2006 – There is one laptop upgrade that gives no performance benefit, but it adds a long-desired feature of frequent travelers, which is a swap of the built-in Combo or SuperDrive for a different model, because Apple’s PowerBooks and MacBooks use Matsushita (Panasonic) optical drives, and it’s, impossible to flash firmware on these drives.

1. Region Free Dvd Drive Mac
2. Mac Dvd Ripper Region Free
3. Mac Os Dvd Region Free

Leawo DVD Ripper is without doubt the first recommendation in our list of top 5 best DVD region killer software for Mac and Windows.As a professional DVD ripping software tool, Leawo DVD Ripper could decrypt, rip and convert CSS-DVD discs, and handle DVD discs ranged from region 0 to 6 in the world.

Macgo Free Media Player. The all-powerful free media player that can support almost all media categories and formats, like movies, videos, audios. Designed as a free DVD Player for Windows, it also supports VideoCD, MKV, MOV, AVI, FLV, WMV, MP4, MPEG, RMVB, MP3, WMA and other non-mainstream formats on all Windows OS, including Windows 10. It is not a dedicated DVD copy software for Windows 10 and Mac, but it is free and open source. It works nicely to copy homemade DVDs, as no decryption is required. For DVDs that you bought from stores, such as music videos or movies, Handbrake cannot skip the copy protection to rip the media.

If these drives did everything they are advertised to do, this wouldn’t be an issue, but the fact is that most Matsushita SuperDrives, though rated at 8x, only burn at 2x unless you have either Apple’s DVD-R media or get very, very lucky on third party media.

The drive in the 12″ ‘Books also lacks the ability to burn dual-layer disks.

Finally, while this is possibly illegal and definitely voided my warranty, I wanted a drive that I could remove the RPC-2 firmware and replace with RPC-1 firmware, meaning a region-free drive.

Region Codes

DVD movies are region coded, so a movie purchased in the United States (Region 1) won’t work on a drive set up for South Korea (Region 3).

This is a non-issue for most people, and it was designed so that video pirates couldn’t buy a DVD released early or with different version in one market and sell illegal copies in another market where the movie was not approved or was released later or in a different version.

I think this is baloney, and as someone who travels frequently between the United States and South Korea, I have a mixed DVD collection that is roughly 70% Region 1 and 30% Region 3. I’m not sure where, but somewhere along the way I picked up a Region 2 (UK) copy of Sean of the Dead as well.

Region Free Dvd Drive Mac

With a laptop drive, the manufacturer generally allows the region to be changed four times after it’s initially set, at which time it locks forever. The manufacturer can unlock a locked drive but will charge for the privilege, as this is not a warranty repair (nothing is broken).

Some manufacturers simply won’t do it at all, while others will do it once or twice before closing the door on you.

Going Region Free

On a Windows PC, going region free is much easier than on a Mac. There are software programs that intercept the DVD before the operating system even sees the region code and tricks it into thinking that it’s Region 1 regardless of what it really is. I used one such application on my ThinkPads for years and never had to worry about flashing firmware on drives or resetting region counters on the operating system.

Mac users don’t have it so good. While there is a website devoted to region free computing (www.rpc1.org), the Mac section is much smaller than the PC section. Worse yet, the brilliant programmer who figured out Macintosh ports of PC drive flashing utilities, a guy who used the handle XVI, has retired, and thus no new flashers have been forthcoming.

All hope is not lost, as there are utilities out there for older drives and for Windows. With access to a PC, a drive can be flashed and then moved to your Mac.

Other obstacles to getting a region free drive in your Mac is the Mac OS itself. Some drives are not supported for burning under Apple’s iApps, though Toast will usually burn anything, and a utility called PatchBurn can restore burn functionality in Apple’s apps with certain drives. The folks on the rpc1.org Mac-specific forum are very helpful, and there are many archived posts about which drives work and which don’t.

I spent a lot of time on that forum, and after much research I decided on the Pioneer DVR-K05 slot loading SuperDrive for my pair of PowerBooks. If you own a tray-loading iBook, you can get the DVR-K15, which is the exact same drive except for the tray mechanism.

Software Alternatives

Mac Dvd Ripper Region Free

Either way, you want a utility called DVRFlash, an updated firmware, and enough time to read the forums and all of the instructions. This is a fairly complicated procedure that requires you to go into the Terminal. While some members of RPC1.org will point you in the right direction to find instructions, most will just rudely diss you for asking the same questions that everyone else has asked and already had answered.

I followed the directions in the readme, it worked, and that was it for me. Like the guys on the forum, I don’t have the patience (and, unlike them, I also lack the knowledge) to talk someone else through mucking with the terminal. The instructions provided with the files are simple enough, though, so if you print the directions and take your time, you should do okay.

