BluRay, AACS and HDCP

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:13:41 +0000

Being a self confessed geek, not to mention the author of a weekly technology column, it might surprise you to learn that until this week I was still watching my movies in standard DVD format rather than in high definition [collective gasp]. This was all set to change this week, however, as realising that I needed a new laptop I plumped for a shiny Sony Vaio with an inbuilt BluRay writer.

I swiped a HDMI lead from work, rented a BluRay film from Blockbuster, connected the laptop to my TV and at around 9pm the missus and I sat down ready to be left in awe at the improvement in picture quality. All was going well until after approximately 15 seconds of footage we were greeted with a message telling us that the ‘display configuration that we were using was not supported by this film’.

Somewhat bemused I started trawling Google and discovered that the problem was actually caused by the Digital Rights Management (DRM) built in to the disc. It employs a system called Advanced Access Content System (AACS) which prevents the signal being broadcast to a non High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) complaint device. Basically, the film wouldn’t let me play the movie back on my TV as it was worried that I might use the signal to create a high definition copy of the original.

I eventually discovered a solution by way of a free trial edition of the (completely legal) AnyDVD HD software (www.slysoft.com) which immediately removed not only the AACS protection that was bugging me but also the region protection and the BD+ copy protection. As a side effect of installing this software and removing the over militant DRM I could have also at this point made a backup copy for my own personal use. By the time I had reached this point however it was almost midnight and so not only was Hayley bored to tears but we were both ready for bed.

It should be mentioned at this point that my laptop did suggest at the very beginning that I could play back through the standard SVGA port rather than using a HDMI lead but if you hire a high definition movie you expect to be able to play it in high definition. I suppose the logic is that if I were to have used this method to create a copy then at least it wouldn’t be in high definition.

There are instances where I can’t help but feel that Digital Rights Management on all forms of digital content is starting to infringe upon the rights of the law abiding users while also pushing people away from the legitimate route. In this particular instance I just wanted to play the movie on my two year old non HDCP compliant TV set and it actually ended up actively pushing me towards a piece of software that while perfectly legal, would have also potentially given me the tools to create my own copies. Surely that doesn’t make sense?

Backing up movies

admin — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:13:03 +0000

As you can imagine a company such as ours that sells blank media (CD’s, DVD’s etc) does get asked on a daily basis how to go about making a copy of a movie using a home PC. As this is something not yet covered in Click I thought this week I would write a definitive answer as to hopefully decrease the frequency that this question pops up.

I will of course point out where the law stands on this; you are legally allowed to make a single backup of any copyrighted video that you own for personal purposes only as long as that backup is then kept for your sole use and not rented, lent of given to a third party. To copy a movie for any purpose other than this is very much illegal and something that neither myself nor the Herald Express could condone.

To backup a movie DVD you will need essentially two pieces of software – one to unscramble the movie and then one to actually copy and compress the data on to a blank DVD. The first piece of software removes the encryption that prevents regular utilities from Nero and DVD Creator making the copy and then the second actually does the business of moving the data from disc to disc.

A good application I’ve found for removing the encryption goes by the name of AnyDVD and this can be downloaded by heading to www.slysoft.com. The program is free to try out although if you do like it then you will have to purchase the full version after a period of 21 days. Installation is simple and then the program just sits quietly in the taskbar, removing the copy protection from whatever disk is present in the DVD drive of your machine. AnyDVD also has the additional advantage of being able to remove region protection so that you can watch DVD’s from all around the world on your region locked DVD player.

To actually copy the DVD itself a program such as CloneDVD does the job perfectly. This is available from the same address and like AnyDVD, whilst it is free to download you will have to pay for the full version should you wish to use it outside of the 21 day evaluation period.

Whilst one would assume that once the encryption was removed that copying a DVD is an easy process which any software could accomplish there is one major stumbling block; most pre-recorded DVD’s you buy are Dual Layer and hence twice the capacity of standard Single Layer recordable discs. To get around this CloneDVD is able to strip out any special features of the DVD (such as actor interviews, foreign subtitles and directors’ commentary) and then compress the remaining data so it fits perfectly on to one disc. Like AnyDVD the software is easy to install and since it includes a couple of step by step copying wizards it literally couldn’t be any easier to use.

Whilst I do usually recommend free software in Click I haven’t been able to locate any free utilities that accomplish the above however if anyone out there knows differently then please do let me know. Once again I feel obliged to say that copying a movie for any purpose than making a single backup for your own use is illegal so please don’t even think about it!

Computer Articles - Internet and Computer News » Copy Protection

BluRay, AACS and HDCP

Backing up movies