My mac uses the Matshita UJ825 superdrive, at present there's no firmware update available to make this drive region free. As Mac The Ripper doesn't need to play the disk before ripping it, is this counted as a region change on my drive? Bearing in mind the drive can only be changed five times before it locks to the last selected region. I can then playback the ripped, region-free 'dvd' from my hard drive or burn the files to another disk. Or does the drive recognise the region change when the files are being removed from the disk?
I don´t think you need to worry about "region lock" when ripping (since you don´t have to play the disc before, like you said). And after ripping, that disc is "region free" (well, if you want). The computer will ask you about the region change, so don´t worry.
Thanks for the reply. There are two forms of region lock, one on the software, which you can easily get around by using VLC or by only playing the ripped region free DVD's from the hard drive, the other is on the software. Both allow you to change the region up to five times before locking. The software, DVD player, certainly tells you how many region changes you've got left and allows you to select the region you want it locked to on the fifth change, but I believe the hardware (DVD drive) just locks to whatever region is selected on the fifth change, without any warning. I don't want to end up locking my DVD drive, as no region free firmware is available for it at the moment. Have any users of Mac The Ripper, who regularly rip DVD's from different regions, had any problems with the drive locking and refusing to play DVD's?