"making my Ti-500 DVD drive region-free"

[Trevor J. Hutley]

Since every few weeks on this List, the question of "how to make my 
DVD region free" comes up again, I thought that I would just re-post 
my (FEB 2002) step-by-step action to make the DVD drive on my Ti-500 
in to a region-free one.  I hope it is a helpful guide to anyone who 
plans a similar action.

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THIS NOTE DESCRIBES THE STEPS TO MAKE MY DVD DRIVE REGION FREE (RPC-1)

Version 2 [26-FEB-02]


I have a Ti-500 with a DVD-drive from Matsushita, model SR-8187 (look 
in Apple System Profiler, under Devices & Volumes).

My DVD-drive was an RPC2 drive, set at Region 2 [Europe].

Since I have DVD from the USA [Region 1] and Hong Kong [Region 3], I
wanted to make my DVD drive region-free.

I thought that I would summarize the process, for those who are interested.

	THIS IS ALL AT YOUR OWN RISK.
	I AM NOT RECOMMENDING NOR PROPOSING ANYTHING.
	I AM JUST DESCRIBING WHAT I DID AND THE RESULTS.
	READ ALL THE INFO THAT COMES WITH THE UTILITIES BEFORE YOU START

ESPECIALLY MAKE SURE NOT TO INTERRUPT THE APPLE OR HACK FIRMWARE
UPDATE PROCESSES.


This URL (Mac DVD Resource) is the place from which to find all the
utilities and hacks, either hosted there or linked:

	<http://www.WormInTheApple.gr/macdvd/>


THE STEPS TO MAKE MY DVD DRIVE REGION FREE (RPC-1)


PRIOR to this process, you must have already played a DVD in your drive.
You cannot run this process on a brand new unused drive.

1. run DVDInfo 2.0.3 (by xvi) and you will see a result like this:

		Model:    MATSHITA DVD-ROM SR-8187
    		Firmware: HA15
       	RPC-2:    Region locked (Phase II)

2. run  the APPLE "PowerBook G4 DVD-ROM Update" 1.0

<http://www.versiontracker.com/redir.fcgi/kind=1&db=mac&id=11021/_PB_G4_DVDROM_Update.smi.bin>

This updates the HA15 to an HA18 firmware.

Apple System Profiler should show that the DVD drive is now HA18.

3. RESTART

4. run the Matsushita SR-8187 XA18 updater,
    which then updates (hacks) the firmware to XA18

5, restart

6. run DVDInfo 2.0.3, which then shows:

        Vendor: MATSHITA
         Model: DVD-ROM SR-8187
      Firmware: XA18
    RPC Status: RPC-1 (region-free)

The DVD drive is now region-free.

What this means is that it will (should) read DVD from any region.
All mine are OK.

If you put in a DVD from another region, you will be prompted for a
region change.

You can manage the number of region changes with the utility REGION
1.0.9 (also by xvi).

Note that Region ONLY works on RPC-1 drives, so you need to go
through steps 1 - 6 above to get to that type of drive.

I hope that this overview is helpful.

I have appreciated all the input from Fred Clarke on this subject,
who tells me that he has made about 50 DVD drives region free.  I am
a relative beginner, as this is only my second one !

regards, Trevor

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