multi-region DVD's on a mac

mikemac

I watch a lot of DVD's on my imac.
And it was bought in Europe it's Region 2.

But I own a lot of American football DVD's bought from Amazon so they are Region 1. That's the American region setting.

Now I was allowed switch regions 5 times before the prompt states it's permanently locked to a region.

Is there a workaround here?
Maybe another program I can run the dvds on? At the moment I just use the default DVD Player program.

Never understood this region setting malarky. VHS didn't have this, seems just a way to boost profit margins in different areas and setting release dates :mad:

But thanks for any help here

dubmick

I think VLC can play any DVD's

Teh Russ

It's a bit of a workaround, but rip the DVD to the computer using HandBrake.

How to do it:
1) Stick the DVD into the computer.
2) DVD Player will open and warn you about the region settings.
3) Don't quit DVD Player. At this point, open HandBrake and start ripping the disc. If you quit DVD Player it'll eject the disc.

Then you can watch the resulting file on your Mac without the hassle of having to deal with the region stuff.

anthony4335

VLC will play all regions

Talisman

I'd recommend using FairMount with VLC. I have found that VLC gets stuck on some discs but with FairMount installed it works fine.

Set FairMount to launch whenever a video DVD is inserted:
Apple Menu > System Preferences > CDs & DVDs
When you insert a video DVD: <Choose "Open other application" and select FairMount>

FairMount will use VLC to decrypt the disc and mount it as a disk image on the desktop. Open the disk image and drag the VIDEO_TS folder to VLC to play the content of the disc.

pvik00

It's all described here (some of the pages are old, but the method still applies):

http://lowendmac.com/fishkin/06/0623.html
http://www.powerbook-fr.com/dossiers/dvd_region_free_en_article30.html

You'll also need a firmware:
http://forum.rpc1.org/

WARNING: Only do it if you fully understand the process and the consequences. Other than that this is an essential hack. DVD regions are just evil.

I've done it on several machines and it works on all from old iBooks to the most recent MacBook.

In everyday use you'll need to explicitly set a region, but you can do it as often as you need to. Switching regions will be handled by Region X, it's just a mouse click once you've set up your rpc1 firmware matching the exact model of your drive.

Wibbs

pvik00's hack does work but....OK maybe others have had different experiences, but I have had far too many macs come back with fried drives after firmware hacks like this. Now some were fine, but it seemed to be dependent on volume of use so I think the VLC/FairMount/handbrake route is the safer option IMHO.

penguinbloke

mac the ripper will also let you back them up and remove the region... should do the job