All right, so you’ve spent your time and money, and now you have a region free drive in your PowerBook. What next? You aren’t ready to watch multiple DVD regions yet; you still need to deal with the region change counter in OS X. Fortunately, rpc1.org has links in their forum to a program called Region X, which is also now available as a universal binary. What Region X does is allows you to reset OS X’s region change counter, so after you’ve switched back and forth between Regions 1 and 3 four times and your Mac tells you that no further chances are permitted, you can go into Region X and just reset the counter back to 4. It’s that easy.

Of course, there is a much easier and cheaper way to watch multiple regions on your ‘Book, although it doesn’t work with every drive and on occasion has made unwanted region changes to non-region-free (RPC2) drives according to posters on rpc1.org. The solution is use VLC (Video LAN Client) instead of Apple’s DVD Player.

To make this work you must go into System Preferences for DVD Movie and either set VLC as the default application or set it to ignore. This will cause OS X to think of the non-Region 1 DVD as a data disk and mount it in the Finder. VLC doesn’t query region code and will just play the movie, though the interface is nowhere near as nice as Apple’s, and there are some stability issues.

Region Free Drives the Best Choice

Finally, you should consider the risk if it does change your region and the fact that it might just not work on your particular computer and drive (it’s been known to happen). I tried VLC on my PowerBooks, and it worked great, but I found the interface annoying and the quality a bit jittery compared to Apple’s DVD Player, which is why I went to the trouble and expense of getting region free drives.

In the end, if you travel and have movies from more than one region, it’s worthwhile to pursue a region free movie solution. For infrequent multi-region users, I’d recommend giving VLC a try first, but for hard core region switchers, a region free drive is the way to go.

My thanks to everyone at rpc1.org and to the great work of XVI, Las Vegas, and The Dangerous Brothers for making the utilities and firmware available.

The Latest on Region Free DVD Viewing

• Watching DVDs from Different Regions on Your Mac, Andrew J Fishkin, Best Tools for the Job, 2008.12.04. Hardware and software solutions for watching DVDs intended for a different region.

Keywords: #regionfreedvd

Short link: http://goo.gl/BMAqdN

searchword: regionfreedvd

Par Vincent (ch-vox)

Warning !

Before upgrading your optical drive, be sure you have selected a zone by reading a DVD with the Apple DVD Player (ie). If this modification is not made, your drive simply won’t work after the operation. Upgrading firmware is a sensitive operation. You make it on your own risks. Powerbook-fr can’t be responsible for what you do, and for any damage during the update process. Please, read the ReadMe.rtf file before running any updater.

Introduction

DVD drives have been introduced with the first G3 PowerBooks, then we have seen combos (CD-RW/DVD) and finally Superdrives (DVD-R/DVD-RW). Those drives cannot read every zone -except the Matsushita SR-8173 that was in the second generation G3 PowerBook also called ’Lombard’- : you should know that it is impossible to change the zone setting more than 5 times, after what you will only be able to read DVD from the 5th choice. For instance, if you last chose zone '2', the drive will only read DVDs from this zone. But there are ways to break this down.

One of them, certainly the most simple, is to use softwares like VLC or MPlayer which will allow you to read DVDs from each zone (warning, those softwares may sometime change the region of your drive, without you to be warned, this can lock your drive on the last selected zone after 5 changes... thanks to Taron for the piece of information). However, there may be some routines that won’t work on various hardware (dunno why ?!) so we must find another solution...

Sources for this article :
http://forum.rpc1.org/
http://xvi.rpc1.org
http://tdb.rpc1.org
http://dhc014.rpc1.org
http://superdrive.cynikal.net
http://lasvegas.rpc1.org
http://www.wormintheapple.gr/macdvd/
http://www.dvddemystified.com

For PowerBook & iBook G4 and MacBook (Pro)

Before going further

You should know basis about your MacIntosh and region locking. The limitation is double : firsty is hardware. This is the first to run when you’re inserting a DVD in your optical drive, and the patches we provide you are made to bypass this one. But theres’s a second limitation which is purely software, through your Operating System : MacOS X. A small app allows you to change region without limitation. This app is made by xvi and is called Region X (we are mirroring it at this URL). To test the changes, RegionDisplay (mirrored on our server: PAL, NTSC) is an ISO image, once mounted on your desktop, it will open with Apple DVD Player. It willdisplay which region is selected in MacOS X. Now you know that, let’s enter the real work.

Mac Os Dvd Region Free

2010, Ala42 creates MatshitaFlasher based on ben11 work

Since early 2010, MatshitaFlasher developped by ala42 allows flashing firmware on every MacBook, regardless MacOS version. Thanks to ala42 for authorisation of mirroring his work.

