Playing DVDs? - preventing REGION LOCKING?

Two Parter...from frustrated naive user...
1. It has been awhile since I put a DVD as in Hollywood movie. I put a DVD in the computer and ZILCH...nothing starts playing. I do notice a DVD icon with the movie name...inside are two folders...AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. How do I get the movie to play...I thought it would just start the DVD PLAYER right up and play...
2. I play movies from multiple regions...I have a message
DRIVE REGION CODE
The disc region code does not match the drive region code. The drive regioin code must be changed to play the disc.
New Drive Setting [Region Code 4]
Current drive Setting: Region code 1
You can only change the drive code 4 more times.
HOW DO I GET AROUND THIS?
Thanks, --bill ([email protected])

I put a DVD in the computer and
ZILCH...nothing starts playing. I do notice a DVD
icon with the movie name...inside are two
folders...AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. How do I get the
movie to play...I thought it would just start the DVD
PLAYER right up and play...
Normally video DVDs are set to start Apple's DVD Player via the "CDs & DVDs" System Preference, but this means you can't use VLC if the regions don't match.
If you drag the VIDEO_TS folder to the DVD Player icon it should play, or you can use "Open DVD Media... ⌘O" from DVD Player's "File" menu.
VLC uses "Open Disc... ⌘D".
2. I play movies from multiple regions...I have a
message
DRIVE REGION CODE
The disc region code does not match the drive region
code. The drive regioin code must be changed to play
the disc.
New Drive Setting [Region Code 4]
Current drive Setting: Region code 1
You can only change the drive code 4 more times.
HOW DO I GET AROUND THIS?
With some DVD drives you can flash modified firmware to make the drive RPC-1, which allows unlimited region changes (when used with Region X).
If you don't have one of the newer Matshita drives, you can play DVDs with VLC, which doesn't bother with regions, or you can use MacTheRipper to make a region-free copy of your DVDs.

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Though I assume that video DVDs are region locked, what about software?

Will a US iMac be able to handle Japanese Apple software? I just recently purchased an iMac here in Japan and want to spring for an MBA this christmas back in the states. I also bought iWork (family pack) and intend to put that on my MBA. Will the US MBA be able to use the Japanese iWork?

Thanks, Tom. Not concerned about language since I already switched this Mac to English and am using iWork in English. I just realized that the MBA has no disk drive, so I'd have to connect it to my iMac via thunderbolt anyway to share the DVD. Thanks again!

DVD Region locked?

I want to change the DVD Region back to my own country and it says that I have one change left but won't let me, why?
Is it locked?
VLC won't play this DVD, what other players with play DVDs?

Set up a new account. If the problem appears there, then you will know it's a system wide.
Run Apple Hardware Test.
=================
Disconnect all devices from the computer then do the following:
Boot up from your Snow Leopard Install DVD while holding down the "c" key.
Select the language you wish to use, and then choose "Disk Utility" from the menu bar.
Your HD should appear in a panel on the left hand side of the window which opens. Select it and then click on the "repair disk" button in the right hand section of the window.
Once this process has been completed restart your computer and repair permissions directly from Disk Utility.
Try changing the DVD region.
If Disk Utility is unable to complete the repair, you will need to use a stronger 3rd party utility like DiskWarrior, Techtool PRO (not Deluxe) or Drive Genius.

How to remove Region-lock on DVD drive?

HI,
My laptop is equipped with pioneer dvr-k16a. I had watched some DVD borrowed from my friend who required region 1 to play, so I switched it to region 1 and now I can't switch it back anymore. Apparently my DVD-RW being region-locked which I know only after it happens.
Is there anybody can help me up?

If there are no more USER changes allowed, than your drive is permanent locked into the last used Region (Region 1 is America).
There MUST have been a message on your screen asking for your permission to change into a different Region when you switched it to a Region 1.
Like the previous post, I would not flash the drive into a region-free neither, as it is a risky procedure which voids warranty and quality of your drive. This procedure can't be declared as ilegal, as someone easily could buy several Multi-bay drives for each region to watch his Films on.
You can still watch different region movies on a region-locked drive with specific region-free software solutions. Google them yourself as I don't want this reply to disappear again.

