The Firmware Page

No, I don't have Bootcamp installed...do I need it?

Hey Guys i just bought a new macpro of a friend for my birthday cause i didn't have enough for a brand new one but the dvd region is locked!!! meaning i can't watch any of my dvds on here!! can someone please help me to unlock it with simple steps please? i am no guru at all when it comes to comps!!
please please please please

here are details for my drive


MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-898:

Firmware Revision: HC10
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 1024 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

its all on in the very first post in this thread including the firmware,you can use use either HC10 or HD10.

I just had to reinstall lion on my MBP. It didn't change a thing for my region free drive. I upgraded to the newest version of loin and still nothing changed. So it's confirmed at least for mine that the unlock is untouched during software upgrades.

Whoever has told you anything else??
OS upgrades never have anything to do with firmware upgrades for optical drives!

Hi there.... first post....
Have been reading this thread with interest. Instead of thinking about bootcamp and windows (makes me nauseous!) - can I just boot from an external drive running 10.6 and flash my drive (assuming of course I can find an appropriate firmware file for my particular drive...).... my main internal drive runs 10.7.3.
TIA
Lee

This should work from what I've read, and seems to be a good and easier way.

Try it please and report.

No need now! - just flashed my Matshita drive using the instructions in this link:
http://www.dmitry-dulepov.com/2011/12/h ... drive.html
(as mentioned earlier in this thread)

Worked very nicely.... MacBook Pro6,2; OSX 10.7.3; Matshita DVD-R UJ-898 firmware HC10.
Just used the firmware from this site...
It seems most of the complaints on the blog about the method seem to be people who don't know their way around basic UNIX/terminal commands.....

And sadly many of them even dont care - all they want is to get served for free and their convienience....

But you shouldnt believe all you can even read there in this blog, eg. "To flash the drive you need to play at least one DVD and set a region. You must do that. If you do not, you are [*Profanity*] up." which is not correct.

Hi all,

This is what is showing in DVD info X 3:

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-898
Firmware: HC10
Status: RPC-2 (region locked)
Region: 1
Changes left: 2 Vendor resets left: 4

I am using OSX 10.7.3 and I tried to follow the steps in dmitry link by dragging "script" and the "dat" file and after hitting RETURN I have the following error:

Myname-MacBook:~ Myname$ /Users/Myname/Downloads/MatshitaFlasher\ 0.6.app/Contents/Resources/call_simple_flash ; exit;

calling simple_flash with firmware file /Users/Myname/Downloads/UJ-898_HC10_RPC1.dat

compiled at Apr 14 2011 22:33:18
Could not open device

logout

[Process completed]

Any help will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

If you read his instructions closely you'll see you need to execute the "simple_flash" routine, not "call_simple_flash" .... might just be the difference you need. Just do what he has written - I'll break it down.
It may pay to read up on Unix commands first, so you understand more of what you are doing.
(Sorry if I'm telling you how to suck eggs now)

The first line of code changes the directory (cd) to where the simple_flash script resides.
cd ~/Downloads/MatshitaFlasher\ 0.6.app/Contents/Resources - in his case, inside the MatshitaFlasher package, which is inside the Downloads folder.

The second line executes the simple_flash script.
./simple_flash 0 firmware_file_name.dat
The way he has written it requires the firmware .dat file to be in the Resources folder of the package also....

I did this instead, as I had placed the firmware dat file on my desktop.... this command should be executed from inside the Resources folder - ie after running the cd command above. The ./simple_flash part simply says to run this script which is in the current folder..... I don't know what the zero is there for!

./simple_flash 0 ~/Desktop/firmware_file_name.dat

It only took a minute or two and all was good.... hope this helps.....

I have a MacBookPro8,3 and flashed RPC-1 firmware for its UJ-898 (HE13) from http://www.filestube.com/a0c5742cd42e272203e9/go.html.

It works OK with libdvdcss version 1.2.10 (which the latest vlc for OSX seems to use), but it fails with version 1.2.11 which I use under Linux. The later version is different because it asks the drive to report its RPC state, and that request seems to fail. It's at least partly a libdvdcss bug; it should cope with that failure more gracefully and not just skip the whole authentication. But there may also be an issue with the firmware too, perhaps? I haven't looked any closer at the issue except to see that the ioctl returns -EIO:

[dwmw2@shinybook libdvdcss-1.2.11]$ strace -e ioctl ./test/csstest /dev/sr0 5099
cool, I found libdvdcss version 1.2.11
libdvdcss debug: opening target `/dev/sr0'
libdvdcss debug: using libc for access
ioctl(3, DVD_READ_STRUCT, 0x7fffe9cbecc0) = 0
libdvdcss debug: disc reports copyright information 0x1
ioctl(3, DVD_AUTH, 0x7fffe9cbf4b0) = -1 EIO (Input/output error)
libdvdcss error: css error: could not get RPC status
libdvdcss debug: could not check whether the disc was scrambled
libdvdcss debug: using CSS key cache dir: /home/dwmw2/.dvdcss/THE_WIRE_S3_D1-2008071710453000-0000000000/
libdvdcss error: read error
read failed (read error)

Under Linux (as with OSX), libdvdcss version 1.2.10 works fine:

[dwmw2@shinybook libdvdcss-1.2.10]$ ./test/csstest /dev/sr0 5099cool, I found libdvdcss version 1.2.10
libdvdcss debug: opening target `/dev/sr0'
libdvdcss debug: using libc for access
libdvdcss debug: disc is scrambled
libdvdcss debug: requesting AGID
libdvdcss debug: drive authenticated, using variant 0
libdvdcss debug: authentication established
libdvdcss debug: GetASF authenticated, ASF=1
libdvdcss debug: decrypting disc key 65:12:c0:69:ca
libdvdcss debug: trying player key 01:af:e3:12:80
libdvdcss debug: decrypted disc key is 00:00:00:00:5b
libdvdcss debug: using CSS key cache dir: /home/dwmw2/.dvdcss/THE_WIRE_S3_D1-2008071710453000-000000005b/
requested sector: 000001ba...a6a250700c26c074ea06f812c0e4e2029568be05ece5...
libdvdcss debug: title key found in cache c0:00:00:00:01
unscrambled sector: 000001ba...892a484618000001080b7f0f8070a49403da00e540e0...

