I made a strange discovery today: Columbia Tri-Star/Sony's RCE has actually changed over the past year.
I'm referring to R1 discs played on R3 (converted) players.
Head in the Clouds (release date 1/25/2005) does NOT play on a converted 1 year old Samsung player, but plays on a 4 year old Sony player.
In the Cut (release date 2/10/2004), does not play on either player.
So... RCE actually got LESS STRICT this year?
Weird. Maybe Sony's trying to make their OWN converted R3 players capable of playing RCE discs from other regions to boost their OWN player sales.
Shrewd business move!