Hi Jacob, thanks very much for your note. Don't worry! You didn't
get too technical. I was aware of all of that except for the part
that the firmware version played in reading the disc.
Thanks for the enlightenment!…
Smiles,
Cara :)
On Dec 15, 2008, at 7:05 AM, Jacob Schmude wrote:
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?…
---
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http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn
