Playing different region DVDs on 10.4.7

[australia15]

DVDs with the default region code play fine with VLC on my MacBook with 10.4.7, but other regions will not. Any ideas as to why? Do I just need to wait for the program to catch up to the OS, or am I doing something wrong?

[funman]

hello, you need to buy a drive set to the region of your other dvds

[travisf]

Hi.

I am new to both Mac and VLC . I was led to believe elsewhere on a mac thread that VLC will happily play dvds from virtually any area. I cannot play a PAL area 2 (BBC) dvd, and had to change the default area on the new dvd drive. It can only be changed 5 times, so I'd rather get VLC working.

I'm assuming that it is related to the new intel Mac version of VLC that still needs tweaking.

Any thoughts?

[funman]

the problem is the dvd drive itself

normally, you shouldn't be able to play zone 1 dvd on zone 2 drive

BUT some drives can be bypassed by vlc, and then play all dvds

however, some constructors ship non bypassable drives, so there's nothing you can do except:

1/ buy a new drive for the dvds you LEGALLY acquired
2/ thanks the DVD consortium for loving you

[kirbyko3]

I noticed that VLC could play multi-region DVDs on my Powermac G4, but when I got the dual quad-core G5 it would no longer do it. It must be a drive issue.

[lydy]

Funman, I'm confused by your answer. I have a iBook G4. The firmware (at least, that's what I assume it is) allowed me to make a max of five region changes. That would mean that the drive, itself, can play any damn region it likes. Whatever the impediment is to playing other region codes, it can't be just the drive. Or am I missing something?

I have a number of legally acquired Region 1 and Region 2,4 discs. I have my laptop set to Region 2, but would really like to be able to watch my Region 1 discs.

Like other people, I had heard that VLC played DVDs without reference to Region code. Did that change? Or is there something I could do differently?

Thanks. I appreciate your (anybody's) help.