How to play different region DVD movies on Mac; The state of backup and cloning tools under Mac OS X; DVD Conversion (Mac). And can backup your favorite DVD easily. There are only three steps. First, prepare the External Optical Driver. Then free download DVD Copy Pro program to backup your different regions DVD. It will cost about 20-30.

Par Vincent (ch-vox)

Warning !

• External Blu-ray Burner Region Free Portable DVD Player, for HP Dell Acer Asus Lenovo MSI Alienware Gaming Laptop and Desktop Computer with Windows 10 8, 6X 3D BD-RE DL DVD-RW Writer Optical Drive. 5.0 out of 5 stars. Get it Fri, Oct 1 - Wed, Oct 6.
• Makes your DVD-ROM region free. However, the developer doesn't update DVD Region Killer any more and right now DVD Region Killer only works on Win 9x/ME/2K/XP. To remove DVD region on Windows 10/8.1/8/7, you need an alternative to DVD Region Killer. Top 4 Free Alternatives to DVD Region Killer. Free DVDAid for Windows/Mac.
• The article below says that whatever DVD you put into your mac first, that is the region it is going to be set it. Then your mac writes what region your DVD is into the firmware, in order to limit you from playing different regions. Region X tells you what region you have, if you are not sure still.
• Change your DVD drive region in DVD Player on Mac. To play a DVD, the region code of the DVD must match the region code of your DVD drive. Your DVD drive is automatically set to a region code the first time you play a coded DVD. If the region code for a DVD doesn’t match the current region code of your DVD drive, a dialog asks you if you want.

Before upgrading your optical drive, be sure you have selected a zone by reading a DVD with the Apple DVD Player (ie). If this modification is not made, your drive simply won’t work after the operation. Upgrading firmware is a sensitive operation. You make it on your own risks. Powerbook-fr can’t be responsible for what you do, and for any damage during the update process. Please, read the ReadMe.rtf file before running any updater.

Introduction

DVD drives have been introduced with the first G3 PowerBooks, then we have seen combos (CD-RW/DVD) and finally Superdrives (DVD-R/DVD-RW). Those drives cannot read every zone -except the Matsushita SR-8173 that was in the second generation G3 PowerBook also called ’Lombard’- : you should know that it is impossible to change the zone setting more than 5 times, after what you will only be able to read DVD from the 5th choice. For instance, if you last chose zone '2', the drive will only read DVDs from this zone. But there are ways to break this down.

One of them, certainly the most simple, is to use softwares like VLC or MPlayer which will allow you to read DVDs from each zone (warning, those softwares may sometime change the region of your drive, without you to be warned, this can lock your drive on the last selected zone after 5 changes... thanks to Taron for the piece of information). However, there may be some routines that won’t work on various hardware (dunno why ?!) so we must find another solution...

Sources for this article :
http://forum.rpc1.org/
http://xvi.rpc1.org
http://tdb.rpc1.org
http://dhc014.rpc1.org
http://superdrive.cynikal.net
http://lasvegas.rpc1.org
http://www.wormintheapple.gr/macdvd/
http://www.dvddemystified.com

For PowerBook & iBook G4 and MacBook (Pro)

Before going further

You should know basis about your MacIntosh and region locking. The limitation is double : firsty is hardware. This is the first to run when you’re inserting a DVD in your optical drive, and the patches we provide you are made to bypass this one. But theres’s a second limitation which is purely software, through your Operating System : MacOS X. A small app allows you to change region without limitation. This app is made by xvi and is called Region X (we are mirroring it at this URL). To test the changes, RegionDisplay (mirrored on our server: PAL, NTSC) is an ISO image, once mounted on your desktop, it will open with Apple DVD Player. It willdisplay which region is selected in MacOS X. Now you know that, let’s enter the real work.

2010, Ala42 creates MatshitaFlasher based on ben11 work

Since early 2010, MatshitaFlasher developped by ala42 allows flashing firmware on every MacBook, regardless MacOS version. Thanks to ala42 for authorisation of mirroring his work.

