RPC-2 can be circumvented by entering the right unlocking code (which some manufacturers make available) using a DVD player's remote control, or by patching the firmware chip, if a patch is available. This stores the region code in the DVD drive's firmware. (VLC is open source, and it's a waste of time putting copy restrictions in open source code: someone would just take them out.)Ībout a decade ago, the entertainment industry started to enforce RPC-2. In fact, I'd still recommend your daughter to try VLC and use it for DVD playback rather than Windows Media Player.
VLC, for example, was effectively a "region free" media player. In the early days of region coding, DVD drives used a "regional playback control" system called RPC-1, but the PC software used to play DVDs could ignore it. I expect both your daughter's DVD drives will be protected. It also includes a list of countries for people who want to change the region. This tab will tell her the current region setting. Double-clicking the name of the external drive will bring up its Properties sheet, where one of the tabs says "DVD Region". Click the plus sign next to the entry for DVD/CD-ROM Drives to open that section, and it should be obvious which drive is which. This will open a separate window listing the PCs hardware. To do this in Windows XP, plug the drive in, right-click the My Computer icon and select Properties, click the Hardware tab, and then click the button labelled Device Manager. If the external DVD drive has not been pre-set, your daughter may need to set the region in Microsoft Windows. This will check both drives and tell your daughter whether they are protected and, if so, how many times she can change the region setting. Get your daughter to download a very small (7K) free utility called DriveInfo.
At worst, your daughter should get a pop-up asking if she wants to change a drive's region, so all she has to do is click No. I haven't actually tried this myself, but I can't see a problem with using an external drive to play Region 2 discs, and perhaps a reader can confirm this works. I have given her an external DVD-RW drive (UK sourced) but she is reluctant to use it in case it affects the settings on her laptop and eventually prevents her from playing Region 1 DVDs on the internal drive. I'm aware that some DVD drives are multi-region but don't know how to determine whether one of those is fitted.
Is it possible to run a second (external) DVD drive for playing back DVDs from a different region? My daughter lives in the US, and uses her laptop's internal drive to play Region 1 discs, but she would like to be able to play some of her UK (Region 2) discs.
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