Given the amount of times this question comes up, I thought it was time for an article to explain how to do it.

Sadly some drives have no firmware solutions to this issue, AFAIK there are no solutions for MB combo drives and my MacMini combo drive is the same. For those of us in this situation VLC may be a less than perfect solution.

Firstly all credit to user Ben11 from the Firmware Pages Forum, he is the one who has made it possible for us to make our drives region free.

The site is here - The Firmware Page

It is really important to understand that proceeding with trying to make your drive region free is not without risk and I quote the Firmware Pages warning from Ben11 here,

Before upgrading your optical drive, be sure you have selected a zone by reading a DVD with the Apple DVD Player (ie). If this modification is not made, your drive simply won’t work after the operation.

You should also read this page, powerbook.fr.com

To discover whether there is a firmware verion for your drive you firstly need to identify which model drive and which firmware version it is running, click on the apple symbol and select “About this Mac” and then select and click on “More Info…” which will open System Profiler, and then click on “ATA” this will show your drives info –





Now you need to check for the update, go to this site –

rpc1 forum

or if yours is not a Matshita drives (UJ-825 and later), then go to this site and check there.

having identified the drive and firmware version you can then download the updater and proceed.

You also need to download the application RegionX and DVD info

X - Region X & DVD Info X

If you are running Leopard you will need to trick your computer into thinking it is running Tiger in order to run the updater,

Here we have to give credit to user Terminus on the Firmware Pages Forum as it is he who cracked this,

You will have to change the permissions to allow access to this plist file, firstly copy the /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist. file to the desktop so you have a copy to restore if you run into problems.

1. Go to the folder /System/Library/CoreServices in Finder
2. Click Get Info on it. 

3. Click the lock symbol down the bottom.

4. Type your password.

5. Change "Everyone" to "Read & Write". 

This will give you permission to open the file with TextEdit
6. Go to /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist in the Finder.

7. Click Get Info on it. 

8. Click the lock symbol down the bottom.

9. Type your password.

10. Change "Everyone" to "Read & Write". 

This will give you permission to open the file with TextEdit

Edit it to show OS as 10.4.9 and save.





as per bennyling's post you can achieve the same in terminal if you prefer -

[Before upgrading your optical drive, be sure you have selected a zone by reading a DVD with the Apple DVD Player (ie). If this modification is not made, your drive simply won’t work after the operation.

READ the "README!.txt file that is bundled in the zip file for the upgrade and good luck!

BEFORE RESTARTING AFTER FLASHING FIRMWARE REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE PROFILE BACK TO 10.5.2

When you have finished remember to go back in and change the OS back to 10.5.2 and restore the access permissions to the Core Services folder and System Version plist.

here is what Region X looks like after you reset it,





EDIT- if you have problems with Region X it may be necessary to delete these files -
/Library/Application Support/DVD Player directory
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DVDPlayer.plist

and when you run DVD Info X you should get a result like this,





hope that helps a few fellow MTAU's, please proceed with caution - although i have been able to make 3 of my drives region free without issue there are ample warnings about the results if you stuff it up.

once again thanks to Ben11 and the folk at RPC-1 forums.

EDIT - new release for MBP's with HL-DT-ST GSA-S10N (AP12) LG Drive, its a bit different because it makes the drive RPC2 instead of RPC1, here is the link - LG firmware and here is a thread on whirlpool started by jya that helps explain - whirlpool link

Thanks for the great article Galumay - something we've needed for some time

JB

thanks Byrd,

and to my fellow MTAU's please all feel free to give me advice if you think i have missed something or not made it clear enough - its my first article so i am not sure if it is well enough written.

i am more than happy to edit it if other more experienced users have suggestions.

my mate is will love you for this ! he bought a macbook and it got stuck on region 2 and he was right miffed! you are a life saver.

You could mention early in the article that there is no firmware solution for MacBooks with combo drives. We're still stuck with VLC as our #1 option (a partial solution at best).

That's the only thing that comes to mind right now.

thanks for that..

it is worth noting that some drives this cant be done for....

my old powerbook was unmodifiable...

my new imac VLC doesnt have a problem with region coding...

its all a crap shoot......

I hate region coding.

Argh! i am stuck.

When i changed the version strings and saved them, i can't open TextEdit again to change back system to 10.5.2.

Can someone please send me their 10.5.2. SystemPlist.pref file? Email jonatyee @ yahoo (Dot) com

EDIT : PROBLEM SOLVED! Probably want to save a copy of the pref file first and just do a quick swap at the end.

changes made to reflect various suggestions, thanks guys!

Great little guide Galumay. I always feel like writing an article for MTAu, then worry about the info I'm bound to miss out, and give up.

I region-freed a dual USB G3 iBook a while ago and it's great. It is a completely region free machine which is good because even VLC on my PowerBook has started to have trouble playing with some Japanese (region 2) discs. The iBook takes everything in its stride now.

Galumay, would this work for a PowerMac G4 with a DVD-ROM drive?

Good on ya, Galumay. You've put all the critical turns into your guide that took me a few detours and Google searches when I did this to my wife's MBP a couple of weeks go.

Has anyone ever petitioned Apple to use region-free firmware in their optical drives?

Cheers
Steffen.

I cant find any reference to PowerMac G4's, depends what the drive and firmware is but i imagine the best solution would just be to upgrade to a new drive that is region free like one of the pioneers.

thanks mate - thats how i have always felt too!! i have really wanted to make more of a contribution to the site that has helped me so much, just have a go mate, people will always make constructive suggestions if you miss something.

thanks also! thats exactly what inspired me, i have done 3 or 4 now and every time i had to do the whole dogpile search thing and join all the dots - then Leopard threw a big spanner in the works and i had to go thru the whole exercise again.

it is also for my own benefit - at least i have documented the process so next time i have to do it, i can come back and look here!

What about Macbook with HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N???

well my searching found this thread - The Firmware Page :: View topic - Request firmware HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N rev. AP09

good luck!