[gildedpen]

(I posted this on the Isramac Yahoo Group, thought I'd post here. In Israel, video stores have DVD's from several regions, and I want to be able to watch Israeli films as well as American films!)

I have a Powerbook G3 (Lombard model, bronze keyboard) OS
8.6. I use a DVD-Video PC (decoder)
Card and an Apple DVD-ROM module . Here is the info about
the Apple DVD drive in the Apple system profiler:

Driver version: not available
Mac OS Partitions: 0
Removable media: Yes
Vendor: Matshita
Revision #: 064E
Product ID: DVD-ROM SR-8173
Serial #:

I use (built-in) Apple DVD Player software to watch DVD's.

My question is, can I defeat the stupid and pointless region
code? Do I have to upgrade to OS 9 (which I'm not inclined to do,
for various reasons)?

Another problem: I already switched once to Region 2. It played
the movie, but then when I reinserted and tried to replay, the DVD
Controller said "Playing" or "DVD Menu" but I got nothing but a
white screen. This is a problem I never had watching Region 1
and I hope the problem is fixed when I switch back to Region 1
(which gives me 2 more switches and then I'm locked).

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Person Man]

Originally posted by gildedpen:
My question is, can I defeat the stupid and pointless region
code? Do I have to upgrade to OS 9 (which I'm not inclined to do,
for various reasons)?

Well, unlike later DVD drives, the DVD drive that you have is RPC-1 (which is a good thing... it means that region changes aren't permanent after five tries like newer RPC-2 drives are).

There are various utilities that can be used to get around the 5 region changes limit, and they can be found here. Make sure that you read the FAQs and instructions first.

You can ignore anything having to do with flashing firmware, because your drive is already RPC-1 and does not need any special preparation, other than one of the software utilities that can be found on that page.

[SupahCoolX]

Edit: Nevermind- I just realized you don't have OSX.

[gildedpen]

Originally posted by Person Man:
There are various utilities that can be used to get around the 5 region changes limit, and they can be found here. Make sure that you read the FAQs and instructions first.

Thanks a bunch, I had been pointed to the site before, but not that page. I found the software I was looking for, Region for Classic OS. It works; now I have a region-free drive. Strangely, it doesn't even prompt me to switch regions; Region can be set on region 1 and play a region 2 DVD. (I didn't even install Region Switch, which is supposed to reduce the necessity for manual switches.) I wouldn't worry about it, except the documentation repeatedly says it is desirable to manually switch regions each time, for some reason I don't understand. But hey, if I'm not having problems watching DVD's, that's what's important.

I am no longer consigned to the Region 1 Ghetto of my video store!

Sometimes it's advantageous to have an old Mac--no firmware mess!

Hallie