I haven't tried 1.2.11 under OSX yet, but I should do that as a sanity check. It's vaguely possible that the 'Report RPC State' is failing due to a Linux kernel bug rather than a drive firmware issue, since if libdvdcss didn't use it it's probably never been tested very hard.

Edit 2012-02-18: This is now fixed in libdvdcss SVN, so should be working again in the next release (presumably 1.2.12). A patched version of 1.2.11 will hit the Fedora/RHEL/CentOS packages of libdvdcss very soon. Still not entirely sure if it's a bug in the RPC-I firmware or if it's intentional.

Thanks for the reply, I put the dat file in my desktop like what you did and now this is the message that I get. The "MatshitaFlasher 0.6" utility is in the Downloads folder.

Any idea what could be the problem now? Many thanks...

Last login: Wed Feb 15 23:22:51 on ttys000
Myname-MacBook:~ Myname$ cd ~/Downloads/MatshitaFlasher\ 0.6.app/Contents/Resources
Myname-MacBook:Resources Myname$ ./simple_flash 0 ~/Desktop/UJ-898_HC10_RPC1.dat
compiled at Apr 14 2011 22:33:18
Could not open device
Myname-MacBook:Resources Myname$

This cannot work!
The flasher cannot flash a drive it doesnt see or know!

And this is maybe because you didnt follow the instruction exactly.

Please try again, step by step.

Hi folks,

New user on here and I've been looking at the page and following the instructions for my MBP running 10.6.8 for a while now. Downloaded Matshita Flasher and the UJ-868 KB19 stock RPC1 firmware so that I can set my drive for region free playing, but I'm getting a problem that I don't seem to find in any of the other thread entries...Terminal gives me this message when attempting to open the firmware:

calling simple_flash with firmware file /Users/**********/Desktop/UJ-868_KB19_Stock_RPC1/KB19_rpc1.dat

simple_flash V 2.01 compiled at Feb 4 2010 00:22:16
Selected firmware: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-868 KB19
fatal: Selected drive (null) does not appear to be a matshita device

I know my drive is set to Region 2 having been changed from the out-of-the-box setting of Region 1. I've followed the thread to where it says to make sure to insert a disc and set the region, etc...but I don't seem to understand why it's telling me that it doesn't appear to be a matshita device because my System Profiler clearly says this:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-868:

Firmware Revision: KB19
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

If I am missing something, please let me know. I'm not an IT whiz of any sorts, but I've followed the instructions and read the thread so as to avoid any mistakes (I used to be a forum moderator myself, so I know the sort of stuff people get up to on them)...so I would really appreciate the help.

Cheers
Z

Hi Z,

you didnt left a disc in the drive by any chance?

Hi chef,

No, there's no disc in the drive.

That's exactly what I did - did you have a disc in the drive at the time??
Maybe try again after a shut-down/restart??

hi guys,

When I dropped the .dat file onto MatshitaFlasher
Terminal gave me the following message:

fatal: Selected drive (null) does not appear to be a matshita device

Does that mean that the .dat file was faulty? I got the dat file on page 15.

Here is my DVD detail:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-898:

Firmware Revision: HE13
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 1024 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

To me it looks as the script / patcher didnt get the drive info at all, therefore the drive cannot be accessed nor patched.
That is what "drive (null)" means.

thanks astroboy, for some reason the restart worked! I didn't have any disk inside and I rerun the same commands that I did before.

this is what I have now when I launch DVD Info X 3:

Status: RPC-1 (region free)

Pardon my ignorance, since the drive is region free now,
1) what is the purpose to run "Region X" app? I tried running it and basically it is to set the region again and the no. of changes left.
2) So does that mean I have to set a region and after all the no. of changes are used rerun the commands again in Terminal then repeat with Region X again?
3) Which is to say there is no such thing as a region free drive where it can play from all regions?

many thanks for the kind assistance...

No probs - glad you are up and running..... a restart is a magical thing sometimes!
From what I've seen, you've changed the firmware, no more terminal stuff needed - just switch regions as you want with Region X - you can change the number of changes left while you are there, so they will never run out..... I've been swithcing back and forth ad nauseum since I did it, no hassles at all.... I'm not sure if changing region with DVD Player is good or bad, I'm not going to try!

I don't believe what I must read here.

Read our FAQ!!!

I tried the Flasher;
Simply did not work...
Although the drive according to system profiler is a Matsita DVD-R UJ-868
with KB19 firmware

Current region code:
KB19

Terminal did not asked anything, simply told this:
calling simple-flash V 2.01 compiled at Feb 4 2010 00:22:16
Selected firmware: MATSHITADVD-R UJ 868 KB19
fatal: Selected drive (null) does not appear to be a matshita device

logout

[Process completed]

What did I do wrong?
Any help?
Please
Thanks
m24

Simply doubleclicking the flasher cannot do anything.

You need to follow the guide clearly step by step.