I cannot play a region 1 DVD only Region 4 on Qosmio X500

Hi All
How do I get around this as I cannot play a region 1 DVD only Region 4?
Regards

Thanks, tried that, already locked
The main reason for requesting is that I travel worldwide and would like to watch a movie but am unable to do so because of this I have to carry any movies with me which is extra weight and I used to purchase a DVD/s in the country I am in at the time and once finished give it away or post it home as not to have the extra weight on me.
Thanks again
Regards

How do I region lock a DVD/Blu-Ray drive?

I want to region lock my drives. So e.g. I want to lock a DVD drive on one computer to region 1 and another drive on another computer(or the same computer) to region 2. Is there a safe fool proof way of doing that? Thanks.

Hi
It's not a relevant question - In iDVD forum as
iDVD - can only make one region setting = region 0 (Zero)
This means that DVDs if made for the right TV-Standard (NTSC or PAL) will play in ALL REGIONS.
TV-Standard - is something else and can be set for each new DVD project.
• PAL = 25 frames per second (fps) (EU)
• NTAC = 29.97 fps (USA)
Do not let iDVD convert material from one to the other ! iDVD tries to do it - BUT RESULTING DVD is poor or Worse.
(I use JES_Deinterlacer) to do this - does it so much better and is free)
Yours Bengt W

Trying to play dvds but it says i need to pick a region and when i do nothing happens says this mac is from russia?

why is my mac telling me its from russia?and cant play dvds cause of the region? and when i choose a region it does nothing please help

You need to connect to iTune (computer) to update software
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4972

My mac won't play dvd's and the region won't reset. This has never happened before and I've never had to change the region

my mac won't play dvd's and the region won't allow me to set it. nVer had to touch this before. Has come out of the blue

Perhaps the lens is dirty. Try cleaning it with a DVD lens cleaning disk, shoot some compressed air into the slot or use a fine microfiber cloth (eyeglasses cleaning cloth) wrapped around a business card and insert it gently into the slot.
Ciao.

DVD drive region semi-free?

I've been having a small issue with my iMac and DVDs.
First off, I'm in Region 4, which is what my mac is set to.
Secondly, I have a lot of discs from other regions.
Now, my discs that are region one will not play in the DVD player (as expected), and prompt me to change the drive to region 1 to play them, warning of 4 changes left (also as expected).
Now, the thing is, some of these region one discs, that wont play in DVD player, will play fine in VLC, yet others wont. This is the thing that's puzzling me.
Now, my drive is the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-875 type, which I've read a lot about, but as it will play some out of region discs, yet not others, does anyone know what's up?
Now, to top that all off, I'm in Australasia, where it's illegal to ship RPC-2 Drives, so if there is firmware blocking some of my discs, can I get apple to fix it because of that?
All in all this is mainly an inconvenience, since I can play any disc on the DVD player in my living room (like I said, you can't buy region locked DVD players here), but it'd be nice to play them on my Mac (which is in my bedroom) if I want to.
Any help?

Now, the thing is, some of these region one discs, that wont play in DVD player, will play fine in VLC
Be careful about this. It may not apply in your case, but when I got my new iMac recently I put a Region 1 DVD in (I'm in Region 2) and accessed it in VLC without any warnings of any sort: but the next time I played a Region 2 DVD in DVD player it said it was in Region 1 and gave the usual warning: so VLC may still be using up your changes - without telling you.

Please help: i suddenly can't play dvds

i'm using os 10.9.2 with an internal superdrive and external asus blu-ray drive (sbw-06d2x-u). i'm stuck with region code 3 on dvd player and use vlc to play the rest. all of a sudden, i'm having problems watching dvds.
1. inserting into internal disc drive
all discs churn a while, then are spat out
2. inserting into external blu-ray drive
- blu-rays: no problem
- region 3 dvds:
vlc: it can play the disc, but video/audio quality is horrendous. playing the copied version is fine though.
dvd player: no problem
copying: no problem
- region 1 dvds:
vlc: after opening the disc, "rdisk1" appears on the playlist, before changing to the title of the dvd with a yellow triangle at the side and the duration of the film. there's no error message - it just doesn't play.
copying: i get this error message "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in 'VTS_01_0.VOB' can't be read or written (Error code -36)".
i suspect these problems started happening after a recent security upgrade. i've tried repairing the hard disk and pressing apple-R at startup, to no avail. please help.

so i sent the mbp for a diagnosis: it has a faulty superdrive, track pad and noisy fan(s). the external blu-ray/dvd player is fine. we tried dvds from code 1, 2, 3, 4 - only the code 3 disc (which region i'm stuck with using apple's dvd player) was able to be played on vlc. the guy said that the problem was to do with region lock.
before i send it elsewhere for a second opinion, can someone please confirm whether if the default dvd player is locked in a particular region code, dvds of other region codes can still be played on vlc or mplayer?

