US MacBook Pro in the UK

I'll be in the US in a few weeks and am thinking of getting a MBP while I'm there. I just want to check a few things before I do regarding the difference between buying there and here.

1) Power supply. Am I right in thinking that I can just buy an adapter? and/or just replace the duckheady part of the charger? Or would I need a converter?

2) DVD. Ideally I'd like the DVD drive to play DVDs from any region. Is the region locked to Region 1? Can you switch it like with PCs? And if so is there a limited number of times you can go back and forth? Or is there a nifty piece of software that will allow me to play DVDs from any region?

I think they are the two main points. Power and DVD regions. So if anyone can think of any other issues that I might run across running a US machine in the UK I'd be greatful.

Sorry I can't tell you about the DVD part, not until I have a friend bring over one of theirs. What I can tell you however, is that I bought mine in the U.S. because that's where I used to live, and now I'm in Hungary and it works just fine.

The Magsafe adapter is rated to work at both 110 and 220V. Mine doesn't even get hot, it's all good. But what you WILL need, is an adapter. I can't find any grounded adapters here which aren't part of some crazy design that holds like 5 other adapter types, so do yourself a favor and get some in the U.S. as well.

If you're going to New York, go to J&R music, which is located downtown and is accessible via the 4 and 6 train (to Brooklyn Bridge), and also the R train to City Hall. Get the three prong grounded adapter which says Continental Europe on it I believe. There are also ones which have specific countries listed as well. They're $5 a piece. I wish I had bought more.

Here's a link to the Travel Smart adapter line. Those are what to look for :

Travel Smart at JR.com

Remember, three prong grounded is very important.

Doug

UK plugs are different than Continental Europe. You'd want like these.

Voltage Valet™ Grounded UK Adapter Plug - RadioShack.com

Dysfunction said:

UK plugs are different than Continental Europe. You'd want like these.

Voltage Valet™ Grounded UK Adapter Plug - RadioShack.com

Click to expand...

True. But they do make those as well, for a few bucks less.

To watch DVDs without having to worry about region coding.. go get VLC its free and ignores region coding. Its also quite flexible (for instance, lets me rotate the video through 90 degrees so I can watch a film while laying on my side, but the laptop is in a normal position)

As far as the power question goes, you just need to switch the US two pin plug bit for a UK 3 pin plug bit when you get back to the UK. If you don't want to pay for a whole new power transformer when you get back to the UK, ask a buddy who also owns a mac (or scan through ebay) as the transformers as supplied with two attachments, one with a length of flex, and one without. You might get one for the price of postage...

eBay.com.my: Official Apple PowerBook / MacBook (Pro) UK power cable (item 190337611080 end time Oct 06, 2009 00:46:15 MYT)


yea, 3 quid isn't bad either

BTW, sorry I missed that you're temporarily in the US earlier.. my kids are going spastic with the Thanksgiving activities around the house

Thanks for all the advice, I've been thinking about buying one for a while. The savings I'll make from getting one in the US tipped me over the edge. They were the only couple of questions I wanted to clear up so cheers.