DVD region code crack, maybe?
 

I just noticed a rather strange thing.

Since I got my new powerbook some months ago I've been using VLC to play DVD's. I never accepted the region code the DVD player is suggesting on the first launch but just quit it and set up VLC as a default player. The almighty VLC let's you play DVDs and doesn't care about any codes designed by some fascist capitalists to limit our freedom and to get more money out of us.

Anyway, last night I got a rental DVD that VLC couldn't play so I launched DVD player and was waiting for the dialog asking for the region code but it didn't ask for anything, it just started playing the DVD normally. Same thing with another rental DVD.

So, I'm not sure what has happened. I heard that I would normally have to use a firmware crack or something to bypass the region code but it looks like I just might have done it accidentally. I've only tried region 1 DVDs so far but since my system is not asking for any code I guess I'm sorted unless the region code was set eventhough I quit DVD player straight away when the region code dialog appeared.

Does anyone else have similar experinces, does anyone know if there is a way to check the region code on my system?

Since panther, the dvd player has stopped asking me to set my region code.
So I'm guessing that whatever region code dvd you first pop in the player will be set as the default.

Most of my dvd's are region 1 with some being region free discs, but one day I tried to play a friends region 2 dvd and I get that window asking me if I want to switch dvd regions and that I can only do it x number of times.

Its true that what ever region is set on the drive is the default and happens on the first dvd that is played. If you swap regions then the player will ask to change it to a maximum of 5 changes then its stuck there. To get around this you need to flash the drive rpc-1 then use a app called REGION X that XVI made to be able to change the region as much as you like. For more info try h**p://forum.rpc1.org/

Anyone know how these programs handle PAL format on the Mac? I'm thinking about downloading a couple of DVDs in PAL, but don't want to waste my time if I'm going to have to screw around with re-writing the info file just to get offset audio in the end.

PAL is what we have in Australia and its just fine.

no need for switching
 

There's no need to switch regions if you use VLC as a secondary DVD player.
http://www.videolan.org/ On my old G4 running 10.3 the region code was set to European but I had no problem watching American DVDs with VLC media player. Oh, and PAL and NTSC both work just fine.

This comment was totally unnecessary to the point of the post. Lots of people produce intellectual property (books, videos, software) for sale and certainly aren't fascists for doing so.

As someone who once produced intellectual property for a living, I tend to agree. However, as someone who frequently travels between regions, I find the DVD region codes to be excessive protection. Granted, VLC is a decent solution for the Mac, but I find it more than annoying that I can't play DVD's I buy in Thailand (the legal ones!) on the DVD player I bought here on Saipan.

But, since this is not the Coat Room, I'll stop the rant here....

Oh, a related tangential discussion is actually welcomed from time to time. ;)

I understand your point, mnewman, but I wonder if there's a parallel with computer software. If I buy MS Office for Mac and it runs on a Mac and then I try to use it on a PC but it doesn't run, isn't that similar to some DVDs running on some players but not others? Is one's freedom somehow being "limited" by this, as the opening post suggests? Maybe my analogy doesn't quite work, here; what do you think?

You know, I tried to think of some parallels, but couldn't come up with any. I think DVD's are the only product where geographic discrimination is purposely built in. Sure, my NTSC VHS tape won't work in Europe. But, that's a matter of standards, not a deliberate attempt to keep me from buying a product in one part of the world to use in another.

I can buy a cheap CD in Shanghai and play it in any old CD player. I can buy a cheap beer in Jakarta and drink it in LA. I can buy an OS/X disc in Akihabara and use it on my Mac in Saipan....

I'd love to know about other examples of built-in geographic limitations.

Anyone?

According to this Wikipedia article, the practice of"regional lockout" started in the video game industry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout

Very interesting. I was never a gamer, so never ran into this.

I was just out shopping a lunch time and noticed that one of our Chinese retailers now has region-free DVD players for sale. I wonder if this is a trend?