Flashing instructions:
Unzip MatshitaFlasher.zip and the firmware zip file
Make sure there is no disc in the drive.
The firmware .zip file typically includes two firmware .dat files of 700-800KB size, one original and one RPC1 patched firmware
In Finder drop the firmware .dat file (not the directory) you want to flash on the MatshitaFlasher application.
A terminal window will pop up, listing drive and firmware ids and ask you if you want to continue flashing
In case of drive/firmware mismatch or a corrupted firmware file the drive will not be flashed

The table below recapitulates every firmwares you can use with MatshitaFlasher:

Typical Terminal window after dropping the firmware .dat file on the flasher application:

2007, RPC1 is back (update august 19th 2007)

The Dangerous Brothers (TDB) have begun the year 2007 with two RPC1 firmwares for LG GWA4080MA & LG 4080MB. Beware, those firmwares can’t be applied if you’ve updated your drive with Apple’s 'Superdrive Firmware Update 2.1' that will update to AE39 & BE39 RPC2 revision. And you’ll need Windows or Parallels 3.0 (and later) for applying those firmware updates.

Dvd Region Free Software Mac

Early august (same year:2007), ben11 -a C programer- has created a second event. After downloading Apple’s 'Superdrive Firmware Update 2.1', he has decompiled sources and has patched them for making them region free. Chapeau! You need to know that for Matsushita’s dezoning, you have to apply the 'Superdrive Firmware Update 2.1' before applying ben11’s RPC1 firmware.

If you don’t use Tiger, you may need to hack a system file to run those patches. Before applying the patch, edit this file /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist and change OS version to 10.4.x (ie : 10.5.1 will become 10.4.9). Apply the patch, and before rebooting your Mac, modify this file again to come back to initial values. That’s all. Thanx to Terminus for this hack

And we’d like you to remember few points before upgrading your drives, you MUST choose a zone. Unless your optical drive won’t read DVDs anymore !!! You also need to stop all softwares running on your Mac, to unplug your network (Airport, USB or ethernet modems, etc.) as other USB or FireWire peripherals for more security. Please, read the ReadMe.rtf file before running any updater.See ya !

For Nec, Optiarc, Sony and few other optical drives, use NecflashX for dumping or upgrading the firmware.

Pioneer DVR-K05 Superdrive (update december 25th 2005)

You’ll need to replace your Matsushita optical drive yourself with a Pioneer DVR-K05 (130 €). Disassemble your Powerbook, install the new one in your PowerBook, then use LasVegas’ Mac utility :DVRFlash with Dangerous Brothers’ modified firmware. It’s all command lines, not really sexy so far, but really useful ! If you need further information, please go to http://forum.rpc1.org.

The CW-8122 combo (PowerBook-fr.com exclusive !!)

May 2003, xvi has modified the BA21 (RPC2) firmware for CW-8122 Matsushita combo drive in 12' 867 MHz, he made it region free (RPC1). This firmware, codename BX21 (RPC1), was the Apple’s BA21 copy except for the region information that have been set to free (see article).

We noticed quickly two issues that have not been solved :
once BX21 updated, the combo couldn’t get back to its original BA21 settings (BA21 is the only firmware officialy supported by Apple and Apple Care...) ;
xvi’s BX21 updater was locked anly only worked with 12' 867MHz Alubooks, as the original Apple’s BA21 updater.

So, we’ve worked to modify both updaters to make them compatible with all Apple Alubooks in which there is a CW-8122 combo drive. Alubook’s owners can now set their combo to region free, and set it back to region locked if they need.

Update January 23th 2005
We’ve just achieved two new patches : first one for 550 TiBook woth CW-8122, second one for upgrading a CW-8121A to CW-8122 region free in a TiBook (tested with 867 MHz and 1 GHz TiBooks) and in an iBook G4 (12' 800) ! Those patches don’t allow you to go back (no U-turn to RPC2) but you can now play DVD from any region ;)

Note :
We can can technicaly patch any Mac with those optical drive. If you computer is not in the above tables, please contact us.
The CW-8123 or CW-8124 remains RPC2 for now...