Flashing instructions:
Unzip MatshitaFlasher.zip and the firmware zip file
Make sure there is no disc in the drive.
The firmware .zip file typically includes two firmware .dat files of 700-800KB size, one original and one RPC1 patched firmware
In Finder drop the firmware .dat file (not the directory) you want to flash on the MatshitaFlasher application.
A terminal window will pop up, listing drive and firmware ids and ask you if you want to continue flashing
In case of drive/firmware mismatch or a corrupted firmware file the drive will not be flashed

The table below recapitulates every firmwares you can use with MatshitaFlasher:

Typical Terminal window after dropping the firmware .dat file on the flasher application:

2007, RPC1 is back (update august 19th 2007)

The Dangerous Brothers (TDB) have begun the year 2007 with two RPC1 firmwares for LG GWA4080MA & LG 4080MB. Beware, those firmwares can’t be applied if you’ve updated your drive with Apple’s 'Superdrive Firmware Update 2.1' that will update to AE39 & BE39 RPC2 revision. And you’ll need Windows or Parallels 3.0 (and later) for applying those firmware updates.

Early august (same year:2007), ben11 -a C programer- has created a second event. After downloading Apple’s 'Superdrive Firmware Update 2.1', he has decompiled sources and has patched them for making them region free. Chapeau! You need to know that for Matsushita’s dezoning, you have to apply the 'Superdrive Firmware Update 2.1' before applying ben11’s RPC1 firmware.

If you don’t use Tiger, you may need to hack a system file to run those patches. Before applying the patch, edit this file /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist and change OS version to 10.4.x (ie : 10.5.1 will become 10.4.9). Apply the patch, and before rebooting your Mac, modify this file again to come back to initial values. That’s all. Thanx to Terminus for this hack

And we’d like you to remember few points before upgrading your drives, you MUST choose a zone. Unless your optical drive won’t read DVDs anymore !!! You also need to stop all softwares running on your Mac, to unplug your network (Airport, USB or ethernet modems, etc.) as other USB or FireWire peripherals for more security. Please, read the ReadMe.rtf file before running any updater.See ya !

For Nec, Optiarc, Sony and few other optical drives, use NecflashX for dumping or upgrading the firmware.

Pioneer DVR-K05 Superdrive (update december 25th 2005)

You’ll need to replace your Matsushita optical drive yourself with a Pioneer DVR-K05 (130 €). Disassemble your Powerbook, install the new one in your PowerBook, then use LasVegas’ Mac utility :DVRFlash with Dangerous Brothers’ modified firmware. It’s all command lines, not really sexy so far, but really useful ! If you need further information, please go to http://forum.rpc1.org.

The CW-8122 combo (PowerBook-fr.com exclusive !!)

May 2003, xvi has modified the BA21 (RPC2) firmware for CW-8122 Matsushita combo drive in 12' 867 MHz, he made it region free (RPC1). This firmware, codename BX21 (RPC1), was the Apple’s BA21 copy except for the region information that have been set to free (see article).

We noticed quickly two issues that have not been solved :
once BX21 updated, the combo couldn’t get back to its original BA21 settings (BA21 is the only firmware officialy supported by Apple and Apple Care...) ;
xvi’s BX21 updater was locked anly only worked with 12' 867MHz Alubooks, as the original Apple’s BA21 updater.

So, we’ve worked to modify both updaters to make them compatible with all Apple Alubooks in which there is a CW-8122 combo drive. Alubook’s owners can now set their combo to region free, and set it back to region locked if they need.

Update January 23th 2005
We’ve just achieved two new patches : first one for 550 TiBook woth CW-8122, second one for upgrading a CW-8121A to CW-8122 region free in a TiBook (tested with 867 MHz and 1 GHz TiBooks) and in an iBook G4 (12' 800) ! Those patches don’t allow you to go back (no U-turn to RPC2) but you can now play DVD from any region ;)

Note :
We can can technicaly patch any Mac with those optical drive. If you computer is not in the above tables, please contact us.
The CW-8123 or CW-8124 remains RPC2 for now...

The UJ-815 SuperDrive

December 13th 2003, xvi is back on the PowerBook’s front. He made a region-free firmware for the Matsushita UJ-815 SuperDrive in every PowerBooks in which it is included (for AluBooks but also for TiBooks !)First of all : a big THANK goes to xvi who brings a very long-wanted firmware... And here follow the main instructions. Read them carefuly before flashing your SuperDrive (source Cynikal)

Firmware X101 : For upgraded 2X DVD-R, 1X DVD-RW, 16X CD-R capability as well as region-free behaviour.

