Floppyhead - Digital Media and Home Theater Computers

One of the main advantages of a media center or HTPC is the ability to rip DVDs and store them on a hard drive to access through a slick user interface. For some reason, this really bugs the movie industry. There is so much potential in media centers and home theater computers, yet Big Content is continuously putting up road blocks. The latest salvo in the war against consumers is from a company called ProtectDisc, which has released a copy protection dubbed Protect DVD-Video which actually will not allow PCs (and PC based PVRs for that matter) to read the DVD in question, regardless of the fact that it is an original disc. As always, software exists to remove this protection scheme, which is called AnyDVD and is available for $40. I hat to think a consumer has to pay $40 to access their own legally purchased content.

From the ZDNet article:

The movie industry seems determined to continue on a course where it happily erodes the rights of legitimate users, all in the name of securing profits. The latest example of this comes in the form of a DVD copy protection technology called Protect DVD-Video which actually prevents a DVD being played on a Windows PC using Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center Edition or any software players based on DirectShow…

The upshot of this is that if you have a DVD disc protected by Protect DVD-Video and you try to play the disc in a PC-based system using, say, Windows Media Player, the process will fail. Now, lets be clear here, we are taking about a genuine, legitimate DVD disc not working in a PC, not a pirated disc or a download via a torrent. Protect DVD-Video protects a DVD by basically making it un-playable in a DVD drive that’s in a Windows-based PC (I’ve no information on whether this also locks out Linux users - I would imagine that it does).

I originally learned of the ZDNet article from PVRWire.

One of the advantages of a Media Center/ HTPC is the ability to rip your DVDs to a hard drive and access them through a user interface. For some reason, this really bugs the movie industry. ProtectDisc has released a copy protection dubbed Protect DVD-Video which actually will not allow HTPCs to read the DVD in question, regardless of the fact that it is an original disc. As always there is a word around to the protection scheme. AnyDVD has been updated to remove this new DRM. I hate to think though that you have to buy a $40 piece of software to watch a DVD that you bought legally. I wonder when digital rights managment is going to become a mainstream issue that people actually pay attention to before they buy a product. The frustrating thing to me is that there is so much potential in media centers and home theater computers yet Big Content keeps putting up roadblocks.

From ZDNet:

The movie industry seems determined to continue on a course where it happily erodes the rights of legitimate users, all in the name of securing profits. The latest example of this comes in the form of a DVD copy protection technology called Protect DVD-Video which actually prevents a DVD being played on a Windows PC using Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center Edition or any software players based on DirectShow…

The upshot of this is that if you have a DVD disc protected by Protect DVD-Video and you try to play the disc in a PC-based system using, say, Windows Media Player, the process will fail. Now, lets be clear here, we are taking about a genuine, legitimate DVD disc not working in a PC, not a pirated disc or a download via a torrent. Protect DVD-Video protects a DVD by basically making it un-playable in a DVD drive that’s in a Windows-based PC (I’ve no information on whether this also locks out Linux users - I would imagine that it does).

I orgininally learned of the ZDNet article from PVRWire