The UJ-815 SuperDrive

December 13th 2003, xvi is back on the PowerBook’s front. He made a region-free firmware for the Matsushita UJ-815 SuperDrive in every PowerBooks in which it is included (for AluBooks but also for TiBooks !)First of all : a big THANK goes to xvi who brings a very long-wanted firmware... And here follow the main instructions. Read them carefuly before flashing your SuperDrive (source Cynikal)

Firmware X101 : For upgraded 2X DVD-R, 1X DVD-RW, 16X CD-R capability as well as region-free behaviour.

Firmware D101 : For ONLY UJ-815 2X DVD-R, 1X DVD-RW, 16X CD-R upgraded capability.

Firmware X0CB : For original 867Mhz/1Ghz 15' TiBook & 867Mhz 12' Powerbook Capabilities as well as region-free behaviour.

Firmware D0CB : For original 867Mhz/1Ghz 15' TiBook & 867Mhz 12' Powerbook Capabilities. This is an Apple officially supported firmware.

Firmware XWDB : For original 1Ghz 17' Powerbook Capabilities as well as region-free behaviour.

Firmware DWDB : For original 1Ghz 17' Powerbook Capabilities. This is an Apple officially supported firmware.

How to recover your superdrive after a firmware update failure

Thanx to Ben11 for this article (source forums.rpc1.org)

'After some private message exchanges it seems I was able to help some people in this situation (inclduing the original poster). I wrote a simple utility to perform a very basic flash to the drive - doing that may be able to recover the situation, but my flash utility performs almost no checks and is generally much more basic than the framework which, for example, the standard Apple Superdrive updaters have used.

So, if your drive is in a similar situation this may be able to help. But only try if you feel you’ve exhausted every other possibility, such as having the drive replaced. This flash process may not work for you, or in the worst case it could conceivably leave your drive is a worse state than before. It is of coursed not endorsed by anybody, in particular not Apple nor the drive manufacturer (or anybody at rpc1.org either).

As I wrote, compared to the standard updaters this utility makes few checks on the drive status - so unless your drive has really lost its standard operating firmware, often because of an interrupted flash, don’t use this rather than a more featured updater.

There is the terminal based utility (and source code) - along with copies of the HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, KCVB (RPC1 patched) firmwares for the UJ-857 and UJ-857D.

Mac External Dvd Drive Region Free

Basic Instructions

You need to download the 'SimpleFlash.zip' file, unpack it and then run it using the terminal. e.g. assuming you have downloaded the archive file to your desktop you can unpack like this:

to use the utility you start it using ONE of the following commands:

./simple_flash 0 UJ857-HAEA-MBP-rpc1.dat

or

./simple_flash 0 UJ857-HBEA-MB-rpc1.dat

or

./simple_flash 0 UJ857D-KBVB-MB-rpc1.dat

or

./simple_flash 0 UJ857D-KCVB-MBP-rpc1.dat

(choose according to the firmware you need, see below)

It will prompt you to answer if you want to continue - to which you can type ’yes’ or ’y’, if you want to go on. The flash should start and will take about 30 seconds after which the utility should say 'Finished'. At this point I recommended you restart your Mac. If all has gone well your drive should be responding again.

Choosing the Firmware

The firmware included are the ones that the 'Apple Superdrive 2.1' update offered for Matshita drives - except the ones in this archive have RPC1 patches. If you don’t want RPC1 you could go back to standard firmware using the updaters posted in other threads on this forum after your drive is responding again.

In principal the utility would also flash other matshita UJ-8xx drives, but suitable firmware data files are not included for them.

