[jols]

I have just had one of these irritating, un-useable, lemony drives installed in my beautiful looking, but now thoroughly worthless mac powerbook 1.5ghz.

I'll never buy another mac computer.

It is unconceivable that a computer that is used by design/media/travelling people can be disabled so deliberately. I just want to watch dvd's from overseas. jesus.

I'd like to say something witty and snide about their advertising or 'it just works' bullshit that young identity-less geeks spout or something, but I think I'll just use my considerable talent at communicating with people to ensure that everybody who even uses the letter 'm' in my presence has plenty to think about before succumbing to apple's overpriced charms.

The sooner these mean-spirited, conscience-less, sell-out thieves are run out of business and preferably out of town, the better.

Eat a di*k apple.

[Big Mac]

"Sounds like someone's got a case of the Mundays."

[Eug]

Originally Posted by jols 

I have just had one of these irritating, un-useable, lemony drives installed in my beautiful looking, but now thoroughly worthless mac powerbook 1.5ghz.

I'll never buy another computer.

It is unconceivable that a computer that is used by design/media/travelling people can be disabled so deliberately. I just want to watch dvd's from overseas. jesus.

I'd like to say something witty and snide about their advertising or 'it just works' bullshit that young identity-less geeks spout or something, but I think I'll just use my considerable talent at communicating with people to ensure that everybody who even uses the letter 'm' in my presence has plenty to think about before succumbing to apple's overpriced charms.

The sooner these mean-spirited, conscience-less, sell-out thieves are run out of business and preferably out of town, the better.

Eat a di*k apple.

Fixed.

[Naplander]

Yeah, but he has a point. My drive is still permanently locked to region 1, which is VERY frustrating for me as I live in a region 2 area.

I am hoping (praying) that the Leopard upgrade will make it region 2 again, but I fear the worst!

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Naplander 

I am hoping (praying) that the Leopard upgrade will make it region 2 again

Don't count on it.

[peeb]

It probably won't - this sucks, but is the MAFIAA, not Apple. Although, why they can't put drives that have region free firmware available, I don't know.

[jols]

hey eug,

what does that mean? i'm not sure of your inference. please let me in on the joke...

[jCurve69]

I have only recently started searching for a way around this rediculous issue.

I have been using Mac's for sometime now and after readin through this thread there are a few things that ring true. and some good points have been made.

Recently I had the privilage of having my post pulled from the Apple discussions site. It wasn't to nasty all though i did have a go at the "It Just Works Campaign" because even as a Mac devotted I can say it obviously doesn't. I think the reason it was pulled was because of the interesting response I got from another member explaining that Apple was currently under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading on this subject for a potentiel breach of the fair trading practices act. Not only do these drives prevent the consumer from getting that warm fuzzy feeling associated with being the proud owner of a Mac, they also restrict the sales of DVD's by retailers because we are forced to choose more carefully.

Anyway as mentioned in an earlier post I also had a result in zeroing data and reinstalling the OS on my last 3 Powerbooks each time the counter was completely reset. I could live with that back then because I like to give my system the odd clean out anyway. But I fear now with my Macbook Pro (man these things run hot) that this won't be the case so I am reluctant to try. It's all good and well to suggest an external drive but I travel and really don't want the hassle of lugging more cables and hardware than i have too.

Pcummins in an earlier post made the point that things may not change whithout a consumer backlash so why don't we give them one. we all know people that own macs and they know people as well and so do those people. Whatever the backlash is it needs to spread fast. Possibly a you tube station that is set up specifically for the purpose of requesting a change anyway you want we can post videos and messages in as many public places as possible. It's to easy to sit back lazily and bitch and moan but if we want things to change we have to find a way to get through.

It is obvious that there is know reel solution in this thread so rather than going over the same old ground why don't we do somthing about it. There are no piracy or copyright issues here so there is nothing standing in our way.

I am open to suggestions and willing to be part of any action.

At this stage I am seriously considering a PC for traveling with.

Cheers

J

[Hawkeye_a]

I agree with JCurve. consumer pressure is required in this case. From what i remember, non region coded drives were made legal n 1996 or something, and matshita is ONE OF THE ONLY companies not to offer a firmware upgrade to RPC1 (region free).

