[G4] Combo drive recomendations?

[Ronald Steinke]

On 11 Jul, 2007, at 6:41 AM, John Niven wrote:

> Are you saying that if I use an external firewire DVD,
> I will not be subject to the regional code
> restrictions? That sounds VERY interesting!

I am using an external FireWire/USB case with a Pioneer 110D DVD/RW  
player and VLC to view my DVDs. I like the interface a bit better  
than Apple DVD Player and set VLC to be my default player. So far, I  
haven't seen anything on screen that indicates I will be limited to a  
certain number of viewings before a change is permanent.

I have heard that there are software solutions to the limit  
restriction. One way was to delete preferences, but I'm not exactly  
sure which pref file to look for. Another way is to "flash" the drive  
ROM, but I have never done that and have some concerns that it may or  
may not work properly.

One program that I have used to move DVD movies to my iPod is  
MacTheRipper. It can remove region settings during the ripping  
process and you wind up with a region free movie that you can play on  
anything. Another program I downloaded, but haven't used yet, is  
Handbrake. It comes in two versions, so you have to decide how you  
want to use it.