DVD REGIONAL CODE

Region Playback Control Management

All DVD Video Playback systems have “Region Playback Control” (RPC) which is required by Hollywood movie industry and defined by DVD Forum. You can only play DVD-Video discs with the same regional code as your DVD-Video Playback system.

As for DVD-ROM drives, one kind of the DVD-Video Playback system, there are 2 types:

RPC Phase 1 (as RPC1): RPC1 drives do not have built-in hardware support for region management. DVD-ROM drives of this kind do not play a part in controlling the playback region. It solely depends on the decoder.

RPC Phase 2 (as RPC2): RPC2 drives maintain the regional code change count information in hardware, and in general, the regional code of such drives can be changed up to 5 times by end users under some software decoder. (e.g. PowerDVD)

Regional Codes

Region 1: Canada, U.S.

Region 2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East, Egypt

Region 3: Southeast Asia and East Asia

Region 4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America,

Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean

Region 5: Eastern Europe, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia

Region 6: China

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