Regional Playback Control
From HandWiki
Short description: Regional lockout technology for DVDs
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RPC-1 and RPC-2 are designations applied to firmware for DVD drives to enforce regional lockout. Older DVD drives use RPC-1 firmware,[1] which allows DVDs from any region to play. Newer drives use RPC-2 firmware, which enforces DVD region coding at the hardware level. See DVD region code § Computer DVD drives for further information.
One reason that that the regional lock is used, is to prevent people from buying a DVD of a film in one country, then taking to it another country where the film may still be in cinemas.[2]
Some RPC-2 drives can be converted to RPC-1 with the same features as before by using alternative firmware on the drive, or on some drives by setting a secret flag in the drive's EEPROM.
References
- ↑ Schofield, Jack (2011-09-01). "Playing DVDs in different regions" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2011/sep/01/ask-jack-dvd-regions.
- ↑ "Will piracy sink the DVD?" (in en-GB). 2004-03-15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3512878.stm.
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