Re: DVD region code locked...help!

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

joe writes ...
> 
> Someone has locked the region code on our Apple DVD player in the public
> access lab  to region 1. No more changes are permitted. Is there a way
> to get around this? I tried trashing the DVD prefs to no avail. Is it
> locked in the dvd's EPROM?
> 
> --joe


     If inserting media coded for another region does not change to that code,
then, evidently, the 4 region changes allowed by the Mac DVD player have been
used up and, as you say, no more changes will be permitted. Modifying,
trashing, etc. user prefs should have no effect on this.

     I do not know how the Mac DVD saves the region code. If the DVD has an
EEPROM or some similar machine modifiable code store chip, that would be a
fairly good place to retain current region setting info. A lot depends upon how
determined the system is to defend the regional copyrights set up. (There are
other ways for a circuit to modify itself which could be more difficult to get
to.)

     Even so, a region code placed in EEPROM together with an encoded checksum
for [ the entire chip + machine I.D. info from other parts of the system ]
could be decent protection against quickie changes, especially if the EEPROM
(or whatever) is a soldered-on sub-mini IC. Similarly, it would not be too
difficult to significantly obstruct obvious workarounds such as changing the
instructions which check the region code.

     In short, if the manufacturer wants to make the DVD region coding more
bother to crack than it's worth, it can do it. Still, Csa2 is an Apple II
newsgroup; not, a Mac newsgroup. You may want to try asking your question on,
say, comp.sys.mac.system .

     Apple must be aware that a fair number of users would run into the problem
you are having. My guess-- just a guess-- is that Apple has a disc which can be
inserted into the player which will reset it for 4 fresh changes. Probably, you
should contact Apple and explain your situation.



Rubywand