HAEA, HBEA are for UJ-857
KBVB, KCVB are for UJ-857D

If your drive previously had:

HAC1 or HAE4 use HAEA
HBE4 use HBEA
KBV9 use KBVB
KCV9 use KCVB

If you don’t know the previous firmware revision you had then: As far as I know firmware revisions HAEA & KCVB are used in the Macbook Pro, HBEA & KBVB are used in the Macbook. Choose according to which model of mac and which model of drive you have.

The optical drive should not accept a firmware corresponding the wrong drive model, but for a given model the various revisions may have slight differences, perhaps because of different physical constraints on the hardware - so try to pick the appropriate revision.

Good luck.'

For PowerBook & iBook G3

You’ve got a DVD drive inside your G3 laptop ?? You’re desperately searching for a way to make it region free because you’re watching DVDs from all around the world ?? So here is the response to your issue ! This little software allows you to set the 'region counter' to zero. In fact, each time you have to change the region setting of your DVD drive, after having watched the DVD, launch 'RegionReset' app. Reboot your mac, and you’ll be able to change region as much as you want. Have fun !

Two pieces of information :
it seems you can’t run the app on Pismo PowerBooks (see further) ;
to allow using the app, don’t forget to control the extension name 'DVD Region Manager'.

For G3 PowerBook users other than Wallstreet PowerBooks, here is the app of your dreams ! Region (by xvi) allows you to switch zones of MacOS 9. It also works on iMac DV computers.

Finally, THE solution for LG drives (especially for Pismos) in the following updater.

Here is small table to let you know if the optical drives inside your G3 PowerBooks can be RPC1 or not :

I have lived in many countries and have collected many DVDs of various regions. But I'm in a fret over the inability to play all these DVD movies on my DVD player. Any solution to remove region code from DVD? Or can I put the DVD files onto my thumb drive to be able to play on a plane while traveling so I do not have to carry the DVD drive? - Jack

As always, DVDs that are sold have region codes, which restrict the DVDs to be played on DVD players in other regions for the sake of letting film distributors control aspects of a release, including content, release date and price. For instance, if you got a DVD sold in France and a DVD player sold in America, you'll probably fail in playing it and get an error'This disc is not formatted to play in this region.' This is because your DVD has a region code of 2 while the DVD player comes with a region code of 1, which are of total difference. Generally, the DVD world is separated into the following geographical regions.

Convert Region 2 DVD to Region 1, You Need

MacX DVD Ripper Pro is the best DVD region code remover and changer that can:

• Unlock and remove region code from DVD;
• Make disc region code (1-6) to region 0;
• Convert region 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 DVDs, e.g. region 1 to region 2, etc unlimitedly;
• Rip RCE/regional DVDs (in PAL or NTSC) to Mac, PC, MP4, MOV, AVI, H.264, iPhone, iPad, Android etc. No quality loss and 36X faster speed.

DVD Region Code Overview

Mac Dvd Ripper Region Free

Why do we have region codes on DVD?

Shortly, money. For instance, Hollywood film distribution companies need to protect their profits to the maximum degree. Picture this, a movie is released in the U.S.A in January, and its DVD version comes to the public in the U.S market in September, 2017 while it makes its debut in Spain in October, 2017. So what will happen if an American friend sends the DVD version of this movie to his friends in Spain? No doubt the box office will flop in Spain. Hence, to avert the box office loss, they come up with the region code protection for DVD discs. Of course, it does work. Yet, it also brings incovenience for those who just wanna watch DVD movies themselves in different regions, no illegal distribution purpose. In case, you just need to clear region code for your convenience, below solutions are helpful.

Method 1 - How to Bypass Region Code from DVD, Make DVD Region Free on Windows/Mac

It has been highlighted that DVD region-coding has been a major inconvenience for travelers who wish to legally purchase DVDs abroad and return with them to their countries of origin, students of foreign languages, immigrants who want to watch films from their homeland and foreign film enthusiasts according to The Washington Post. Although people can get the DVD played on the DVD player successfully as long as they set the geographic area correspondingly to the disc, the limited number of times (at most 5 times) for changing the DVD player regions can be irritating. What's worse, some so-called multi-national DVD players like Sony DVD Player (cost at $34.99) only plays region one DVD. They're expensive while delivers poor performance.

