If you’re going to be watching/ripping DVDs from different regions regularly, I would suggest buying yourself an external enclosure (USB2 Only, Deluxe USB2 Only, Firewire/USB2), and the latest Pioneer DVD burner, currently a Pioneer DVR-116D DVD+/-RW DL drive (site 1, site 2), and you’ll be able to rip DVDs from other regions with mac the ripper without needing to switch the drive region. The Matshita and LG (HL-DT-ST) DVD-R drives in many recent Macs simply cannot rip DVDs from other regions without changing the drive region or installing RPC1 (region-free) firmware (only possible if you can boot in Windows). The Pioneer drives can typically rip DVDs from other regions with MTR without needing to change the drive region, though they still come region-locked, and so if you try to use DVD Player on the original DVDs from other regions, the Pioneer drive will still limit you to five region changes, like your current one. The ripped DVDs will play on your internal DVD drive, or on any other drive, without needing to switch region settings, as they will be region-free once ripped with default settings in MTR. Personally, if I’m going to be wearing through drives ripping a bunch of DVDs, I’d rather be doing it with a $30 drive that’s much, much faster, and that I can toss and replace once it wears out than with the dog-slow and expensive-to-replace internal drive.
There is some region-free firmware available for that Pioneer drive that you can install in Mac OS X, which would allow you to actually use DVD Player on the original DVDs from any region, and switch your drive’s region setting an unlimited number of times (using a tool like RegionX once you have RPC1 firmware installed). For that, you’ll need this handy DVRFlash tool (usage info), along with some region-free patched firmware (Pioneer DVR-116D RPC1 Firmware, info below).
Included in the patched firmware download are three copies of the
firmware to be installed on a Pioneer DVR-116D (116D, 116DBK,
116DSV) drive only with DVRFlash.
• The file labeled “A0815001.109″, is the latest official, unpatched
firmware I downloaded from Pioneer’s website, version 1.09.
• The file labeled “A0815001_RPC1_Bitset.109″, is one that I have
patched to set the DVD-ROM bit setting for DVD+R media, and to be
RPC1 (region-free).
• The file labeled “A0815001_RPC1_Bitset_SpeedUnlock.109″, has both
the above modifications, and has the artificial speed limit removed
that Pioneer put in place when the drive encounters a protected
DVD, so you can rip movies at full speed.
Caution: It is possible to really screw up your DVD drive if you
don’t follow the instructions for DVRFlash very carefully. Also,
the SpeedUnlock option may affect the lifespan of your DVD drive
(but hey, no pain, no gain!).
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