[Iron Monkey]

Okay, foolishly i've set my DVD player to Region 1. I don't think there's anything I can do about it now as I've already changed the region 5 times and there apparently is no way to reverse the problem.

My quetion is this - would I be able to buy an external DVD drive to use as a dedicated multi region player? and also would I be able burn home movies from iDVD onto it as region 2?

Any help would be appreciated.

IM

[JoshuaZ]

I don't think so. The video is run through the video card and the DVD player has to be on the IIDE Bus to do that. I had the same issue with a G4 Tower a few years ago when I tried to use an external DVD drive to watch movies.

[rjenkinson]

no, it doesn't. i regularly watch DVDs using an external drive with my ibook. your other option is to flash your drive's firmware.

-r.

[Iron Monkey]

Many thanks... I guess I need confirmation that an external drive will work as I've looked ino flashing the drive but my drives not applicable yet.

The only other way I can think of is taking it to an apple store to see if they will be able to change it to region 2 for me.

I make short movie's with iMovie which will be totally pointless unless I can burn onto region 2. I think im f*****

[vinster]

You can use Apple's DVD player to play discs in an external drive. I have a Plextor PX-716UF and the DVD player app will play a movie as long as a DVD's mounted.

In my opinion, you should make your IMovie DVD's region free.

[Iron Monkey]

Ahh i see... DVD produced by iDVD is "all regions" (AKA region 0). This has made my day!!

Many thanks Vinster, ill have a look at the Plextor drive

[Nivag]

doesn't VLC play DVDs regardless of region?

VLC

[gururafiki]

Also, if you don't mind waiting, Handbrake is a DVD ripping program that ignores the region. So you can rip it as a mpg or avi file and watch it off your hard drive.

Handbrake: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21117

[phobos]

Most of the external dvd players have drivers for imovie, itunes, dvd player rtc. So everything will work as expected. I have an external dvd recorder and I can watch movies record imovie dvds and the rest.
So go out and buy one!
But reconsider about flashing your drive. It might save you some money.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by phobos

Most of the external dvd players have drivers for imovie, itunes, dvd player rtc. So everything will work as expected. I have an external dvd recorder and I can watch movies record imovie dvds and the rest.
So go out and buy one!
But reconsider about flashing your drive. It might save you some money.

He can't flash his drive, because there is no region free firmware out for it yet.

Also, he can't use Handbrake, or VLC, or MacTheRipper either because the newest Matsushita (Panasonic) drives always read the region code for everything.

[wilsonng]

I usually go to System Preferences > CD & DVD and set the computer to do nothing when a CD/DVD is inserted.

If I have a regional disk, I usually play it in VLC which will play anything without having to reset the DVD player region setting.

I believe that an Apple technician is allowed to "reflash" your DVD drive once but you'd have to check your local Apple service center.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by wilsonng

I usually go to System Preferences > CD & DVD and set the computer to do nothing when a CD/DVD is inserted.

If I have a regional disk, I usually play it in VLC which will play anything without having to reset the DVD player region setting.

I believe that an Apple technician is allowed to "reflash" your DVD drive once but you'd have to check your local Apple service center.

That won't work with a newer Matsushita drive. VLC will not be able to bypass the region coding. Somehow the drive itself forces a read of the region code and if it doesn't match the region the drive is set to it won't access the data.

The original poster still needs to wait for region-free firmware to come out for the drive first.