My Powerbook G4's DVD is region-free!

[tigrr]

My Christmas gift apparently arrived a few days late this year, because after endless searching on the web, reading that my particular DVD-RW drive can't be made region free I finally stumbled across a firmware download today which proved the opposite!
I'm on a 15" PowerBook G4 with a 1.67GHz processor and a Matshita UJ-846 Super-drive.

I assume the following instructions apply for other Macs as well, but I really can't confirm this (perhaps someone else can). I also have to add that I'm no authority on this issue. This is the first time I've made a DVD-drive region free, and I've picked up information on how to do this by reading bits here and there. I'm just putting it together here in an easy-to-understand way :-)

First, a short explanation of how it all works:
When you first got your Mac and inserted a DVD, Apple's "DVD player" asked you to confirm that the drive be set to the DVD's region. You actually get to change regions with a region-locked (RPC-2) drive, but only for a limited number of times (5 I think). After that you're stuck with the region you last used.
What we're going to do is "unlock" the region locking mechanism of the drive. Apple's DVD player will still ask you to confirm a region-change whenever you insert a DVD with a different region than the drive is currently set to, and it will still count down the number of times this is possible, but.... you can at any time reset the number!
To put it simply; after changing the firmware, the drive will become an RPC-1 (region-free) drive, but the software and MacOS will still keep track of any region-changes. But fear not, with the help of a simple application you can reset this whenever you need. Think of it as a "maintenance" or "utility" tool ;-)
OK, now on with the actual procedure:


1) First, I checked the exact model of my drive by going to Apple's System profiler ("Apple menu" - "About this Mac" - "More info" -"Hardware" -"Disc burning"). On my machine it says:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846
Firmware revision: FAAG

(I had prepared some nice screenshots to follow my posting, but unfortunately I couldn't find any way of inserting them inside the message itself, so I'm enclosing them as attachements below).

2) Knowing which drive I had I then visited this PowerBook page, and scrolled down to the list of firmware almost at the bottom of the page. I found my "UJ-846" drive there with RPC-1 (region-free) firmware!!!
Since my System profiler told me that I had an "FAAG" revision drive I downloaded the RPC-1 version of the "FAAG" firmware.
The same firmware is also available at the RPC-1 firmware forum website along with information.

3) Having downloaded the region-free RPC-1 "FAAG" firmware (a zip file) which I the unzipped, I carefully read the instructions that came with it.
NOTE: DO NOT skip that step! If you mess things up you can render your drive unusable!!! You basically have to ensure that nothing interrupts the firmware update process (i.e. the computer shutting down because of a low battery, a crash, some download congestion or whatever.
Read the docs that came with the firmware for more about this.

4) When you're ready to update the firmware, having double-checked everything (that you have the right firmware version, drive model etc.), double-click the updater.
Please note that the updater will start updating the drive right away. You won't get any sort of option to cancel, so ONLY double-click it when you're absolutely sure you want to update the drive.
(OK, I know I make the process sound very scary with all my warnings, but better that than people skipping through lots of important steps!).

5) The updater will update the firmware. For a while it will seem that the updater has frozen because nothing seems to happen.
Whatever you do, DO NOT FORCE-QUIT THE UPDATER!!!
Just leave it, don't touch anything. After a while (around a minute I guess, though I didn't time it -be patient!) the update will finish and you'll be asked to restart the computer. You're done!
Restart the computer before moving on to try it all out.

6) We're now going to check if the drive really is region-free. Download and install DVD-info X.
It should tell you that you now have an RFC-1 drive, which means it's region-free. If it says something else you haven't successfully updated the firmware for some reason.

7) You now need the "utility" software needed to reset the region-changing count for MacOS/DVD player.
Download Region X for this. I believe that's version 1.1.12 while 1.1.13 which is a universal binary can be found at the Powerbook page which I mentioned earlier (Go to the section named "For PowerBook & iBook G4 and MacBooks" right after the introduction. You'll find the links among the text under "Before you go further").

That's it!
I hope this has become a clear and easily understandable instruction for how to make a locked DVD drive region-free, and hopefully someone will post followups and comments.
It's great to truly have a portable computer the way it should be to begin with -being able to use it anywhere in the world, and watch any DVD you like!


PS: Yes, I do know about VideoLAN VLC player and its ability to play DVDs of different regions than the drive. But from what I've read this doesn't work with all versions of MacOS/Mac computers. It also uses a lot of CPU power for that "decoding" process or whatever it does, so that's no good thing when watching a DVD on your laptop when using the battery.
Besides, I find its user-interface a little cumbersome and "geeky". In my opinion a Mac should be super-easy to use, which is why Apple's own DVD-player is what I prefer.

[tigrr]

Even more good news, which confirms that the drive is indeed region-free...

Using two different DVDs (one for region 1, the other for region 2) I made the region-count of the drive go down until Apple's DVD player told me that I could no longer change the region. If my drive had its original (RPC-2) firmware I would be stuck with that last change's region setting.

