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DVD region crack - possible?

D

djbombjack

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 2, 2003
43
0
Crooklyn, NY
Anyone know if it's possible to make your Mac DVD player multi-region?
I know that when you first use the Macs you get around 5 chances to select regions, but is there a way to keep the DVD player multi-region?

Any help will do...
 
Yeah, i've been looking at that route... but anyone else had any luck? Or any advice?

... I remember something a year or two back about some Danish guys who had worked a software crack which eliminated region-code reading on the machines... and how the movie industry was flipping...
 
Originally posted by djbombjack
Yeah, i've been looking at that route... but anyone else had any luck? Or any advice?

... I remember something a year or two back about some Danish guys who had worked a software crack which eliminated region-code reading on the machines... and how the movie industry was flipping...
Click to expand...

The link I gave had what you were looking for. Did you try the patches and it didn't work or wasn't available?

arn
 
I'm a little worried about trying the methods on that link... it says it can cause irrepairable problems with the DVD drive - has anyone tried them?
 
Originally posted by djbombjack
I'm a little worried about trying the methods on that link... it says it can cause irrepairable problems with the DVD drive - has anyone tried them?
Click to expand...

I think that's the only way you're going to get around it... it's in the firmware in the first place.

I've never tried it myself.

arn
 
Originally posted by djbombjack
I'm a little worried about trying the methods on that link... it says it can cause irrepairable problems with the DVD drive - has anyone tried them?
Click to expand...


I flashed the rom on my dvd drive (tibook 500) a while back, and haven't had any problems with it. My experience is that it works well. Whilst it can cause irreperable damage to your drive, and invalidates your warranty, as long as you follow the instructions step by step you shouldn't have a problem.
 
I've cracked my DVD drive, and so have a lot of my friends. The only time you're likely to do any damage is if you suffer a power failure, or interrupt your computer, whilst the patch is being applied.

Since the patch only takes 15-20 seconds to install, it'd be highly unlikely (and extremely unlucky) if either of these things happened during the procedure.

If you're worried, don't do it.

But I say:

"Go ahead - bite the bullet. Are you a man or mouse?"



<squeak!>
 
The best time to do a firmware update is with no other applications running. And if possible, do a reboot just before doing the update.
 
You don't have to 'crack' your Mac to make it able to play DVDs from any region. You could get a program called VLC which can be got from www.videolan.org . It is a video player that can play DVDs from any region plus play other video files like DIVX. It is avaliable for most OS's, but the Mac version only works with Mac OS X 10.1 or greater. It can also play DVDs through more than 2 speakers if you have more than two speakers connected to your Mac. But you will need a sound card other than the one that comes as standard with Macs. There are USB sound cards that can be connected to Macs so they have multi speaker DVD sound.
 
To interject a dumb question into this otherwise highly intelligent thread... What is all this DVD region stuff and what are the advantages of having a drive that is 'cracked'
Thanks
Paul
 
dvd drives (both in computers and the standalone ones you connect to your tv) Have 'region protection'. When you buy a dvd in whatever country you're in, they are region encoded - i.e. will not play on any player that doesn't have the same region code. for example - i'm in the UK and the region code over here is 2. The vast majority of dvd's sold in the uk are either region free (work in any drive, anywhere in the world) or are region 2, much like the players. The reason for them being region encoded is so that dvd's can't be imported from the USA or Japan. If you crack your drive, you apply a patch which removes/modifies the chunk of code in the dvd drive's firmware (built in software, in a nutshell) that dictates the drive's region code. This will allow you to play discs from anywhere in the world, i.e. get dvd's cheap, or before they're released in your region.
 
I successfully flashed my Ti 500, Dual USB iBook 500 DVD, and a Sawtooth 500's DVDRAM to be region free. I have a DVD-AO4 now, but I haven't tried that as I can watch DVDs on the now external DVDRAM.

It's easy, but you bite your fingers while that little bar goes across the screen!

I imagine there might be a lull in this process due to the lack of 9 booting, all my flashes were done in 9 not X. It's still region free in X, but I need to use Region X for OSX to reset the changes every time, but that's no hassle for what you get.
 
Regional DVD

I've just tried the link that arn posted, the wormintheapple site, and it doesn't work anymore either in Safari or Chimera. I could do with a multi region player in my PB as I travel a lot but if it voids the warranty I'll be waiting a while anyway.

Cheers.
 
Originally posted by hvfsl
You don't have to 'crack' your Mac to make it able to play DVDs from any region. You could get a program called VLC which can be got from www.videolan.org . It is a video player that can play DVDs from any region plus play other video files like DIVX. It is avaliable for most OS's, but the Mac version only works with Mac OS X 10.1 or greater. It can also play DVDs through more than 2 speakers if you have more than two speakers connected to your Mac. But you will need a sound card other than the one that comes as standard with Macs. There are USB sound cards that can be connected to Macs so they have multi speaker DVD sound.
Click to expand...

Is VLC really region free? Wow.... well, I'll fully test it out when I get my region 2 disc. Great info!
 
Any news on this ? ( probably not )

Will the new drives in the G5's have an easier time with this, I assume not since the laws are the same ?
 
thats partially why i modded my xbox, i have a region and dongle free xbox dvd player now and its fully functional hehe
 
VLC is region free, but the last time I tried it with a region 3 DVD, the sound kinda sucked. Maybe it's improved since the last time.

My 2¢.
 
When I first got a DVD drive for my PC, it was already region free, because most resellers here in NZ pre-flash the drives for you. So I went and bought DVDs from several regions (you can pick them up locally), and they all played fine.

Then I got my Mac. I imported it from the US, so my drive only allowed 5 changes. I found the region-free patch on the site listed above and used it, it works fine. I've just got one comment - WHY does it come up with a big red "!" when it's finished? I saw it and immediately thought it'd failed and wrecked my drive! I've noticed the same thing with "Installer VISE"-based installers, a big red "error" icon when it's actually finished successfully.
 
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