Hi there,
Just bought one of these yesterday, and hacked it using this method :-
Put a region 1 (or whatever region) disc in player
Try to play the disc
Wait till the warning message is displayed and it ejects the disc (dont touch anything yet, leave the disc where it is)
Press the zero button on the remote seven times (0 0 0 0 0 0 0)
You will then get a message congratulating you for hacking your player, press the enter button on remote, and there you go. Press the eject button to load the disc into the machine, and it will now play....

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I have tried it with LOST (R1 complete first season), and it plays faultlessly.
Can't be sure if it plays RCE disc's as I am not sure what DVD's (if any I own) are RCE ?
Hope this helps you (or anyone else considering this DVD-HDD recorder).
All the best,
Graham.