[sjoshi64]

Hi,

I just bought a new PB17 and tried to play a UK DVD ('home made' if that makes a difference, but it works on a DVD player). Since I bought the PB in America, the region is set too 1. But it says I can change the region only 5 times without locking it.

Is there a way to get the thing region free so it plays all DVDs? I've had a search on these forums but I'm afraid I don't understand the technical aspects which talk about 'firmware' and stuff - is there a simple way to allow me to just watch all DVDs whatever their region? I do watch region 1 DVDs too so don't want to lock anything.

Someone mentioned VLC player os something like that, and that doesn't work since it messes up the sound and whenever I try to press 'cancel' when it prompts me to change region, the PB ejects the DVD. Nice of it.

Excuse my ignorance and lack of familiarity with these things - anyone know what to do? Someone told me that 'codes' exist to simply change the region protection, I'm not too sure what that means either.

Thanks very much.

[Filburt]

Region-free firmware for the latest PowerBook G4s are not yet available. Don't despair though. Visit Mac DVD Resource page occassionally. It usually takes 6-12 months for a region-free firmware to appear. Well, for some drives, it may be never.

[sjoshi64]

Thanks for the reply: what does firmware mean exactly though?

[Filburt]

Originally posted by sjoshi64:
Thanks for the reply: what does firmware mean exactly though?

Firmware is basically ROM BIOS. For optical drives, it is an embedded software that operates that controls and operates the optical drive transport and translate into signals your computer can understand. Go to the website on the link given for more detailed information.