Most of the drives in Apple's computers are matshita.

It is my personal opinion that:
1. this form of DRM or whatever, should be illegal as it doesnt have any "legal" purpose. it doesnt deter piracy (only encourages it).
2.It is just plain wrong, as honest consumers who buy foreign DVDs are PURPOSELY prevented from using legally purchaced goods with the hardware.
3. On the computer's tech-specs pages on Apple's website (where most consumers get all the info they need before making a purchase), no mention is made of the (potentially illegal) limitation of the driv in the particular machine.
4. No warning is given or permission asked for when the Apple DVD player Sftware first sets the region of the drive, usinging up 1 change.

I am not a lawyer, i am not a technitian. i do know that RPC1 drives are legally made by companies, so i know it is both technically and legally feasible. And as a thinking being, i feel that it *wrong* to limit consumers in such a way.
a)it is wrong for matshita to not make a region free firmware available
b)it is wrong for Apple to not warn consumers before setting the region on the drive the first time.

In conclusion, the combination of the choices made by both matshita and Apple have purposely and sufficiently contributed to hardships for consumers of their products without prior warning from either manufacturer.

If there is a petition, or a movement, or a lawsuit or whatever asainst matshita and/or Apple, i would support it, unless matshita/Apple make available a free firmware upgrade to make the drives in Apple computers region free (RPC1)

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

I agree with JCurve. consumer pressure is required in this case. From what i remember, non region coded drives were made legal n 1996 or something, and matshita is ONE OF THE ONLY companies not to offer a firmware upgrade to RPC1 (region free).

Um, NO company releases firmware upgrades to make their drives RPC1. All the region free firmwares you see available for download have been hacked by third parties.

The Matshita drives can be hacked, it's just that nobody currently has either the expertise or the desire to hack them at the moment.

[analogika]

The company's name, by the way, is "Matsushita".

[analogika]

Originally Posted by jCurve69 

I am open to suggestions and willing to be part of any action.

At this stage I am seriously considering a PC for traveling with.

And that would be a different situation how?

[peeb]

Region coded drives suck. It means I have to rip dvds just to watch them. Defective by design.

[pcummins]

Originally Posted by jCurve69 

Pcummins in an earlier post made the point that things may not change without a consumer backlash so why don't we give them one.

In Australia the ACCC forced companies to do this as it was shown to be anti-competitive to restrict playback of legally purchased DVDs and games (ie, PS1 and PS2 games). You should lobby your respective groups in your countries to use this as a precedent to removing the region locking (I will have to contact the ACCC concerning the PlayStation 3's DVD/BluRay disc locking - if you can have region free games, I'm sure they can have region free BluRay/DVD too).

Failing that you can attempt to exercise your consumer rights for a product that works. I suggest you check what your consumer rights are (particularly, if a device is not fit to operate with existing devices (displays or discs, not hard in the whole 1080p vs 1080i snafu and disc regions)) and see if it is legal to purchase and return HD-DVD or BluRay players if they do not pass your requirements with say, a disc from the wrong region. A simultaneous effort would be quite effective in this case if organised carefully and in a law abiding manner. (Though, it'd probably be on the same scale as getting a refund for Windows OEM licenses).

I'd recommend trying to get the ACCC or equivalent government organisation to handle it however, where possible. If no luck on that front, maybe several thousand or even tens of thousands of open-box players may cause them to change their tune...

[odesa]

Haha! nevermind...

[xsulux]

any good news?

[jmcnally]

Just ordered a new 24" iMac and it will seriously cramp my style if I can't watch some R2 discs on it. Does anyone know whether the new iMacs will still have region-locked drives?

Can we lure the firmware hacker guy out of retirement somehow?

[duck]

jmcnally: I don't like your chances. Since the machines are even thinner, I suspect they're using the Matsushita drives exclusively, which means you can't even swap them out for a Pioneer.

As for lureing xvi out of retirement, it's been tried, with 4 figure sums of money. No such luck.

[entity119]

Originally Posted by duck 

jmcnally: I don't like your chances. Since the machines are even thinner, I suspect they're using the Matsushita drives exclusively, which means you can't even swap them out for a Pioneer.

