Making the Pismo DVD-ROM Region-Free

We hit this wall on our beloved Pismo G3 400 Powerbook running OS 10.4.9 (6 years and still going strong!) a few days ago. I thought I had this Region thing licked on it but after we played an Australian DVD a few times and changed the regions to region 4 and 1 - back and forth, we were STUCK!

Looking for information on how to make the Pismo DVD region free involves a lot of visits to various DVD sites but ultimately what is needed is the utility "Region X" even if your drive has been flashed Region Free.
Interestingly the author of this utility has "retired' from the region-free business so the download in the RPC1 site http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php for this app is missing.

The site with the most information on making Mac drives region free is at:
http://www.powerbook-fr.com/dossiers/dvd_region_free_en_article30.html
However, they dont have Region X anymore and dont provide a valid link. However, they do provide instructions on making the drive region free from OS 9.

After several cleverly phrased Google searches, I was fortunate to find Region X tucked away on a New Zealand site at:
http://www.ilovedvd.co.nz/dvddownloads.asp
I suggest you grab it asap and store it somewhere because if this site goes down too, I have no idea if there are other sites hosting the application.

In any case, I did walk through the whole procedure to make the Pismo DVD drive region free - and I'm not sure if it was already region free to begin with.

Here it is again:

My drive is NOT the original Pismo drive - Matsushita SR-8174 - but mine is taken from a PowerBook G3 (Lombard)Matsushita SR-8173 - which is already region free or RPC1. To make the 8174 Region Free you have to download the modified rpc1 firmware from the above site.

Install and boot from Mac OS 9.2.2 (last release of OS 9!)
Download and Run the firmware update if you need it for your drive.
Run Regionbuster or Regionreset or RegionChoice.
Reboot with PRAM Reset.
Check if O9 DVD Player runs the new regions and OS 9 Region application can reset it.

Now in OS X you need Region X which is in the link above.
I hope this post helps some other Pismo owner who may have misplaced the Region X application!
Bye
AM