Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
• ProtectDisc
Caution
TheDigitalMillennium CopyrightAct(DMCA)signedintolawin1998prohibitsthebreak-
ing of copy-protection schemes or the distribution of information (such as tools, website
links, and so forth) on how to break these schemes.
RPC
Regionalplaybackwasdesignedtoallowdiscssoldinspecificgeographicalregionsofthe
world to play only on players sold in those same regions. The idea was to allow a movie
to be released at different times in different parts of the world and to prevent people from
ordering discs from regions in which the movie had not been released yet.
Eight regions are defined in the RPC standard. Discs (and players) usually are identified
by a small logo or label showing the region number superimposed on a world globe.
Multiregion discs are possible, as are discs that are not region locked. If a disc plays in
more than one region, it has more than one number on the globe. The regions are as fol-
lows:
•
Region Code 1
—United States, Canada, U.S. Territories, Bermuda.
•
Region Code 2
—Japan, Western Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East.
•
Region Code 3
—Southeast Asia and East Asia.
•
Region Code 4
—Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico,
South America, and the Caribbean.
•
Region Code 5
—Eastern Europe (east of Poland and the Balkans), Indian subcontin-
ent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia.
•
Region Code 6
—China and Tibet.
•
Region Code 7
—Reserved for future use.
•
Region Code 8
—International venues including aircraft and cruise ships.
•
Region Code All
—Has all flags set, allowing the disc to be played in any region or
player. Sometimes called Region Code 0.
TheregioncodeisembeddedinthehardwareofDVDvideoplayers.Mostplayersarepre-
setforaspecificregionandcan'tbechanged.Somecompanieswhoselltheplayersmodi-
fy them to play discs from all regions; these are called
region-free
or
code-free
players.
Some newer discs have an added region code enhancement (RCE) function that checks to
see whether the player is configured for multiple or all regions and then, if it is, refuses