But now being an RPC-1 drive I simply reset the count with Region X, then started Apple's DVD player and off I went! :-)

[symphonix]

Thanks very much Tigrr for such a well thought out and informative bit of info. While I can understand the thinking behind region coding, I consider it a counter-productive system that should have been dumped by now: pirated DVDs don't have region codes; only legitimate users are inconvenienced.

[tigrr]

You're most welcome
And I completely agree with you about the region coding issue. It has no place in this day when people travel more than ever and drag their laptops along. That's why it feels so good to be able to "solve" such a problem. It sure made my day, especially after almost giving up the whole issue.

On another note: does anyone know if those firmware revisions ("FAAG" etc.) make a difference? Do they match specific model revisions of the drive hardware, or are they simply newer and older firmware versions for the same drive?

[Giaguara]

Hi Tiggr,
A close friend of mine had a firmware hack on his 17" PowerBook to enable region free DVD... it worked otherwise perfect, but would prevent the superdrive to burn any discs after. I don't remember which hardware hack it was but I would probably follow the optical drive functionality for a while after to make sure it still works otherwise perfect.
(Did VLC ever move the option to see region free by the way?)

[raberro]

Hi Tigrr,

I love the clarity of your instructions. I have downloaded all the appropriate pieces of software and am nearly ready to do the update. one thing is stopping me....FEAR. fear tyhat my drtive will be screwed after doing this. i am very certain that i've downloaded the correct rpc-1 firmware for the dvd drive in my iBook. but i am not a fearless computer user. HELP ME GET OVER THIS...I SO BADLY WANT MY DVD PLAYER TO BE LIBERATED AND TO PLAY ANY DVD I THROW IN THEIR!!! help

[tigrr]

Thanks for those kind words.

I completely understand your fear as I wasn't too comfortable about the idea of ending up with a damaged drive myself. However, I decided to go for it anyway.

I assume that all the warnings are because nobody wants to be accused of damaging someone's hardware if something goes wrong. I don't know how big a chance of that happening is though. However, what I've picked up to minimize those chances are:

1) quit all other applications (log out and in again if you're not sure). That'll decrease the possibilities that an application crashes the computer and effects the operation.

2) turn off any Internet access. This will ensure that no file transfers/communications will be going on which can freeze or affect the computer in some way while the flashing is going on.

3) Be sure that power won't be disrupted while the flashing is going on. If you have a laptop, fully charge your battery while running it on the AC power adaptor. In case of a power outtage the battery will take over.

4) Be patient. Let the firmware updater do its thing!
I would personally like to see a progress bar or some sort of feedback when it's updating, but since that's not available you should just wait. I believe updating my Matshita UJ-846 took around a minute.

5) Be sure that you download the correct firmware. There are apparently different firmware revisions for each drive. Ensure that you get the same one as your drive currently reports it's using (in "System profiler").

6) If something does go wrong, don't assume that your drive has become a door-stop, but give it another go. If that doesn't change anything, try to re-flash it with the original (region-locked) firmware which is supplied along with the region-free firmware.
I once managed to re-flash a "dead" DVD drive in a PC. I can't remember why I "killed" the drive in the first place, but using some software which "forced" the drive to receive the firmware (rather than checking if the drive ID'd it properly etc.) it worked out fine anyway.

7) Finally, after flashing the drive, be sure to check that it has actually been turned into a region-free drive using DVD-info X.

Having given you that lecture it's ultimately up to you if you want to go ahead with it or not. I'm no expert in the matter and have merely posted my own experiences and passed on the information since I too searched forever for a way to make my drive play (legally bought) DVDs from different regions. Needless to say I won't be held responsible for any problems or damage, though I personally had no problems at all while updating my drive's firmware.

What kind of drive do you have anyway? And in which Mac?

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can shed some more light on firmware updating and the risks.
In the meantime, search the web for more information.

[tigrr]

Originally Posted by Giaguara

Hi Tiggr,
A close friend of mine had a firmware hack on his 17" PowerBook to enable region free DVD... it worked otherwise perfect, but would prevent the superdrive to burn any discs after. I don't remember which hardware hack it was but I would probably follow the optical drive functionality for a while after to make sure it still works otherwise perfect.
(Did VLC ever move the option to see region free by the way?)

Ouch! Reading this got me worried, so I tried to burn a DVD-RW. Fortunately it worked just like before :-)
If possible, could you try to check with your friend what kind of modification he did and post the results here?
It might have been something completely different from firmware updating.

As for VLC. From what I've heard, the bypassing of region-checking is done in software, which probably demands a lot of processing power. If I recall correctly there were also some problems with Intel based Macs or something. Can't remember the details, but a web-search will probably yield several results.
The bottom line with VLC as far as I remember is that it doesn't work flawlessly in bypassing regions.
And personally I don't care much for it's "geeky" user-interface. Most of us bought Macs because we want to try and avoid that sort of thing, or we could have used Windows or Linux