REWIND FEATURE: RCE
Regional Code Enhancement
In Autumn of 2000, it came to a number of people's attention that something wasn't quite right with a couple of big new DVD titles in the USA. The two titles in question were The Patriot and The Perfect Storm. These two massive blockbusters were released and distributed by Columbia Tristar Home Video and Warner Brothers respectively.
If you bought and played these discs within America, there would be nothing wrong with them whatsoever. However, if you bought them from America and then tried to view them outside of the Region 1 (America) area, you may have been presented with the following screen when you tried to view the disc on your machine:
The reason for seeing this screen is due to a new encoding technique written onto the Region 1 discs. Regional Code Enhancement or RCE for short is a new system that prevents Region 1 discs being played on some multi-region or region free machines.
The way in which RCE works is relatively simple and it is just an extension of the current regional coding system. Basically when you insert an RCE DVD into your DVD player, the DVD asks the player if it is Region 1. If the player says "Yes", the RCE DVD then asks the player if it is any other region. If the player says "Yes" again, the disc will not play and the screen above will be displayed. The reason why it does this is that the RCE DVD is intended to be played on a R1 only player. So, when the DVD player says "Yes" to both questions, the DVD realises it is being played on a player that is capable of reading more than one region and will therefore not play.
RCE has also been applied to some other high profile discs including Charlie's Angels. Initially RCE discs were causing problems on some Region 1 machines, there have been instances where the disc would not even play on a Region 1 only player. This affected the first batch of RCEs where the programming may have had some bugs. This is not the case anymore and it's rare to encounter an RCE disc that won't play on Region 1 only players anymore.
THE LEAKED MEMO
The news about RCE first came about after the following leaked internal memo from the HQ of Warner Brothers was posted onto the Internet.
The new advanced approach may render some Region 1 discs unplayable on existing multi-region players. Known discs to include this technology are The Perfect Storm and Columbia Tristar's The Patriot.
Regional Code Enhancement (RCE) Program WHV will start a program to enhance the capabilities of the regional code specification for DVDs beginning in October. This program is a response to the unauthorized practice of altering DVD video hardware players so that they bypass the region code requirements for DVD. This is happening on a more frequent basis in many territories, and retailers are openly marketing these non-complying players with names such as region free and multi zone.
The Technology - The enhancement is an additional embedded code (RCE - Regional Code Enhancement) on the DVD disc that makes the current regional coding more robust.
How It Works - In simple language, the RCE allows the disc to detect if a hardware player is region specific (as required by the CSS licensing agreement), or if it has been manufactured or altered in the market to be region free. If the player is region free the RCE will not allow the disc to play the program material. It will instead display a message on the television advising the consumer that the machine is not authorized to play this disc. The actual wording will be as follows: THIS DVD PLAYER MAY HAVE BEEN ALTERED AND IS UNABLE TO PLAY THIS DISC THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS DISC. DVD PLAYERS AND DISCS ARE DESIGNED TO WORK IN CERTAIN REGIONS THIS DISC IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THIS PLAYER PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL RETAILER OR PLAYER MANUFACTURER FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.
WHV will start applying the RCE to discs scheduled for release in the U.S. market beginning in late October. At this time, the RCE will only be applied to Region 1 versions of titles. At least one other studio (Columbia TriStar) will also be releasing discs with the RCE during the 4th quarter. The program has two objectives; (1) Discourage the export of Region 1 discs to other regions and (2) discourage the sale of DVD video hardware that has been modified to region free.
WHV Sales personnel should immediately begin to communicate this program to key retailers in their respective territories. It is especially important to focus on retailers selling products online, and any account, which may be exporting products outside Region 1. With the online retailers, we must discuss the need to properly notify consumers outside the Region 1 territories that the disc may not play in their player before the disc is purchased. The customer dissatisfaction and returns risk is significant if this is not done. At this time there is no plan to send out a press release on this program. This document should be used to review the program with all U.S. accounts.
UPDATE: As it turns out Warner Brothers are not supporting RCE, the retail version of The Perfect Storm currently does not include any RCE coding, any previous reports regarding this may have been referring to pre-release discs that Warner Brothers may have used to test the RCE technology as written about in the memo. As of today the only studio supporting the RCE technology is Columbia Tristar.
WHICH PLAYERS ARE AFFECTED?
RCE mainly affects region free players as opposed to multi-region players. A region free player is Region 0 whereas multi-region players can have their region changed either automatically or manually depending on what region disc is currently in the player. However, just because you may own a multi-region player doesn't guarantee the disc will play. Even if your player has been chipped by a company such as Techtronics (avoid this company by the way), it may still experience problems. The best way to use RCE discs on your multi-region player is to manually enter the region as opposed to letting it be automatically selected. This way the disc cannot tell what region machine it is playing on. Ways around this system are starting to appear but to see if your player is affected without wasting your money on a disc, check out some of the respectable UK DVD news and reference sites such as DVD Times and The Region 2 Project to view their databases of affected players.
WHAT DO I DO NEXT?
Rewind will do it's best to advise you within a comparison if a movie is protected by RCE. Also, major online Region 1 retailers such as Amazon will announce it on their product description page to draw your attention to it.
WHAT MOVIES ARE AFFECTED BY RCE?
Below is the most up to date list Rewind has. With thanks to Rewind Team Member Noor for this information:
COLUMBIA TRISTAR REGION 1 DISCS
Bad Boys II AKA Bad Boys 2
Hollow Man
Punch-Drunk Love
Sweetest Thing (The)
There are also some R1 MGM titles that are also RCE. MGM DO NOT SUPPORT RCE and will not add RCE to future titles. However, first batches of some films were encoded RCE without MGM approval by the manufacturer and re-pressings of those titles have subsequently been made. Some first pressings did make it to the market, and unfortunately there is no way of telling which is RCE and which is not. There is an upside that all the films effected have been available for quite some time and it is more than likely that all RCE discs have been phased out. These are the films effected:
Last updated 29th December 2004, with thanks to Downunder