My MacBook Pro is asking for a password, when trying to play DVD. Anybody experienced that before.

One of user's MacBook Pro is asking for a password, when trying to play DVD. Anybody experienced that before?
Maybe the DVD itself is password protected, the user is travelling abroad.
Thank you in advance

Hi m,
My guess is the DVD is from another region than the one the optical drive is set to. Region changes are limited to 5 total, so it asks for the admin password to make sure you want to do it/allow it. After #5, the drive is locked to that region forever.

What restrictions playing DVD movies?

Hi,
I am drooling over the September release of Starwars - the original trilogy but I found out that DVD's will be sold with formats for specific regions, e.g. region 1 for North America, region 2 for Europe etc. This apparently relates to playing DVD movies on a DVD player but what is the situation re: DVD rom/DVD movie players on a desktop computer? Should I pre-order these DVD's?
My thanks in advance!

nggalai wrote:
dp wrote:
ActionNews wrote:
It's very Easy :
pacman -S libdvdcss
pacman -S xine-ui
Then watch DVDs and don't worry about Regioncodes .
CU ActionNews
till today i didn't know what exactly is libdvdcss for - now i know :-)
=> Linux supports all region-codes using libdvdcss
But your DVD drive might still curl up and lock itself. My drive has an internal "4 RC switches max" setting; everytime I put another RC disc in my drive, the counter will, well, count down until it's on 0. Then, the drive will lock to that RC and will refuse to accept any other regions.
Well, it did that until I patched the firmware a while ago.
93,
-Sascha.rb
According to /proc/ide my dvdrom is a DDU1621 (Sony), I will also look for an upgrade to firmware but I think you need at least DOS to install it. I wonder can it be done in Linux alone?
Thanks!

MSI DR4-A region locked

Hi,
i have an MSI DR4-a which appears to be region locked to region 1, i'm in the UK. I have played several disks however it never asked about changing the region. Is there a simple way of unlocking the drive or will updating the firmware from 2.23, which i'm on, to 2.30 clear the region setting.
thanks in advance

Hi,
I updated with firmware 2.30 and with me it did!
Apart from that, updating solved some problems I had and improved the performance! (See also info posted by other users, who benefit from this update)
For those havong problems with region codes: The free program DVD Genie may fix this. For this and other progs, please see http://www.doom9.org/
Kind regards,
Sjaak

Windows Media Player 12 under Win 7 Pro 64 nolonger able to play DVD

Hello TechNet
"Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card."
It seems that I have recently joined the chorus of MS users who have a Media Player DRM issue, where DVD's that would work perfectly well in WMP12 and MCE are nolonger being recognised. The error message above is displayed now, every time a commercial DVD
movie is inserted into the DVD drive where WIN 7 Pro 64 autoplay is used to open WMP12, The instruction to update video drivers is also not the solution.
Considering that I have until recently, been able to play DVD with my current NVIDIA driver 314.22Whql (now updated to 332.21Whql) and my DVD drive remains exactly as before, the Codec's installed with Win7 Pro 64 WMP 12 are unchanged and were working
fine. I do not know now what has caused the removal of DRM or the suggestion that my MPEG2 codecs can nolonger allow access to commercial DVD content.
I have tried all the suggestions raised about this issue from other MS users and MPV's in the forum, I have renamed the DRM folder and reset Windows Media DRM as directed. I have checked for a suitable MPEG2 codec/decoder on my system of which I have
several choices, including the one installed with Win 7 Pro 64 / WMP 12.
I have checked to see if I have a region issue with my DVD drive, and can confirm that the DVD drive will play DVD content when Playing DVD with "NERO 9 Showtime", this proves to me that the codec/DVD decoder is working in
my system, I then try Win 7s MCE (Media Center) and WMP12, the result is a black unresponsive screen in MCE, and the error message noted above in WMP with a black screen in the player.
I would like to know if MS are working on a rectification for the issue, as none of the proposed solutions deliver any functionality back to MS default DVD players. Is there an update in the works to provide a definitive solution for WMP12 and MCE DVD functionality.
Could you provide any new ideas, other than those already proposed to regain DVD function under MS default DVD programs.
Cheers Jeff

