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Regionless DVD Players for Mac OS X? 60

Posted by Cliff from the bypassing-lame-limitations dept.
spooje would like to get to the core of the following issue: "Since a new Rochester DVD only store, Global DVD, just opened up with a large Asian section I decided to rent several. When I got home and popped one in my Mac (Sawtooth G4 running Mac OS X 10.2) it brought up a dialog box telling me the DVD was region 3. I could switch to region 3 mode, but I could only do this 4 more times. Since my DVD-RAM drive is supposed to be all region does anyone know of a workaround or patch for the Apple DVD player, or maybe even another DVD player for Mac OS X?" If this question sounds familiar, then it might be because, last week, Ask Slashdot ran a similar article, which focused on a Windows utility which did this.
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Regionless DVD Players for Mac OS X? More

Regionless DVD Players for Mac OS X?

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  • VideoLAN (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @08:56AM (#4598672)
    VideoLAN Client

    http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

    • Re:VideoLAN (Score:3, Informative)

      by troc ( 3606 )
      Assuming you are using OS X and their latest dvd player, then just delete your preferences file and the count of 5 is reset :) I discovered this when I was messing around with accounts and had used all 5 changes on my own account so I was stuck in region 1 there. I switched to anotehr account only to find that account was at region 2 (default for europe) and had 4 changes left.....
      Initially I though I'd need a region 1 account, region 2 account and so on but then discovered the vastly more simple deletion technique ;)

      For OS 9 you need to obtain a patch for Apple's dvd player (2.7)- they are fairly easy to locate on the 'net :)

  • Videolan (Score:5, Informative)

    by MrHanky ( 141717 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @08:58AM (#4598678) Homepage Journal
    Haven't tried it for OSX (haven't tried OSX at all), but Videolan [videolan.org] seems to support OSX. AFAIK, libdvdcss doesn't care about region encoding, so any other player using that on OSX should work too.

  • try Region X. (Score:5, Informative)

    by nuckin futs ( 574289 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @09:00AM (#4598689)
    there's a bunch of utilities here [wormintheapple.gr]
    you can also try vlc [versiontracker.com] as a last resort.
    • I've been pretty impressed with RegionX. I patched my Pismo Powerbook DVD drive's firmware with the regionless patch, and RegionX updates the PRAM values perfectly. I've been using it for over a year; so far so good.

      Keep in mind though, that this could potentially hoop your DVD drive, so do it at your own risk. That said, it worked fine for me.
    • there's a bunch of utilities [at] [wormintheapple.gr]

      I can confirm that the firmware hack mentioned here works for me. Watched the Region 2 version of "Spirited Away" on an iBook. Even have the RGB to SVideo adapter so I can watch it on the big Sony. No 5.1 though :(

  • Region X [firmware-flash.com] lets you change the region code, and here is a collection of region-free firmware, as well as another link to Region X.
    • I can comment on both vlc and RegionX.

      I got vlc a while ago and they required that I change my display colors to thousands of colors instead of millions. I don't know if it's still a bug or not but that worked. That said...

      I also saw an article somewhere a while ago (don't know where exactly) that talked about flashing my tiBooks firmware to make it regionless... I was a little concerned about the validity of the firmware but it worked like a charm.

      I did all this on my powerbook G4 667 with the dvd player. Your mileage may vary.

      http://www.wormintheapple.gr/macdvd/ is where I got the stuff.
      -Chris

  • A seemingly nice resource for this (Score:4, Informative)

    by denisb ( 411264 ) <denis@deOOOnis.no minus threevowels> on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @09:01AM (#4598693) Homepage
    The Mac DVD Resource [wormintheapple.gr] seems to be what you are looking for ?
    Patches, info etc..

  • Just get VLC (Score:2, Informative)

    by backlonthethird ( 470424 )
    http://www.videolan.org/vlc/macosx.html

    It just ignores them. Oh, and no macrovision, either. :)
    • This may be a dumb question, but what about the hardware locking into a region? Does this avoid that as well?

      I could imagine VLC playing different DVDs and not caring about region at all, and meanwhile the hardware DOES lock after 5 switches, and you're stuck anyway. Does this not happen?

  • here's how to do it (Score:5, Informative)

    by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110.anu@edu@au> on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @09:26AM (#4598800) Journal
    get a patch [club-internet.fr] for your drive, then get Region X; warning, direct download link [club-internet.fr] to control the number of region changes you have left.

