dvddecrypter tells you if a disc is likely to be rce enabled. the only way to be sure though is to hard set a region in a dvd player and play the disc. Assuming you've set your player to a region the disc won't like, you'll soon find out.

Thanks for the hints.
It *is* Columbia/TriStar.
I checked all the chapters with "DVDfab HD Decrypter" and there is no such screen with all the Regions outlined.

Quoting TigiHof:

Quote:
A report of regions like 1, 3 and 4 as in your case can in no way have been caused by RCE. If I remember correctly (haven't seen a RCE disc in years), you would get region 0, when in fact it's region 1.

I remember that as well.

Quoting Mark Harrison:

Quote:
I would say the fact that it plays fine on a region free player is also a good indication.

What an RCE disc reports for it's regions is meaningless.  It queries the player when you try to play it.  So if it plays, it shouldn't be an issue.

Depends on the age of your player. RCE only ever 'worked' i.e. refused to play on my first player which also happened to be region free. The subsequent ones I've owned have had no problem, but doesn't mean it won't be a problem for somebody.

It really does seem to have been dropped by Columbia (the most recent site from a google search is around 2004), so perhaps the rules need to be updated with something along these lines.

Edit for the avoidance of doubt it is a good bet Starsky & Hutch is not RCE encoded.

Quoting EnryWiki:

Quote:
According to DvdInfoPro and NeroInfoTool, "Starsky & Hutch", US edition (UPC 043396006652), actually is Region 1, 3 and 4, not just R1 as shown on the cover.
It plays on a Region Free DVD player.

But, before contributing the Regions, the rules say to verify if it's a RCE disc, as
"RCE discs report region information incorrectly when analyzed".

and

"When adding regions not listed on the cover, include your verification method (including of RCE presence) in your contribution notes."



So, what is your verification method of RCE presence?

Thanks!

I would also try VSO Inpector, which a free program that I use to determine regions.

I can generally tell with just PowerDVD7.  Most movies when I check the regions will show as "1" or "1,3,4" or even "1,2,3,4,5,6" in a few cases (that is how Region 0 discs show in PowerDVD).  But when I put in known RCE discs, PowerDVD shows them as "1,2,3,4,5,6,All".  So when I see that I know it's an RCE disc.

Here's 2 links that between the 2 of them list most of the known RCE discs.

http://www.hometheaterinfo.com/rcediscs.htm
http://www.dvdtalk.com/rce.html

With search function being deceased on the old IVS board, I can't find & link to my old post on the topic - so I'll just have to rewrite.  

To be sure, some studios still use RCE, not that it's of any practical use against modern region-free players.  Most recently found it on the upcoming season 2 box set of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" released by Paramount (this was also present on the season 1 box, so really they're just continuing to use the same template.)  Also gone is the traditional RCE world map screen... just a link to a single plaintext frame:




Really, other than brute-force testing with a player that can have the RC set manually, the only way to truly confirm the presence of RCE code is to use a tool like PGCedit and search for instances of calls to SPRM 20 then follow the linked PGC.  It's usually one of the first PGSs to run, though it doesn't have to be - e.g. the ill tempered author could place it only in the main feature's PRE commands so the user goes through all the ads, menus and setup before finding out their 7 year old region-free player just won't do.

I have only ever seen this SPRM used for RCE purposes, though conceivably it could be for something more benign, like pointing to different menus in alternate language (e.g. R1-EN / R4-ES / R2-JP, though using the Preferred Language / Sub-picture SPRMs are more accurate for that.)  There is also no technical limitation for applying just in R1, it's just a basic 'if x=y then goto' code, though I haven't heard of any instance of it actually ever being used in other regions.  There's no real point to it's use for playback restriction, not in the last 6 years anyway. 

One other point regarding inconsistent reports of the region code between software: there may be a conflict in the reading from the several places the RC is stored.  I've found the elderly DVDDecrypter is still the most reliable for reading these: use in File mode and note what it reports in the main window, then manually check Region Information of both the VIDEO_TS.IFO and .BUP - for the purposes of Profiler you should probably record the most restrictive reading.
The long answer:
It is important to note that there are actually three places the RC is enumerated in DVD structure: two in the VIDEO_TS pair (.IFO / .BUP), and one in the boot block.  Players & software seem to be inconsistent about where they read the RC mask from... e.g. on my elderly Toshiba the boot block takes precedence, while my modern Panasonic uses the VIDEO_TS.  Normally this isn't an issue as they are all supposed to match.  However, with replicators now beginning to accept DVD-Rs for masters (largely due to the expense and demise of DLT), some seem to be forgetting to set the RC when the load the masters (DVD-R does not provide for the use of RC so has no boot block register, though the files contained can still define it.)  I have several discs where the boot block reads all, but the IFO/BUP are limited.

Okay, obscenely long post, off my geeking box now...