Does VLC play multi region dvd's?

idunnoidunno
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
My dvd player is currently on the fritz, and today an Amazon box has arrived with a few US dvd's, now I want to get to watching them, but they won't play in my Mac dvd player as I haveit set to Region 4. Will VLC play them?



(thought I would ask before I get home and test it out anyway).

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    blackbird_1.0blackbird_1.0 Posts: 724member
    I think it does. Although, it might depend on what kind of encryption the dvds use.
  • Reply 2 of 13
    idunnoidunno Posts: 645member
    Well I got home and gave it a go, the ANSWER IS "No". It seems to only play my Aussie dvd's, and whenever I put a US dvd in it would say there are missing folders.



    Anyone know of getting around this as I don't want to change the region setting on my dvd player. Are there any third party dvd player apps out there that will help me out?
  • Reply 3 of 13
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    *cough* MacTheRipper *cough*

  • Reply 4 of 13
    idunnoidunno Posts: 645member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    *cough* MacTheRipper *cough*





    Yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah... thats a bit of a hass. I have a stack of US dvd's, and I don't want to have to rip them all to watch them on my Mac... oh well, guess I'll put a challenge out to some developer, tell them this is what I want and the first one to make a region free dvd player for Mac can name it after themselves.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    The only other way I know of (I though VLC would work too) is to flash your DVD drive firmware with a hacked region free version. I did that on my laptop years ago, but it is hard to find firmware for the latest Macs. It still throws up a warning, but I have infinite changes left.
  • Reply 6 of 13
    idunnoidunno Posts: 645member
    No way am I flashing my drive. No way, jose.
  • Reply 7 of 13
    albertoalberto Posts: 71member
    VLC CAN BE use it to watch any region code dvd. I use VLC with my iBook G4 800 Mhz and my iMac G5 with no problems with zone 1 and zone 4 dvds. Just try ir. You don't need to flash your drive.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    idunnoidunno Posts: 645member
    Everytime I try to use VLC to play US dvd's it gives me errors, I found a little App called NicePLayer which seemed to play a few of my older US dvd's, but not the new ones. And when I try yo use MacTheRipper it gives me "cannot read blah" errors. I am going to fly over to versionTracker now and get the latest version of Mac The Ripper, see if that works.



    Am really cracking it, I just want to watch my deev's!
  • Reply 9 of 13
    4fx4fx Posts: 258member
    I am so sick of this copy protection crap. When I was in school in the UK, I and some friends brought over some US DVDs, but we also rented and borrowed UK DVDs. At the time, the only viable method of switching back and forth on a regular basis like this was to flash your ROM. I did it, and it worked great, but it voids your drive warranty. However, when I finished school I flashed the ROM back to the official firmware version.



    I just think its a shame that someone who is legally obtaining content has to pay the price to "protect content against piracy". Why should the paying customer suffer? Surely they could have come up with a better solution, though I fear the next gen HDDVDs and Blu-Ray Discs are going to be far worse
  • Reply 10 of 13
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Well the high-def players don't have region coding, but a big yes on other nasty technology. From down-resing non preferred outputs, to self-destructing software updates.



    Boycott in progress.
  • Reply 11 of 13
    imacfanimacfan Posts: 444member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    Well the high-def players don't have region coding, but a big yes on other nasty technology. From down-resing non preferred outputs, to self-destructing software updates.



    Boycott in progress.



    I thought that while the tech was there to downsample on non-HDMI outputs, the movie studios had decided not to do that, at least for the moment.
  • Reply 12 of 13
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Yea, but that can change whenever they want. The only reason it is not in use today is because they want to get you hooked first. How thoughtful of them.
  • Reply 13 of 13
    pyr3pyr3 Posts: 946member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    Yea, but that can change whenever they want. The only reason it is not in use today is because they want to get you hooked first. How thoughtful of them.



    But the way I understand it, that's enabled on-disc. So if you buy the movies today, they will never have that option enabled. It's just the movies that are released and/or manufacturer in the future that will have the restriction. Not that I'm rushing out to buy the players either, though.
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