7
DVD Regional Code
Region Playback Control Management
All DVD Video Playback systems have “Region Playback Control”
management (RPC) which is required by Hollywood movie industry and
defined by DVD Forum. This includes DVD-Video players and PC
systems with DVD-Video capability. 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 don’t
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 the end users
under some software decoder (e.g. PowerDVD).
And referring to the regional codes, there are 6 regions worldwide, and
normally, there is a regional code mark on the package of DVD titles. :
Region
1
: Canada, US
Region
2
: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (including
Egypt)
Region
3
: Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong)
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
