Matshita Uj-846

[MRU]

There are PRC region free firmware available for this drive that you can download and install in windows. I'm wondering if this will affect osX. I'm reluctant to do it, has anyone else updated the firmware of this drive?

 

[ShannonHoon]

Could you tell where you found it? I've been looking for it for a while now.

Thanks!!

 

[MRU]

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2212

 

[ShannonHoon]

That firmware is RPC2, not RPC1 (Region Free).

 

[MRU]

DOH!

 

[generik]

That firmware is RPC2, not RPC1 (Region Free).

What does RPC2 mean?

 

[MRU]

Region Protection Control.

RPC 1 is bypassable by VLC etc, if not hacked to be completely free.
RPC 2 isn't...

Correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[balamw]

Correct me if I'm wrong!

The essence is correct, but AFAIK not all RPC-2 drives disable raw data access. IIRC this only became an issue with the most recent hardware revs, and earlier Macs still had RPC-2 firmware, but worked with VLC.

Does VLC support DVDs from all regions?

Well this mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses libdvdcss and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with these drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that DO allow raw access, it might take VLC a long time to crack the key. So just pop the disc in your drive and try it out, while you get a coffee. RPC1 drives should 'always' work regardless of the regioncode.

http://www.videolan.org/doc/faq/en/videolan-faq-en.html

B

 

[California]

What's a RPC1 drive?

 

[balamw]

What's a RPC1 drive?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_lockout

RPC-1 left it up to the software to decide whether a disc was playable, while RPC-2 firmware will not let the software have the data if the region code is wrong.

B

 

[California]

Does that mean that the UJ-845 will read/write DVDs that the UJ-846 won't?