Good news...


Googling points to quite a few cracked Optiarc (Sony/NEC IIRC) drive firmwares; hopefully it's just a matter of time.

[duck]

entity119: Can you clarify what that picture is showing? Is it the shipped drive inside the new iMacs, or is it another 9.5mm optical drive?

[entity119]

It's the drive that shipped in my new 20" mirrormac.
Interestingly, although I'm in Melbourne it came preset to Region 1 so I'm going to have to waste a change to convert it to R4 when I finish watching these DVDs I got off amazon.

Also; it came with a spanish keyboard, which amused the hell out of me. Talk about weird localisation issues!

[pmartin]

Does region free firmware void the warranty?

[matty-uk]

well I swapped out my cdrw on the iBook and whacked in a Pioneer 105 DVDRW which is great but can I make this region free? Or do I just need to use VLC or something instead to play movies?

Off to CA next week so will be renting movies from blockbuster there and would like to watch them on the iBook.

[iampivot]

I'm wondering if someone who has just bought a macbook pro (latest version 2.2GHz, LED backlight) can check to see which version of firmware their DVDRW drive has? Mine is a matsushita UJ-857E revision ZA0E.

I am suspecting that the drive is silently being updated sometimes when updates are installed using Software Update. If that is the case, someone with the appropriate equipment could snoop the SATA bus and intercept the communication protocol used and firmware uploaded.

Granted it's a bit difficult, but there's always someone out there up for a hardware hacking challenge..

[macgyvr64]

Originally Posted by iampivot 

I'm wondering if someone who has just bought a macbook pro (latest version 2.2GHz, LED backlight) can check to see which version of firmware their DVDRW drive has? Mine is a matsushita UJ-857E revision ZA0E.

I am suspecting that the drive is silently being updated sometimes when updates are installed using Software Update. If that is the case, someone with the appropriate equipment could snoop the SATA bus and intercept the communication protocol used and firmware uploaded.

Granted it's a bit difficult, but there's always someone out there up for a hardware hacking challenge..

For reference: My new(ish) 2.4 GHz Santa Rosa 15" MBP has the same drive, same revision ZA0E.

[tommygun123]

I'm a proud owner of a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-835E. I'm running it on a Powerbook G4 and am having a little trouble actually changing the region.

Since returning from the US I have one final chance to change regions. "This is the last time you can change the region drive code" I set the region code to R4, cause i live in Aus. I click "Set drive region" then an error message appears....

"There is a problem changing the drive region code"
Error: -70001

Mmmm......call apple service centre.....they have never heard of Error code -70001. Nothing they can do....

I've searched Mac forums far and wide. No luck. I've heard of everything you've all said about getting a new drive internal or external. That is something i want to avoid cause I wouldn't care if it was stuck on R4. I even tried to use Fairmount to see if it would change the drive outside of the Mac DVD Player. No luck it didn't work. I think that the drive is stuck on region 1. Damn it.

Any ideas??

Cheers

[eddy_on_mac]

I Don't know what happened... but yesterday my Super Drive (MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J) suddenly became a Free Region drive. It was set for region 4, but It plays (today) region 1 and 3 as weel without even asking for region change.

Last thing I did, I installed Mac the Ripper 3-r13. Then with my driver set to region 4 I ripped region 3 DVD (the DVD player was set to ignore when the DVD inserted.
When I'm ready to rip the 2nd DVD of another region 3 code (Still have Mac the Ripper active) I open the DVD player app, and it just read it. After that, any Dvd region codes (I tried 1,3,4) just works.

(By the way, I have the DVD Region X installed and set to region 3 (which had nothing to do with what happened)

Is there anyone else experiencing this? I wanna know what caused it.

By the way, it's an iMac 2.16G Intel core 2 Duo with MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J Super Drive.

[entity119]

Originally Posted by barrett63 

SecondLife DVD Maker is a powerful and easy-to-use DVD Author and Burning tools . You can make your own DVD title with the movie captured by your DV or downloaded from the internet.

DVD Software - FLV to DVD, MP3 to DVD

Go to hell, seriously.