Firmware D101 : For ONLY UJ-815 2X DVD-R, 1X DVD-RW, 16X CD-R upgraded capability.

Firmware X0CB : For original 867Mhz/1Ghz 15' TiBook & 867Mhz 12' Powerbook Capabilities as well as region-free behaviour.

Firmware D0CB : For original 867Mhz/1Ghz 15' TiBook & 867Mhz 12' Powerbook Capabilities. This is an Apple officially supported firmware.

Firmware XWDB : For original 1Ghz 17' Powerbook Capabilities as well as region-free behaviour.

Firmware DWDB : For original 1Ghz 17' Powerbook Capabilities. This is an Apple officially supported firmware.

How to recover your superdrive after a firmware update failure

Thanx to Ben11 for this article (source forums.rpc1.org)

'After some private message exchanges it seems I was able to help some people in this situation (inclduing the original poster). I wrote a simple utility to perform a very basic flash to the drive - doing that may be able to recover the situation, but my flash utility performs almost no checks and is generally much more basic than the framework which, for example, the standard Apple Superdrive updaters have used.

So, if your drive is in a similar situation this may be able to help. But only try if you feel you’ve exhausted every other possibility, such as having the drive replaced. This flash process may not work for you, or in the worst case it could conceivably leave your drive is a worse state than before. It is of coursed not endorsed by anybody, in particular not Apple nor the drive manufacturer (or anybody at rpc1.org either).

As I wrote, compared to the standard updaters this utility makes few checks on the drive status - so unless your drive has really lost its standard operating firmware, often because of an interrupted flash, don’t use this rather than a more featured updater.

There is the terminal based utility (and source code) - along with copies of the HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, KCVB (RPC1 patched) firmwares for the UJ-857 and UJ-857D.

Basic Instructions

You need to download the 'SimpleFlash.zip' file, unpack it and then run it using the terminal. e.g. assuming you have downloaded the archive file to your desktop you can unpack like this:

to use the utility you start it using ONE of the following commands:

./simple_flash 0 UJ857-HAEA-MBP-rpc1.dat

or

./simple_flash 0 UJ857-HBEA-MB-rpc1.dat

or

./simple_flash 0 UJ857D-KBVB-MB-rpc1.dat

or

./simple_flash 0 UJ857D-KCVB-MBP-rpc1.dat

(choose according to the firmware you need, see below)

It will prompt you to answer if you want to continue - to which you can type ’yes’ or ’y’, if you want to go on. The flash should start and will take about 30 seconds after which the utility should say 'Finished'. At this point I recommended you restart your Mac. If all has gone well your drive should be responding again.

Choosing the Firmware

The firmware included are the ones that the 'Apple Superdrive 2.1' update offered for Matshita drives - except the ones in this archive have RPC1 patches. If you don’t want RPC1 you could go back to standard firmware using the updaters posted in other threads on this forum after your drive is responding again.

In principal the utility would also flash other matshita UJ-8xx drives, but suitable firmware data files are not included for them.

HAEA, HBEA are for UJ-857
KBVB, KCVB are for UJ-857D

If your drive previously had:

HAC1 or HAE4 use HAEA
HBE4 use HBEA
KBV9 use KBVB
KCV9 use KCVB

If you don’t know the previous firmware revision you had then: As far as I know firmware revisions HAEA & KCVB are used in the Macbook Pro, HBEA & KBVB are used in the Macbook. Choose according to which model of mac and which model of drive you have.

The optical drive should not accept a firmware corresponding the wrong drive model, but for a given model the various revisions may have slight differences, perhaps because of different physical constraints on the hardware - so try to pick the appropriate revision.

Good luck.'

For PowerBook & iBook G3

You’ve got a DVD drive inside your G3 laptop ?? You’re desperately searching for a way to make it region free because you’re watching DVDs from all around the world ?? So here is the response to your issue ! This little software allows you to set the 'region counter' to zero. In fact, each time you have to change the region setting of your DVD drive, after having watched the DVD, launch 'RegionReset' app. Reboot your mac, and you’ll be able to change region as much as you want. Have fun !

Two pieces of information :
it seems you can’t run the app on Pismo PowerBooks (see further) ;
to allow using the app, don’t forget to control the extension name 'DVD Region Manager'.

For G3 PowerBook users other than Wallstreet PowerBooks, here is the app of your dreams ! Region (by xvi) allows you to switch zones of MacOS 9. It also works on iMac DV computers.

Finally, THE solution for LG drives (especially for Pismos) in the following updater.

Here is small table to let you know if the optical drives inside your G3 PowerBooks can be RPC1 or not :