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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Strange DVD region 4 problem.

Strange DVD region 4 problem.
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Location: Adelaide, Australia
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Jun 13, 2003, 07:56 AM
 
I'm in Australia so region 4. I don't use the DVD much but put on in tonight and it said my PB (15" 1 gig Ti) was set to region 2 and it wanted 4. So I tried another and it played even though the DVD had 4 on it. Out of 6 region 4 DVD's half play and half complain my DVD is set to region 2. DVDInfo says its 2. I could set it to 4 of course but I am sure I have already done this.

Has anyone seen this behaviour before ?

Thanks - Michael
     
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Jun 15, 2003, 10:04 PM
 
Originally posted by mmurray:
I'm in Australia so region 4. I don't use the DVD much but put on in tonight and it said my PB (15" 1 gig Ti) was set to region 2 and it wanted 4. So I tried another and it played even though the DVD had 4 on it. Out of 6 region 4 DVD's half play and half complain my DVD is set to region 2. DVDInfo says its 2. I could set it to 4 of course but I am sure I have already done this.

Has anyone seen this behaviour before ?

Thanks - Michael
Not sure what would be causing your problem, other than mislabeled DVD's (which happens all over Asia). I recommend using a software player for discs that are not in your supported region, thereby savying your limited region changes.

I live in Japan and have my Apple DVD player set to Region 2. For other regions, I use VLC, it's completely region free and it works fine.

- P
24"2.33Ghz iMac, 500G Hdisk, running OS 10.5; iPhone 3G 16G
     
mmurray  (op)
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Jun 15, 2003, 10:15 PM
 
Originally posted by pbjudge:
Not sure what would be causing your problem, other than mislabeled DVD's (which happens all over Asia). I recommend using a software player for discs that are not in your supported region, thereby savying your limited region changes.

I live in Japan and have my Apple DVD player set to Region 2. For other regions, I use VLC, it's completely region free and it works fine.

- P
Thanks pbjudge. As DVDinfo was reporting a 2 also I figure somehow it had got reset and that some of my DVD's were all region so they didn't care. I reset it and it all seems fine - except now I have 3 to go of course!

Michael
     
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Jun 16, 2003, 01:23 AM
 
Some of our Australian DVDs are coded region 2 AND 4 - since both the UK and AUS are PAL we often share the same master to save costs, though sadly this means we sometimes get censored UK versions of movies. It's possible perhaps the software is assuming the wrong region.

Which DVDs are you having the problem with?
     
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Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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Jun 16, 2003, 04:35 AM
 
Originally posted by mmurray:
I'm in Australia so region 4. I don't use the DVD much but put on in tonight and it said my PB (15" 1 gig Ti) was set to region 2 and it wanted 4. So I tried another and it played even though the DVD had 4 on it. Out of 6 region 4 DVD's half play and half complain my DVD is set to region 2. DVDInfo says its 2. I could set it to 4 of course but I am sure I have already done this.

Has anyone seen this behaviour before ?

Thanks - Michael
Have a look round the internet, there are various sites that have firmware updates to make your drive zone free. I've done it to my iBook and have had no probs.

cheers Ry
     
mmurray  (op)
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Jun 16, 2003, 04:47 AM
 
Originally posted by DVD Plaza:
Some of our Australian DVDs are coded region 2 AND 4 - since both the UK and AUS are PAL we often share the same master to save costs, though sadly this means we sometimes get censored UK versions of movies. It's possible perhaps the software is assuming the wrong region.

Which DVDs are you having the problem with?

Thanks Chris. That would be consistent with a scenario where my PB was set to region 2 and half my DVD's bought locally worked and half didn't. The ones that work would be the ones that were really 4 - 5. From my memory Matrix wouldn't work and Blues Brothers would -- does that make sense ?

The software DVDInfo told me the PB was set to Region 2 so I decided to believe it and reset it to 4. Now I don't have any problems except I don't understand how it got set to Region 2 in the first place. I don't use it much for DVD's though but I am sure that the first time I did I set it to Region 4. Oh well computers are full of mysteries :-)

Thanks - Michael
     
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Jun 16, 2003, 05:50 AM
 
Originally posted by mmurray:
I decided to believe it and reset it to 4. Now I don't have any problems except I don't understand how it got set to Region 2 in the first place. I don't use it much for DVD's though but I am sure that the first time I did I set it to Region 4.
The first disc you ever inserted was probably a dual region 2/4 disc, and the suggested/selected region was likely region 2. Hence having the problem ever since - dual region 2/4 discs worked, pure region 4 discs did not.
     
   
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