[Fienx]

They've managed to crack the firmware on Matsushitsa drives!

The Firmware Page :: View topic - Matshita and Apple RPC1 firmware: a sum-up

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Fienx 

They've managed to crack the firmware on Matsushitsa drives!

The Firmware Page :: View topic - Matshita and Apple RPC1 firmware: a sum-up

Not all of them. Only those drives that Apple has released firmware updates for. If your drive is not on that small list, you're out of luck.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by eddy_on_mac 

I Don't know what happened... but yesterday my Super Drive (MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J) suddenly became a Free Region drive. It was set for region 4, but It plays (today) region 1 and 3 as weel without even asking for region change.

Last thing I did, I installed Mac the Ripper 3-r13. Then with my driver set to region 4 I ripped region 3 DVD (the DVD player was set to ignore when the DVD inserted.
When I'm ready to rip the 2nd DVD of another region 3 code (Still have Mac the Ripper active) I open the DVD player app, and it just read it. After that, any Dvd region codes (I tried 1,3,4) just works.

(By the way, I have the DVD Region X installed and set to region 3 (which had nothing to do with what happened)

Is there anyone else experiencing this? I wanna know what caused it.

By the way, it's an iMac 2.16G Intel core 2 Duo with MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J Super Drive.

Hard to say, but there are some discs that are labelled as being for a just one particular region but the disc itself has multiple region codes.

For example: my region 1 James Bond Ultimate DVDs are listed as region 1 only on the box, but the discs themselves report that they are region 1 and region 3. And my Greek Lord of the Rings extended editions say they are region 2 only on the box, but they report being able to be played on regions 2 and 4.

Better make absolutely sure those discs aren't labelled as a single region but actually coded as a multi-region disc before you get your drive locked to a region different from your native region.

[andretan]

Woohoo! UJ-846 is listed! ZOMG!

I'm so happy! LOL. The other day I bought the movie 300 (Region 3) and the damn thing refused to open in VLC.

Had to use Apple DVD Player and it forced me to change my region code -- it was Region 1 previously.

I'm never going to buy Region 3 DVDs anymore! Screw the region codes

[Gamoe]

I can see nothing good or rightful about region-locking. It is there solely to please the content distributors by giving them control they do not merit over legally purchased media. We should all be outraged. Instead, we just accept it and continue to buy as usual. Finding ways around the technology is all find and dandy, but that's not enough. Region-locking should be illegal, plain and simple.

I apologize for going slightly off-topic. I know this a technical discussion about region-locking. However, it bugs me that we have to go though all these hoops as if to take control over our own devices and watch a movie from China in the U.S. were a crime, when in fact it is region-locking that is the crime.

The sad part is that it's just going to get worse if we continue to allow it to (and we probably will as long as we get our precious entertainment with it).

[GrendelKhan]

How to play DVDs from anywhere in the world on your MacBook

This is how I did it and links to the software I used. Special thanks to the guys at RPC1.org for making this possible, especially Ben11 who did all the hard work.

Copy this at your own risk but it worked for me.

1. Go to Apple>About This Mac>More Info>Disk Burning to check what Firmware version you’re running. My MacBook is running HBEA so that's THE ONLY ONE I CAN CONFIRM WORKED – EVEN ONCE.

2. If you haven’t been applying the updates, you can go from HEB4 to HEBA using RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting

3. Download the software you need. These are the ones I’ve found so far:

RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting
RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting
RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting

4. Apply the flash AT YOUR OWN RISK. Do not interrupt the installation. Restart the computer.

5. Use DVDInfoX to confirm that you’re flash worked. You can find it at RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting

When I did the check, this is what it showed:

DVD Info X v1.0.1, by xvi ([email protected])

WARNING --- DVD Info X will only list DVD drives that have some WRITE
capabilities, like combos, DVD-R, DVD-RW, etc...
DVD-ROM-only drives will NOT be listed.
WARNING --- You also must eject any inserted medium to list the drive.

Vendor: MAT****A
Model: DVD-R UJ-857
Firmware: HBEA
RPC-1 (region free)

6. Set and change the Region using (the Intel updated) Region X 1.1.2 which you can get from RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting

7. You can use DVD Player to watch your region free movies and reset the region as need be (using Region X) or use VLC and don’t worry about changing the region (as it doesn’t set a region).

