AACS patch for WinDVD, HD DVD and BD players: update or never watch movies again

[Picard]

In case DRM hasn't caused you -- the honest consumer -- enough pain already. Check it, you've got some required software updating to do now that Corel has introduced a patch to their cracked InterVideo WinDVD software. Best do it pronto too. According to Corel, "failure to apply the update will result in AACS-protected HD DVD and BD playback being disabled." That means no more hi-def movies for you, Mr. assumed criminal. Thing is, this is no ordinary patch since WinDVD exposed the hardware specific device key to video pirates. So not only are you required to update their janky WinDVD software, you also have to track down and install the paticular AACS patch for the HD DVD or BD player you own. Of course this only patches one flaw in the massively compromised DRM boondoggle. Just think, you can repeat the whole process again after hackers circumvent this latest attempt at "content protection." Isn't DRM nice?

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[HomeTheatreFreak]

This entire DRM copy protection thing is so comical that I honestly think the people behind the entire thing have lost their collective minds. They spend millions and million of dollars on this stuff and it has been an utter failure since day 1. It doesn't matter what technology they come out with for these video's because there will always be a way to circumvent it and people out there will hack it plain and simple.

Just go onto Mininova or some comparable site like Pirate Bay and you are already seeing a bunch of HD DVD and BD rips available. I actually downloaded the BD rip of Casino Royale and the HD DVD rip of Children of Men just out of curiosity as I was curious what kind of quality they had. They are 1080p and use AVC. The size was around 7.5 Gigs and the video averaged around 7000kb. Sound quality was DTS at around 1550kb. Bottom line is they looked outstanding and almost looked identical to their retail counterparts except during scenes with alot of action or movement.

Last I looked there were about 15 movies from BD and around 15 for HD DVD available and that number is only getting bigger rather quickly. People are interested in downloading these HD versions as long as they can fit on a double sided DVD and the studios cant do anything about it. In the end all they do is cause inconvenience to the paying customer. Steve Jobs and Apple certainly seem like they understand the situation, I wonder why nobody else in either industry does. They have done study after study after study and the facts are that DRM's and copy protection fail period and this is never going to change. Again we the paying customer are the ones who end up getting hurt the most with this kind of software. Hats off to Steve Jobs and Apple for doing what they have recently to try and rid the system of this crap, Hopefully others in the industry will seethe light and follow suit.

[divian]

This entire DRM copy protection thing is so comical that I honestly think the people behind the entire thing have lost their collective minds. They spend millions and million of dollars on this stuff and it has been an utter failure since day 1. It doesn't matter what technology they come out with for these video's because there will always be a way to circumvent it and people out there will hack it plain and simple.

Just go onto Mininova or some comparable site like Pirate Bay and you are already seeing a bunch of HD DVD and BD rips available. I actually downloaded the BD rip of Casino Royale and the HD DVD rip of Children of Men just out of curiosity as I was curious what kind of quality they had. They are 1080p and use AVC. The size was around 7.5 Gigs and the video averaged around 7000kb. Sound quality was DTS at around 1550kb. Bottom line is they looked outstanding and almost looked identical to their retail counterparts except during scenes with alot of action or movement.

Last I looked there were about 15 movies from BD and around 15 for HD DVD available and that number is only getting bigger rather quickly. People are interested in downloading these HD versions as long as they can fit on a double sided DVD and the studios cant do anything about it. In the end all they do is cause inconvenience to the paying customer. Steve Jobs and Apple certainly seem like they understand the situation, I wonder why nobody else in either industry does. They have done study after study after study and the facts are that DRM's and copy protection fail period and this is never going to change. Again we the paying customer are the ones who end up getting hurt the most with this kind of software. Hats off to Steve Jobs and Apple for doing what they have recently to try and rid the system of this crap, Hopefully others in the industry will seethe light and follow suit.

Measures like this will make both formats a failure.
Blu ray more than HD DVD, but both.
This might be the main reason why High Definition might not succeed at all.

[Balian]

Measures like this will make both formats a failure.
Blu ray more than HD DVD, but both.
This might be the main reason why High Definition might not succeed at all.

How would it make Blu-ray more of a failure than HD DVD? Are you saying that just because you are bias or is there an actual reason? If anything, its making Blu-ray more attractive to studios. What studio would want their movies on a irreparably compromised format? At least Blu-ray has BD+ still ...HD DVD security is compromised forever unless they want to revoked the 360 add-on.

[divian]

How would it make Blu-ray more of a failure than HD DVD? Are you saying that just because you are bias or is there an actual reason? If anything, its making Blu-ray more attractive to studios. What studio would want their movies on a irreparably compromised format? At least Blu-ray has BD+ still ...HD DVD security is compromised forever unless they want to revoked the 360 add-on.

Blu Ray has two extra measures that makes them the favorites for the studios right now. The extra measures are stupid for two reasons.

1-They are not ready. The BDA promised them to the studios and right now they are not ready to deliver either BD+ or the watermark. It is rumoured that this implementation ( BR+) is what is causing Fox delays.