    Works flawlessly for me, but usual disclaimers about fscking your dvd drive with a 3rd party mod apply.

    -- james
    • the firmware patches at the parents link are great. I replaced the firmware on the stock drive that came with my quicksilver and have never had a problem. I can play everything with the Apple DVD player no problem. Several people have mentioned video lan client, it works but always seems a bit clunky to me. It does however support some .avi codecs that quicktime has trouble with.
    • Quick summary: there are two different versions of the firmware in the DVD drive. Early drives had version 1, where the region setting was purely in software; a tool such as Region X can then reset the region as many times as you like.

      But newer drives (such as the one in my 2-year-old G4) have version 2, where the region setting is controlled by the drive's firmware, and there's no way for software to work around it.

      The solution is to find version 1 for your drive, and rewrite its firmware; the links above show you how. The process is a little scary, and risky (worst case: you can end up with a completely useless drive), but it worked fine for me, and now I can change region as often as I want!

  • Large asian section? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What is this place, a porn shop?

    Anyway, just do a firmware update. About 95% of the drives up there can be fixed so as to be either regionless or have a resettable region change counter.

    See here [club-internet.fr].

  • I don't know (Score:4, Informative)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @09:34AM (#4598835) Homepage Journal
    much about Macs. However, I do know about changing regions on DVD drives. Inside most DVD Rom drives are these physical switch type things, and they are limited in number. Everytime you change the region one of them breaks. If they are all broken your drive is done for. The way to beat this is to change the region on the drive to region 0. This way it can play 99% of all the DVDs out there without changing every single time.

    I also reccomend getting an Apex DVD player. Apex is this crappy brand name that makes legitimate dvd players you can buy in wal-mart for like 60 bucks. They are pieces of crap, shoddy workmanship, cheap plastic, etc. But they're DVD players for 60 bucks. Anyway many of the Apex DVD players have secret menus you can get by pressing secret key combinations on the remote control. You can find out which models and which key combinations with google. These secret menus are not advertised nor in the instruction manual, so apex doesn't get sued. But the menu pretty much lets you change region at will as many times as you want, as well as convert NTSC and PAL. It's pretty amazing for 60 bucks. And heck DVD on a big TV screen beats DVD on a little computer monitor any day.
    • Sitting inches in front of my Apple's 15" LCD provided what I thought was the best DVD viewing experience. Alone. It's amazing how fast your family runs away after falling off the edge of the chair three or four times.

      Since I went and bought an Apex DVD after reading slashdot a few months ago, my entire family can all watch DVDs on our TV in comfort. I have to say that the Apex (3102, I think), although inexpensive, doesn't seem cheap in any way whatsoever. The image quality is fantastic, and what I once attributed to the LCD display is actually the fidelity and dynamic range of the DVD itself. Watching "Toy Story 2" on a Sharp TV and the Apex delivers as vivid a gamut as on the Mac/LCD. I think it's great there are solutions for OS X, especially for people who like to travel (and have laptops). But for home watching, buy an Apex at Sears, Wal-Mart, wherever. You will baby it and want to buy another just in case..
      • Sitting inches in front of my Apple's 15" LCD provided what I thought was the best DVD viewing experience. Alone.

        You're single, aren't you?

        IMO, the "best DVD viewing experiences" I've had have been on a comfortable couch, watching a movie I'm not particularly interested in, with someone I'm very interested in sitting beside me.
    • Do you really belive what you say??? There ain't no mechanical switches inside a DvD-Drive. It's all done with Firmware. It would be rather nice to let us know how this should work.
    • I just got a Koss Mini DVD Player [target.com] for $49 and it is amazing. It plays DVD/VCD/SVCD/MP3/JPEG and is both region and macrovision free. It also lets you skip past that annoying FBI warning ;)

      Some people say it gets too hot, but that is due to a crappy AC adapter. Just buy a better one and you are all set.

      For more info this, check out this thread [anandtech.com] over at Anandtech Hot Deals forum.


      .//chris
  • Dan Gillmor is on record [siliconvalley.com] as saying that "Apple stands firm against [the] entertainment cartel...It's not -- at least so far -- moving toward an anti-customer embrace with Hollywood's movie studios and the other members of the powerful entertainment cartel. Unlike Intel and AMD, the big chip makers for Windows-based computers, Apple hasn't announced plans to put technology into hardware that could end up restricting what customers do with the products they buy."

