DVD Regions

Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
169
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Ivanovo, Russia
Your Mac's Specs
2.16GHz Macbook Pro, 2GB RAM, OSX v10.5
Greetings all,

I tend to spend a fair amount of time traveling internationally. As such, I have amassed a tidy collection of DVDs from Europe, Russia, China, and the US.

Do you foresee any problems playing these DVDs on a Mac?

Thanks,

J
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
167
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
California
Your Mac's Specs
15" Macbook Pro, 2 GBs Ram, 250gb My Book, 500gb Lacie,40gb 3rd Gen ipod,60gb ipod video
I'm pretty sure you can play those using VLC Player.
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
194
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Bergen, Norway
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17", Intel Core Duo
Depends on your DVD drive. If it's a Matshita, you're basically screwed. There are third party firmware editions for most other drives though, so you should be able to get around the region encoding if you have one of those.

VLC won't do with Matshita drives, I've tried ;) The drive won't read the disc at all. Shot my plan of using a Mac Mini as a media center to heck - if I can't rip or watch non-European films on it, it's useless.
 
OP
spilio
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
169
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Ivanovo, Russia
Your Mac's Specs
2.16GHz Macbook Pro, 2GB RAM, OSX v10.5
How do you know what drive you'll get? I plan to get a MacBook Pro. Are Matshita drives standard in that model?
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
194
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Bergen, Norway
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17", Intel Core Duo
I think so. But I have no way of knowing for sure.. Someone with a MacBookPro should know though - but I suspect it will be, since it's slot-loading, as is my optical drive.
 
OP
spilio
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
169
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Ivanovo, Russia
Your Mac's Specs
2.16GHz Macbook Pro, 2GB RAM, OSX v10.5
Perhaps, when the time comes to buy, I'll give Apple a call. Maybe they have a program that can accomodate me... After all, I can't possibly be the only multi-national customer they have...
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
194
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Bergen, Norway
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17", Intel Core Duo
They won't have any program to accomodate you - all DVD drives must have region encoding, or the manufacturer won't be licenced to produce them. So, all region free drives are hacks implemented by a third party.

What you can do is change the region encoding on the drive, but you can only do this 5 times. I'm guessing you can rip your media once you have the right encoding on, but this kinda bars you from buying foreign stuff again. Sucks, I know. Apple should use drives that are easier to hack :)
 
Joined
Mar 17, 2006
Messages
312
Reaction score
17
Points
18
Location
Texas
Your Mac's Specs
Mac mini i5, 2.3Ghz dual core, 8 GB RAM, OSX 10.8.2
You can use MacTheRipper to convert your DVDs for use on region-coded players, including the Matsusheeta drives used in Macs.
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
194
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Bergen, Norway
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17", Intel Core Duo
But he won't be able to rip them on the computer with Matshita drive. These drives won't let you read the DVD if it's another region code, so it's of little use to have a program that rip it.
 
Joined
Dec 4, 2005
Messages
696
Reaction score
24
Points
18
Location
Australia
It only blocks the dvd if you open up Dvdplayer...
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
194
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Bergen, Norway
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17", Intel Core Duo
Couldn't open them in VLC either. I'll try later with MacTheRipper, but I don't think it'll be a success.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top