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Regionless DVD Players for Mac OS X?

Posted by Cliff on from the bypassing-lame-limitations dept.

spooje would like to get to the core of the following issue: "Since a new Rochester DVD only store, Global DVD, just opened up with a large Asian section I decided to rent several. When I got home and popped one in my Mac (Sawtooth G4 running Mac OS X 10.2) it brought up a dialog box telling me the DVD was region 3. I could switch to region 3 mode, but I could only do this 4 more times. Since my DVD-RAM drive is supposed to be all region does anyone know of a workaround or patch for the Apple DVD player, or maybe even another DVD player for Mac OS X?" If this question sounds familiar, then it might be because, last week, Ask Slashdot ran a similar article, which focused on a Windows utility which did this.

4 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Videolan by MrHanky · · Score: 5, Informative

    Haven't tried it for OSX (haven't tried OSX at all), but Videolan seems to support OSX. AFAIK, libdvdcss doesn't care about region encoding, so any other player using that on OSX should work too.

  2. try Region X. by nuckin+futs · · Score: 5, Informative

    there's a bunch of utilities here
    you can also try vlc as a last resort.

  3. here's how to do it by hype7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    get a patch for your drive, then get Region X; warning, direct download link to control the number of region changes you have left.

    Works flawlessly for me, but usual disclaimers about fscking your dvd drive with a 3rd party mod apply.

    -- james

  4. Try this... by djupedal · · Score: 5, Informative

    Until someone writes a script to do this, you may want to take a look at this normally hidden file:

    /etc/authorization

    (I use BBEdit...'Open Hidden Files'. I haven't tried changing this yet...I hack the hardware instead):

    Starts at line 63...

    <!-- Used by the dvd player to set the regioncode the first time
    Note that changed the region code after it has been set requires a
    different right (system.device.dvd.setregion.change)
    Credentials remain valid indefinitely after they've been obtained.
    An acquired credential is shared amongst all clients.
    -->
    <key>system.device.dvd.setregion.initial</key>
    &n bsp; <dict>
    <key>group</key>
    <string>admin</string>
    <key>shared</key>
    <true/>
    </dict>

    =======
    I posted this on MacInTouch back in September. I recommend using that site over /. for these types of questions :) Let me know if you can't take the not-so-subtle hint on how to mod the code...