The Firmware Page

I think I may have fluked upon a daft workaround for my 'new' refurbished Aluminium Macbook.

Here is my drive information from system profiler for those interested:


I inserted the DVD, I got it free in the paper this morning, thought I would it in my macbook. I was initially presented with this message:


Naturally, my first thought was along this lines of "[*Profanity*], the person before me (refurbished) has changed the drive region". This would waste one of my chances, you only get 5. Then I thought, well Ill try it in VLC anyway. I pressed cancel and the DVD ejected. I reinserted it and tried VLC with the region selection dialog open anyway.

I opened the DVD using the normal method:


I was then surprised that it in fact plays perfectly fine:


I am going to try this with an NTSC dvd. I don't have one handy but I will burn one off and give it a shot. Judging by that dialog though I should have no bother.

Just realisted image sizes. Apologies in advance.

VLC is different, you might be lucky.

I think that you just got lucky with a disk that isn't really encrypted..

I've seen plenty of disk like that ; they will play fine with VLC in a matshita drive.

But not all are like that unfortunately

hello,
i also have a 17inch mac book pro i bought in the uk late last year. it is now stuck in the russian region. the details of my dvd are similar to yours above but my firmware version is KA19.

I also have been able to play a few dvds on VLC without any problems, but not every dvd plays which can be a tad frustrating.

i just downloaded a dvd ripper to see if i can rip it first then watch it on VLC. that is labourous hence i would prefer to change my dvd to region free.

I have read most of the post on here extensively, including other sites and know i have to be very carefull with which firmware i use to update the dvd firmware (i think the technical jargon is FLASHING the drive). can anyone definitively point me in the right direction for firmware update. is it something that can be bought? or should i just sit tight and wait.?

many many thanks in advance

shaggy

there is no region free, and nobody working on these drives.