Hasn't stopped me
 

Maybe. All I know is that it's quite inconvenient - I have a
multi-region dvd player and a region 1 player just in case
some region 1 dvd's refuse to play in the multi-region one.

Right now I live in a "region 3" area, but some titles that are
available in region 1 and 2 months ago are still not available
in region 3 because no one in that region has licenced it yet.

Thank god for the internet, I get a lot of dvd's from the US and
Japanese Amazon.com stores but I have to deal with unfavourable
exchange rates, shipping cost and shipping time. so a single dvd
takes a huge chunk out of my wallet.

I was thinking of computer hardware-software compatability as an analogy, here. No one really expects that MS Office for Mac should also work on Windows; we've just accepted that, and yet the case could be made that in purchasing Office for good money, I should receive installation disks for all platforms it will run on. A few programs I've purchased through the years provided this convenience, and I was both surprised and delighted about that. It's led me to question the ethics of this whole software-hardware compatability issue and it seems there are analogies, here, with audio-video standards, though maybe only remotely so.

Whatever the case, it seems that there are effective work-arounds for the DVD compatability situation and that's working for some people.

middleman is happy
 

Hmm, maybe unecessary to the point but I think it is a justified statement. I think one can say that limiting people's access to information is a fascistic act and that is exactly what the region codes are doing.

Besides I think that in the information age the whole logic of this idea of a regional code as a safety-measure against piracy is just stupid. Assuming that you travel a lot and want to watch DVDs on your laptop...because of the region coded DVDs it is more convenient to go for a pirate copy since they are not coded.
So in their fight against piracy the industry has created a reason to support piracy.

I produce intellectual property also but I don't think that techniques like this are doing us any good. The middlemen are getting fatter though.

That's a little too loose an understanding of fascism for me, helloworld, as there are many instances when information ought not be made public (confidential records of clients, certain intelligence reports, and so forth). Besides, in this example, no one's access to information is really being limited, as you can purchase the disks and hardware needed. I do see your point about the standards issue tempting people to piracy, but I don't agree that this is justified. Again, using MS Office as an example, I could say that since I bought a copy for my Mac, MS also owes me a Windows version and so I'm justified in downloading a copy under a file-sharing scheme, or just loading another person's copy onto my computer.

As for middle-men . . . again, I don't see the restrictions on freedom. I'm the author of numerous books, and the publishers make more money on them than I do. Is that fair? Well, I could try to publish and market them myself, eliminating the middle-man, but I wouldn't sell as many and wouldn't even make as much money. This is the case in a wide-range of enterprises.

I don't think the MS Office analogy really flies. On the one hand you have software that has been separately developed to run on very diffferent hardware platforms. M$ is justified in selling the products separately as a way to recoup development costs.

On the other hand you have (with DVD's) identical products that have been deliberately crippled to run on only a subset of essentially identical players (which have been similarly crippled). I think this is an abuse of copyright which amounts to restraint of trade by an industry-wide cartel.

I'll leave the discussion on fascism to others...

Just to throw another angle into the discussion - how would you feel about DVDs that self-destruct after a certain number of hours? The technology has been developed and may be used in the rental market (you don't have to return the DVD, so there is benefit to both the provider and the consumer).

And, back to region codes, it seems to me that without them, it will be inevitable that the price of DVDs will level out across the world. It's basic economics - without "friction" from such things as region codes and inconvenience of purchasing (the Internet makes this easier), the market forces will push prices towards equality.
So the end result might be that DVDs become more affordable in the richer countries, but less affordable in the poorer countries.

But this hasn't happened with other products. Music CD's (even the legal ones) are still cheaper in the third world than they are in America and Europe. And, I don't recall it happening with VHS tapes either. Why are DVD's (and video games) singled out as the only product(s) to be protected in this way?

Finally, I wonder what will become of "regions" when legally downloadable movies are available on-line?