Hi Sengupta,
Yes I have already tried - Reset DRM using the method described in a post by another MS MPV here in the forum.
This is the method I used :
1. First open My Computer go to Tools>FolderOptions>View> uncheck >Hide Protected Operating System Files >
so that I can see the DRM folder and its contents.
2. Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM >Delete the contents of the DRM folder, these hidden files and the Cache folder with its contents. (Cache,
blackbox.bin, drmstore.hds, IndivBox.key,
IndivBox_64.key, v2ksndv.bla, v3ks.bla,
v3ks.sec) DRM folder empty ready for DRM Reset via web link.
3. Go to start menu Find InternetExplorer > right Click icon select > Run as Administrator > Blank Web page opens > I then paste the link provided (http://drmlicense.one.microsoft.com/Indivsite/en/indivit.asp)
into the Url space > click Enter > a web page for Windows Media Technologies (Security Component Upgrade) opens.
4. I then click on the 'Upgrade Button' and wait for it to search for upgrade components (Progress Status: Upgrading security components.... ), A download dialog then appears asking me to proceed. I then click 'Upgrade' and wait for it to
finish downloading & installation
(Progress Bar). . The install then completes saying the upgrade was successful I then click 'Done' close Browser and restart Computer.
5. I then recheck inside the DRM folder that I had erased - the new downloaded files and Cache Folder with contents are all back inside the folder, as expected.
6. Upon restart I place a DVD that I know was working before into the DVD drive and wait, the DVD autostarts WMP12 with the onscreen DVD Disk navigation menu appearing. I then click 'Play' with in the menu option, to begin the
Movie.
7. The resulting error reappears when clicking Play
"Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder,
and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card."
I will try once more to Reset the DRM using the Tool you have linked to, and follow your instruction exactly. Will see how it goes! ............stay tuned
It would be much appreciated If you could research which MS update has broken DRM, the recent updates which I can think of right now would be :
nVidia - Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.3, Other hardware - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
now replaced by Nvidia v332.21Whql Drivers.
Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for x64-based Systems
Possibly,
Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 64bit ( which I have had to remove, rolling back to IE10 to allow use in another Forum without errors and glitches). something about IE11 Browser is not right, maybe a security component from IE11
has interfered with DRM (Just guessing though)
But I think it is more than likely a security update that was downloaded and installed at the same time as these other major Microsoft Update offerings.
Cheers Jeff

Corrupt safari and non playing dvd

hey!!
if someone could please help....
the first issue: my safari application is somehow corrupt. certain texts are reading as jumbled words. when i copy paste to ask others if they can read what i see, they read it just fine. other internet applications read same jumbled emails fine. is there a preff file i can trash that will ree-build itself? but i dont want to trash my bookmarks.
2nd issue: for some odd reason, my dvd player does not recognize dvd movies. i inserted a few titles and the screen said "dvd file not supported". the dvd player in my g4 powerbook laptop worked before. now it's not.
any suggestions?
thank!!
-k

Hi Kidane,
Any luck on your second issue yet, of the non-playing DVDs? I recently noticed the same problem with my PowerBook not recognizing two brand new region 1 ntsc dvds (which play just fine on an older G4 desktop with an older version of DVD Player). They both have the same unrecognized search cycle that repeats three times, then spits out the DVD. One regularly begins to spin as if to play, but quits after two seconds. I'd love a clue to the fix for this. I don't think the DVDs are faulty, but my superdrive must be. I hope we get an answer!
Edit: I should add, that both non-playable DVDs actually did play just once, after alot of persuasion. But apparently after one play, they won't play again. Neither one played on first insertion either.
Garth

Playing DVDs? - preventing REGION LOCKING?

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