Hi Cara
Ok, this is a long message. Fair warning.
Ordinarily, yes you are correct. It can, indeed, strip out the region
codes.
The problem, however, is that the drive needs to be able to read the
DVD, unencumbered, for MacTheRipper to rip it. This includes stripping
out the region codes. The Matsashita brand drives Apple uses, however,
contain firmware that is known as RPC2 firmware--that is, it enforces
the region lockout at the hardware level, rather than at the software
level. This means that, if a DVD is encoded with a region other than
that which the drive is set to, the drive will not read it correctly,
period. At this point, it is beyond the control of MacTheRipper, or
any other ripping program.
If you set the drive region to match the region of the DVD you are
attempting to rip, you can then use MacTheRipper or a similar program
to do the ripping, and it will work. At that point you can burn a
region-free version of the disk. However, bare in mind you only get
five chances to set the region, and this limit, like the region coding
itself, is locked at the firmware level of the drive.
With many drives, you can flash RPC1 firmware to eliminate the
hardware region coding. This is not possible, at least as far as
anyone knows yet, to do with these Matsashita drives. Even if the
firmware were available, there is either no software mechanism to
allow the firmware to be flashed (i.e. it must be done at the factory
with a special device), or it is hidden very well and has not, as of
yet, been discovered. This is something Matsashita is famous, or
rather infamous, for in the DVD ripping community.
Also, bare in mind that region coding may not be your only obstacle to
ripping a DVD for a different region. Warning, this is about to get a
bit technical, so hopefully I don't lose anyone, but we're getting
into video jargon a bit. Depending on the region the DVD was encoded
for, it may use a different video frame rate and dimensions (pal vs.
ntsc). This is the "region issues" that were mentioned earlier with
VHS tapes. It wasn't intended as a region lock, but it functioned
decently as such for most people, and it is still an issue with DVDs.
For example, the USA uses NTSC (60 hz, 29.97 fps, 480p) as its
standard. Most places in Europe, as well as Australia, use pal video
(50 hz, 25 fps, 576p). Note, I'm leaving HD video out of this for the
moment, as this is complex enough already :). So to rip a region 4 dvd
(australia) to region 2 (Europe) presents no problems other than the
region code. However, to rip such a DVD to region 1 (US and Canada) it
is not only necessary to de-region the DVD, but the video must also be
converted from pal to ntsc in order to play correctly on TV sets or
screens, not to mention DVD players, that do not support the
conversion in realtime. This can result in a slight loss of quality,
and can also be very tedious to do, depending on how much you're
willing to pay for the software that does it.
As a final note, this *is* illegal to do in certain countries, the USA
included. I do not endorse breaking the law, no matter what I,
personally, think of it. Trouble with this situation, though, is that
not all movies are released in all regions and/or combinations. I
encountered this recently, a certain film was not available in a US
version at all, period. If the DVD is available in your local region,
just get that version if you can. It will save you a lot of headaches,
not to mention being perfectly legal :). If not... well, the decision
is up to you. Just remember, it may be technically illegal regardless
of the reason you are doing it.
On Dec 15, 2008, at 09:33, Cara Quinn wrote:
Jacob, Mac the Ripper can strip the region codes from a DVD
though. So would you not be able to rip / reburn the material to a
blank DVD and then play it?…