8. Tested with “Lock Stock….The Complete TV Series” (UK Region 2) and “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (US Region 1). Both played flawlessly. Burned a DVD using Toast Titanium 8.01 at 5x speed.

Thanks to all that helped make this possible. 20 minutes of downloading, reading and installing and I finally have the computer I had hoped for. “Region free” is THAT big a deal for me. I put this together for anyone else interested in all the links.

Addendum: I also have Kill the Ripper (came with the link for Region X). I didn’t need to use it to make everything work, but you might.

Addendum II (and the edit): I didn't upload any of the files above but I made a zip of all the ones I used which can be downloaded from RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting.

[olePigeon]

I hate regions. I want the Spansih release of Pan's Labyrinth because the U.S. version has the subtitle recorded ON the movie instead of just transfering the movie and using English subtitles in the letterbox where it belongs.

Ugh.

[ttrtilley]

[QUOTE=tommygun123;3461480]I'm a proud owner of a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-835E. I'm running
"There is a problem changing the drive region code"
Error: -70001

Mmmm......call apple service centre.....they have never heard of Error code -70001. Nothing they can do....

Spotlight finds:
// DVDErrorCode - Errors returned by the framework (-70000 to -70099)
//-----------------------------------------------------
enum {
kDVDErrorUnknown = -70001, // Catch all error

Apple service probably saw this but were too embarrassed to tell you :-)

[Person Man]

[QUOTE=ttrtilley;3503251]

Originally Posted by tommygun123 

I'm a proud owner of a MATSHITADVD-R UJ-835E. I'm running
"There is a problem changing the drive region code"
Error: -70001

Mmmm......call apple service centre.....they have never heard of Error code -70001. Nothing they can do....

Spotlight finds:
// DVDErrorCode - Errors returned by the framework (-70000 to -70099)
//-----------------------------------------------------
enum {
kDVDErrorUnknown = -70001, // Catch all error

Apple service probably saw this but were too embarrassed to tell you :-)

It still boils down to the same thing. Error -70001 means Unknown Error, so you're still in the same position as you would have been if they said they've never heard of error code -70001.

[entity119]

Just as a headsup, there's a firmware for the new OPTIARC 5630 that's been posted over at rpc1.org. Apparently there's a couple of people that have had success with it, but use caution; I couldn't get the OSX necflash application to work, so i rebooted into Windows and flashed the drive with the RPC1 firmware they had on offer, which seemed to work; it reset the 'changes left' dialog at least.

All was well for a couple of days until I tried to burn a DVDRW in toast and kept getting Medium errors - flashed the drive back to the original firmware and all seems fine now - caveat emptor, I guess.

Interestingly I can't register over at RPC1.org due to all three of my email addresses being banned (what) so if anyone here is a member over there, feel free to copy/paste this over there.

[ehnwhatdoicare]

Ok so personally I love to watch hindi movies, and whenever I get them they are always region free so I have never had an issue. But the other day I had gotten this movie called "Provoked" which was made in the UK and having a set region code of 2. Now my DVD player on my PB G4 is a MatshitaDVD-R UJ-845E is set to Region 1 and I was afraid to change my region, so what I did was:

1. Created a folder on my desktop named "VIDEO_TS"

2. Open finder window looking at contents of DVD

3. Select all files on DVD from the "VIDEO_TS" folder and copy them

4. Open the created folder on your desktop and paste all the files in

5. When complete, open the DVD Player application

6. Choose File, then goto Open DVD Media

7. Browse to created folder and click on it (folder must be titled "VIDEO_TS"

8. Click the "choose" button once the folder is highlighted

9. If the DVD opens, create your own playable DVD on a Empty DVD disc

It worked for me, I was just guessing and hoping it would work and it did. Now I can play the disc I made on my laptop without having to change the region code.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by analogika 

The company's name, by the way, is "Matsushita".

Technically, he's not wrong.

"In Microsoft Windows systems device details, Matsushita devices are abbreviated to MATSHITA, to fit the limit of 8 characters."

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

-t