Now with a professional DVD ripper software MacX DVD Ripper Pro, you will no longer reset DVD player region or worry about the remaining region changing times, because the region free dvd ripper can disable code from DVD to make the DVD region free, change region codes 1 to 6, and rip regional DVD to MP4, MOV, FLV, MKV, HEVC, H264, AVI for playback on iPhone, iPad, Android, etc with 100% quality retained.

Besides the ability to take region code off DVD, this program is also versed in decrypting DVDs with other copy protections, no matter CSS encryption, RCE, Disney New DVD Copy Protection or Sony ARccOS DVD protection. Below are steps to break region code and convert region 2 DVD to region 1 with this DVD region converter.

Step 1: Load DVD you want to convert by clicking 'DVD Disc'

How Do I Change The Dvd Region On My Mac

Free download and run the DVD region code removal program on Mac (macOS Big Sur), click 'DVD Disc' button to import the DVD files. You don't need to do anything else, cuz this application can accept whatever you feed it, region code 1 DVD, region code 2 DVD.....In short, any region code DVD disc can be automatically detected. Also, you can download the Windows version to get rid of region code for DVD ripping.

Step 2: Choose output format

After you imported DVD source, this DVD region code killer will directly remove region code from DVD without any third party help or complicated steps.

Here you can select the output format as you desire, like DVD to MKV, DVD to FLV, DVD to MOV, DVD to iTunes, DVD to iMovies, DVD to Fianl Cut Pro, etc. Or you can directly choose to rip DVD to iPhone XS, iPad Pro, Galaxy edge, HTC 10, Sony Xperia Z5/4, Surface Pro 4, PSP, Xbox One, etc, so that you can play any DVD movies on your gadget wherever you are.

Step 3: Select output folder

Specify output folder on your computer to save the output files. Click the 'Browse' button to choose the path where you want to save the output files in.

Note: As for the newly released copyright protected DVDs, you will never experience any error, thanks to its advanced title check mechansim. It enables you to make a digital copy of latest tough DVD without any DVD ripping crash, bad sector, output copy video audio out of sync issues.

How To Make Mac Dvd Player Region Free

Step 4: Start Override Region Code and Rip DVD

Click 'RUN' to start to remove DVD Region Code and rip DVD to Mac. after a fraction of seconds, you can play your new DVD movies on Mac without taking along DVD player.

Method 2 - How to Change DVD Region Code on Windows (10/8/7)

Besides the above method to once-and-for-all make regional coded DVD to region free, you have another solution - change DVD region code on Windows 8/7. Follow the steps below without breaking much of a sweat.

Step 1: Open Device Manager.

To open Device Manager, click Start→Control Panel→Performance and Maintenance→System→ Device Manager.

Step 2: Double-click DVD/CD-ROM drives, right-click the DVD drive for which you want to change region settings, and then click Properties.

Step 3: On the DVD Region tab, make the Region Code changes you want. Until now, the job is done.

Mac Os Dvd Region Free

Note:
The DVD Region Code can be changed in limited time, a total number of 5. And when the change time is left to the last one, you need treat it very prudently, since after that it is fixed with the last region.

If you are a Mac user and wanna change DVD region code on MacBook/iMac, you can refer to the DVD region code change guide for Mac guide.

And if you want to playback the DVD content on mobile devices after removing disc region code, you can apply MacX MediaTrans to transfer the ripped DVD video from computer to iPhone iPad iPod. What's more, this iPhone file manager also can aid you to copy photos from iPhone iPad iPod to Mac, export music from iPhone to Mac, download eBooks from iPhone to Mac, etc.

Mac Dvd Region Free

Notice: We only advocate using those best Mac DVD rippers to copy and rip DVDs under the concept of Fair Use and do not encourage any illegal reproduction or distribution of copyrighted content. Please abide by the local DVD copyright law before doing it.