Region free

[Jeikobu]

I want to make my computer's built in DVD player (model is PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-104) region free, but I want to make sure that whatever I do to it is as safe as possible (it's not worth it to ruin my player). I searched and found this site. Is this, or something else like it, reliable and effective to let my player play any region DVD, but also not risk damaging my device?

[tomlee59]

You do need to be careful -- it is possible to turn your drive into a brick by flashing it improperly. Since you are attempting to do this on a Mac, you have far fewer options for flashing than on a PC. On one of my Mac drives, long ago, I had to resort to removing the drive, flashing it in a PC, and then reinstalling it in my G4. 'Twas a pain in the arse, but (barely) worth the effort.

A good starting point to learn what's involved is:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/rpc1.htm

From there, you can follow links to still more information. I recommend careful study before attempting to flash anything. It may even turn out that you do not need to flash -- in some cases, there are software workarounds. It depends on the particular drive model, firmware rev., etc.

Good luck!

[Jeikobu]

My model isn't listed at the site it recommends.

[budz]

http://pioneerdvd.rpc1.org/

You'll have to go to that site for your drive if you want it region free. IMHO buy a newer PIONEER 115 (if you can find it) or the 116 drive. Because it's easier to flash with MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT to make it region free. BTW that website is no longer updated as well.

[Case]

I searched and found this site.

That horrible ad-driven site points to an outdated file (firmware 1.2.0) on the different site that budz mentioned. The firmware download "a04x120_mac.sit" runs on Mac OS 9. On rpc1.org are newer firmwares for the DVR-104 model (firmware 1.4.0) that can be run on Mac OS X (command line) with DVRFlash (a flasher utility for Pioneer drives). (There is even a firmware 1.4.1 for the DVR-104, but that only comes with a Windows executable file.)

RPC1 firmware on the optical drive is only halfway in going region free. You still need Region X to keep the region change count low.

[jman98]

The free program VLC, which runs on Macs and Linux and Windows, plays DVDs without regard to region code. In other words, it will play any region DVDs on your Mac. I would suggest that you do this instead of flashing the firmware.

On Windows I have flashed DVD drive firmware several times and I'm not afraid to do it. It's another story for Mac. I have an iMac because of work and I won't attempt to change the firmware on it. I've read too many stories of people who have attempted it and turned the drive into a brick. That is extremely unlikely to happen on a PC. So while I admit that I probably could flash the firmware and it would probably be OK, the chance of failure seems to me to be significantly higher than on Windows so I won't do it. I just use VLC.