I asked Apple a little while ago and the engineer sent me a detailed response that I will share in case it proves helpful to you as it was to me:
There is no command to configure the DCD Region Code although there is a workaround for non-admin users.
As you know, admin authorization is required to both set and change the DVD Region Code. Setting the initial region code and making subsequent changes are separate permissions so you can allow non-admin users to set the initial region code while still requiring authentication to change the region code.
When deploying a large number of new Macs or if the primary user of the machine is not an administrative user, you can edit /etc/authorization to allow the DVD Drive to silently set the initial region code to the region of the first disc that's inserted.
Once configured, a user can insert a DVD Video disc and the drive will automatically set the region to the region on the disc. If the disc has multiple regions, the user will be asked to choose from one of the available regions.
To make this change, edit /etc/authorization and find the system.device.dvd.setregion.initial key and replace it with the following:
<key>system.device.dvd.setregion.initial</key>
<dict>
<key>class</key>
<string>allow</string>
</dict>
The following PlistBuddy command will make this change:
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set :rights:system.device.dvd.setregion.initial:class allow' /etc/authorization
Note, PlistBuddy is not installed by default in Tiger (10.4) although it can be found in a number of application receipts. For example:
/Library/Receipts/AdditionalEssentials.pkg/Contents/Resources/PlistBuddy
Additional Notes:
Due to the DVD licensing for drive manufacturers, a disc must be in the drive to set the region code. There is no way to set or change the region code without a disc in the drive.
There is a /usr/bin/setregion command but it's used internally by the DVD player and is not something that can be executed manually.
Sean
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Sean Alexander
Desktop Analyst
Macintosh Services Delivery
Lockheed Martin - Enterprise Business Services
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