any other option, and I think the LG drives are just rebadged Matsushitas.

My only point to add is that HD-DVD is developing them, and BluRay do actually include region controls, but they are for much larger regions now.