2-Right now is taking a big efford for the measures to be ready. Whenever they are ready, the hackers will beat this protection measures in less time that all the time already invested on this.

As you can see, HD DVD will not be part of this absurdity.

[zombieflanders]

As you can see, HD DVD will not be part of this absurdity.

Dude, they already are. Studio Canal delayed a whole bunch of titles because of AACS cracks.

[kali]

This entire DRM copy protection thing is so comical that I honestly think the people behind the entire thing have lost their collective minds. They spend millions and million of dollars on this stuff and it has been an utter failure since day 1. It doesn't matter what technology they come out with for these video's because there will always be a way to circumvent it and people out there will hack it plain and simple.

Just go onto Mininova or some comparable site like Pirate Bay and you are already seeing a bunch of HD DVD and BD rips available. I actually downloaded the BD rip of Casino Royale and the HD DVD rip of Children of Men just out of curiosity as I was curious what kind of quality they had. They are 1080p and use AVC. The size was around 7.5 Gigs and the video averaged around 7000kb. Sound quality was DTS at around 1550kb. Bottom line is they looked outstanding and almost looked identical to their retail counterparts except during scenes with alot of action or movement.

Last I looked there were about 15 movies from BD and around 15 for HD DVD available and that number is only getting bigger rather quickly. People are interested in downloading these HD versions as long as they can fit on a double sided DVD and the studios cant do anything about it. In the end all they do is cause inconvenience to the paying customer. Steve Jobs and Apple certainly seem like they understand the situation, I wonder why nobody else in either industry does. They have done study after study after study and the facts are that DRM's and copy protection fail period and this is never going to change. Again we the paying customer are the ones who end up getting hurt the most with this kind of software. Hats off to Steve Jobs and Apple for doing what they have recently to try and rid the system of this crap, Hopefully others in the industry will seethe light and follow suit.

Wow,

For a change I am in 100% agreement with you, HTF.

I think DRM is a huge waste of time and resources. The problem is you have luddite executives who don't really understand the issues of copy protection and how pointless it is and until they see it for the delusion that it is then they keep pushing for it.

We saw this in the software industry in the 1980s and 90s.

Finally most software has fairly minimal protection but even now you get stupid stuff like StarForce.

I was so happy to see EMI offer higher quality DRM free on ITMS. I hope as you say this is the first of many dominos to fall.

[Balian]

Blu Ray has two extra measures that makes them the favorites for the studios right now. The extra measures are stupid for two reasons.

1-They are not ready. The BDA promised them to the studios and right now they are not ready to deliver either BD+ or the watermark. It is rumoured that this implementation ( BR+) is what is causing Fox delays.

2-Right now is taking a big efford for the measures to be ready. Whenever they are ready, the hackers will beat this protection measures in less time that all the time already invested on this.

As you can see, HD DVD will not be part of this absurdity.

Even if BD+ were compromised, how would that hurt Blu-ray more than HD DVD? After all, HD DVD is not completely free of DRM ...HD DVD may just have one layer but DRM is DRM. Who to say BD+ won't be breeched long enough to make a difference? All it takes is about 6 months to 1 year of security to convince studios like Universal to drop HD DVD and adopt Blu-ray. By then, the war will be over and hackers can breech BD+ all they want.

[ack_bak]

Even if BD+ were compromised, how would that hurt Blu-ray more than HD DVD? After all, HD DVD is not completely free of DRM ...HD DVD may just have one layer but DRM is DRM. Who to say BD+ won't be breeched long enough to make a difference? All it takes is about 6 months to 1 year of security to convince studios like Universal to drop HD DVD and adopt Blu-ray. By then, the war will be over and hackers can breech BD+ all they want.

On some levels, I agree with both you and I can also see Divian's perspective. At the end of the day, the studios get to make the call on BD+. As long as I can play the movie without any issues, I don't care if there is DRM. I will never pirate any movies, ever. I have said this before, but there are better ways to stop movie pirating over the Internet. Going after sites that host the movies, and working with ISP's to track down people downloading them and then prosecuting offenders would be the better route IMHO...

[divian]

Dude, they already are. Studio Canal delayed a whole bunch of titles because of AACS cracks.

AACS is absurd also.
Finally I can agree with you.

[Drago]

So does this mean every HD DVD and blu-ray owner needs to go online and update their player?

[Balian]

So does this mean every HD DVD and blu-ray owner needs to go online and update their player?

We are talking about a PC software ...WinDVD. If you are not using WinDVD on your pc, there is no need to be concern.

[divian]

I am going to paste this link that I saw yesterday so everyone can see how serious this is for all formats.

We are talking about millions of dollars in profit for the mafia that is involved in piracy. As I said before, everybody loses but those hackers.

http://www.avrev.com/news/0407/05.moviepiracy043.shtml

[thrustbucket]

All I know is I am just mad I didn't think up a company like the AACS, where studios have to pay me thousands to generate a new key that takes one click of a button, for every disc they decide to press and QA.

Oh and another reason I hate AACS, is I blame them for managed copy not being out yet, which would be another card in HD DVD's hand.