    To which I say, "well, this region nonsense sure sounds like a restriction to me."

    I'd love to believe Apple is a good guy, but I'm not sure the evidence supports it...

    To do Gillmor justice, he qualified his statement in a response to my query in this Slashdot interview [slashdot.org], in which he said (in part):

    "To answer directly: I don't think Apple has an anti-DRM strategy, though, even if I wish they'd go for it. I do think Apple has a generally pro-customer stance, which is a heck of a lot better than some other companies out there. Perhaps the company is looking for some balance in a situation where the sides are turning the issue into a binary question, i.e., total control or total anarchy. Example of balance: Apple doesn't enable iPod users to copy to other disks (not directly), but it hasn't done anything as far as I know to stop the third parties who make it easy to do so.

    Gateway's campaign was terrific. But Gateway is part of the Wintel ecosystem, and there's no question that Microsoft is moving fast toward a Hollywood-friendly regime that's overtly pro-DRM. When Gateway starts selling nicely configured Linux boxes and promoting them in terms of customer choice and digital freedom, I'll be even more impressed."

    • Re:Apple's "generally pro-consumer stance"--phooey (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Draoi ( 99421 ) <draiocht&mac,com> on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @10:48AM (#4599251)
      Dude, this is outside the control of Apple. It's a function of the drive firmware (for RPCII drives, which all are these days). The MPAA insisted that DVD drive vendors transition from RPCI to RPCII, thus taking control of this away from the software authors. Apparently, too many people were overriding this in software ... :-/

      For RPCII, the drive firmware itself decrements the region count - the only way to circumvent this is to re-flash. So don't blame Apple - all users of bare DVD drives now have this 'feature'

    • As for Apple's anti-DRM stance, there's an interesting piece right now on macosrumors.com [macosrumors.com] suggesting that DRM-type features may be built-in to OS X soon, at the system level. Considering the source, you may want to apply a great deal of NaCl, but it's something to have on your radar.
    • Right, because we all know that Region Encoding in any approved DVD player isn't mandated and it's just something Apple put in there for the hell of it.

  • Try this... (Score:5, Informative)

    by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @10:54AM (#4599288)
    Until someone writes a script to do this, you may want to take a look at this normally hidden file:

    /etc/authorization

    (I use BBEdit...'Open Hidden Files'. I haven't tried changing this yet...I hack the hardware instead):

    Starts at line 63...

    <!-- Used by the dvd player to set the regioncode the first time
    Note that changed the region code after it has been set requires a
    different right (system.device.dvd.setregion.change)
    Credentials remain valid indefinitely after they've been obtained.
    An acquired credential is shared amongst all clients.
    -->
    <key>system.device.dvd.setregion.initial</key>
    &n bsp; <dict>
    <key>group</key>
    <string>admin</string>
    <key>shared</key>
    <true/>
    </dict>

    =======
    I posted this on MacInTouch back in September. I recommend using that site over /. for these types of questions :) Let me know if you can't take the not-so-subtle hint on how to mod the code...

  • Here's the page :-) (Score:2, Interesting)

    by danwarne ( 545932 )
    This page has every Mac DVD hack you could ever want... http://opuscc.com/download/

  • DVD Patch (Score:4, Informative)

    by NickeSvensk ( 590100 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @05:06PM (#4601953)
    Go to http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/ They have firmware patches for almost every DVD. I patched my Powerbook G4 with a patch from them. Now I play DVD's from all over the world. Great when I travel between europe and the states. Good Luch with your patching. Niclas
  • The first DVD I inserted was a zone/region 1 disk and thus my drive and the Apple DVD Player were set. Using DVDInfo 2 (and booting in OS 9) I confirmed that I had 4 changes and 4 resets left on my 14.1" dual-USB (with no reset button) RPC-2 iBook combo (Sony) drive. (Note: Don't you love the way one specifies a Mac model?) This is despite having watched a zone 2 movie purchased online through a French site. The movie's cover (and the online site) clearly states that this is a zone 2 DVD. Yet I've not registered a zone change!!! Mind you I'm not complaining; the movie cost me dearly and I'll be able to watch it as many times as I like. But I'd just love to understand what is taking place here!!! Is that DVD really a zone 2 disk?

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