RCE, Regional Coding Enhancement, is an upgrade to RPC (Regional Playback Control).

RCE enables a RPC/RCE protected DVD to refuse to play on a DVD player which is not region protected.

Under RPC, the logic flow was “IF this region is allowed, THEN play this disk.”

Under RPC/RCE, the logic flow is “IF other regions are allowed, THEN do not play this disk.

RCE Adoption

Currently, RPC/RCE only exists on a small number of DVD’s and only works on a small percentage of DVD players.

RCE Work-Arounds

If you have a region-free DVD player and you experience trouble with RPC/RCE, there are several known work-arounds:

  • Upgrade your player with newer firmware, if possible.
  • Set your player to only one region.
  • Play another DVD before the RCE protected disk. This will set your player to the region of the first DVD.
  • Ignore the RCE message and the DVD menu entirely by navigating directly to Title 1; Chapter 1.