Original music CD's are only slightly cheaper but one good thing is,
for e.g, the Miles Davis CD I buy here will be the same quality
as the Miles CD I would buy in the U.S.

With Region codes, thats not always the case, because quality
varies between the different regions. This when comparing
DVD's in my collection.

I mean, I dont want to use photoshop that lacks several features and
function because I bought it in a different part of the world!

I'm not sure about KL, but in Bangkok original CD's are often 300 baht, which is only $US 7.50. I think that's quite a bit less than you'd pay in the US.

Well, I guess it depends. I went to Amazon.com and searched for: Miles Davis (since he was mentioned above)
and the first three CDs listed are $9 - $11.

pal & NTSC
 

Sure, my NTSC VHS tape won't work in Europe.

False !! Most of VHS player and TV are compatible with a lot of format
including NTSC usa,NTSC asia , PAL, secam, secam l, etc...
you can buy a product in swasiland and import in your country....
i think the problem come from the CAPITALIST MONEY MAKER !!

For the Code Zone, I play my dvd zone 1 in my tibook and
the zone 2 (where i live) with my Lacie external drive(zone 1 too !!!) ..
all start with DVD player.....

Vi-nce: leave the political-social commentary out of your posts in the future, please. Thank you.

DVD region code changed by my kids...help!
 

Hello

I have a Mac G4 1 gb powerbook with the Matshita CD-RW CW 8122. Ubeknown to me, my kids have mucked about with my region code setting and it is now stuck on region code 2. I am a legit user with no intention of defrauding anyone, and I object to being treated like a criminal before I have even considered becoming one! I just want to watch my DVDs!

I am advised that it is possible to get a crack to solve the problem, and I wonder if anyone can help me. I am not a mac expert so clear instructions needed.

I would be grateful for any help. :confused:

You'll have to search the web (e.g. via google) for "firmware" that is region-code-free. This would be something that is specifically made for the model of DVD player in your Mac. I don't have any links to suggest.
If you find such firmware, it should come with instructions.

You might also consider calling Apple to see what they suggest.

I just did a simple Google search on "mac dvd firmware hack" and came up with dozens of possible solutions.

If you don't want to much with your drive's firmware, the obvious solution is to use Video Lan Client (VLC) for all-region DVD playback.

I think that region-codes, DRM and DMCA are clearly the result of the copyright-mafia lobbying to outlaw fair use.

If an industry has become a sufficiently fat cat to have no clue how to adapt to a changing marketplace by doing something else than suing their customers, I have a hard time to see them as the innocent victims of evil pirates.

iTunes cleary demonstrates that legal online music stores work.
If you do what it takes to make them attractive, something the music industry has not been able to understand.

While I respect the policy of the forum to keep illegal hints out of here in order to keep clear of the sneaky lawyers, I would suggest to run a google search for something like

<name of your dvd-drive as shown in System Profiler> region-free dvd firmware

in order to get hold of a firmware that will solve your problem.

Be extremely careful to read, understand and follow all the instructions how to flash it or your could end up with a dead drive.

Like I said before, I think region codes are a pain in the butt.

I use the Apple dvd player for my region 1 dvd's and VLC for other
regions.

As for resetting the drive, I asked an Apple tech months ago when I took
in my mac for service and he said to just bring in the computer and
have them reset the drive for you.

Exactly the point that makes your argument correct. Regionalising DVDs is merely a method used by the industry to buy time. When DVDs were introduced world-wide, the technology was already there to do this sort of thing correctly but they did not act (same story for CDs.) Regionalisation is not the answer to curbing piracy and defies logic because in the end, whether you buy the DVD in Paris or New York, the rights holders have been paid.

So as for Intellectual Property Rights, there is a big myth that implies payments come for the point of retail sale which is absolutely untrue. Once the distributers have purchased the units, it's been paid for and the royalties come from that, not your money, months later at the register.

Although...when the person who's due the royalties gets paid is anybody's guess and is between that individual(s) and the industry through which they are contracted.

And as we have seen with the Record labels, they may not get paid at all because the RIAA (the organisation which is paid to collect these royalties) tends to use the money for further lawsuits rather than pay the artist - which by default, makes their existance redundant.

pirates and marketing
 

well i here the hardware that i own at home... an ibook g4 w/combo,
a noganet ext. case usb2 and a ricoh ata dvd rw...
long time ago i change for the fifth time the region on my ibook so i just can run region 4 dvd's with the apple dvd player, when i first plug the ext dvd and try to load a dvd on it, the dvd player ask for setting the region, i answer no, and with mac the ripper copy the movie to de HD with no region code and burn a free zone dvd that i can read with no problem in any dvd plyer...
so, the region theme just drive me to make copies of every dvd i own so i can play it with no problem...
it look that the region problem is a software limitation made by the dvd industry to get more money, of course, the only way to get away from it is making copys...
i can remember when i herd that there would be copy-proff cd's and i experiment the problem of making a copy of a copy of my girlfriend singin' with a md...

This thread is ceasing to have much to do with OS X experiences. Let's try to remedy that, shall we? :rolleyes:

Ahoy, all. The optical drive in my PowerBook G4 (12in, 1.33Ghz) is currently set to read DVDs with European encoding (region 2 I believe), and I'd of course like to play discs from home (the US). I've been using VLC player for a while, and when I read on this forum that VLC can get around the pesky region lockout, I was sold on VLC being the best video player out there.

Every time I try to play a non-European disc with VLC player, however, I cannot get it to work. I'm doing the following:

Inserting DVD, force-quitting DVDPlayer's "You gotta change the region setting!" alert.

Opening VLC with the DVD still fully mounted.

Going to File-->Open Volume (this may not be the best translation of the menu item, as my compter is displaying all of this in German)

Setting mount point to /dev/rdisk1 (it does this automatically)

Selecting the media type "DVD"

Trying to open it.

After I do this, there's a bit of a "hiccup", in which I hear the DVD drive spin up and see the VLC player window display the volume, afterwhich the drive spins down and nothing plays. The player window then returns to its native, non-playing state.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

I think significant differences might be that 1) when you buy Office, it clearly states on the outer cover what operating system it's intended for, and 2) there is no rental market for it to confound world travellers.

I'm having the same problem, except I'm trying to play Region 2 DVDs and my drive is set for Region 1. I can play Region 1 with VLC just fine, but nothing happens when I try to play Region 2. Any help with this issue would be much appreciated!

Hello everyone,

I have been looking all over the place to find a reasonable way to unblock the region code on my wife's eMac (with a HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4481 DVD player) and my G4 Powerbook with no luck, both running 10.4.

I need a solution that really "works". It is amazing how hard it is getting lately to find "exactly" what one is looking for on the internet, with the overflow of useless and false information and more new users asking really simple questions on forums (instead of looking in "HELP" first!) thus overcrowding the number of useless threads in forums.

Anyway, using VLC only partially solves the problem as this program does NOT function well with every DVD, depending on the level of protection. Nor does Mac the Ripper, not every DVD gets ripped correctly with Mac the Ripper. Although, some films with bad sectors which can not be copied correctly with Mac the Ripper can sometimes be played back just fine after converting them to .mp4 files using Handbrake. However these methods might not always work well with every DVD, and are extremely time consuming depending on the speed of your machine.

In any case, it is a major bummer to have to dish out a whole bunch of dough to get a Mac, and still be stuck with annoying restrictions of this sort. I just had to use up one more region code change to be able to watch "Shattered Glass" that I happened to rent in Zone2. Now, there remains only two more region changes on the machine!

I feel that it is not my fault if my local video clubs (I live in Switzerland) carry all kinds of zones in their stock, and sometimes the film I want to rent exists only in one specific zone and not another, so that I need to be able to change the region code regularly.

Any suggestions? Or should I get a PC next time around like everyone else?