> >I don't know if they use SCMS, but they use something. You can not copy
> >DVDs onto most VHS recorders these days because they're protected.
>
> That's macrovison man. A totally analogue copy protection scheme
> that's been
> around since the late 80s at least, not just on DVD, but VHS as
> well. It is
> a bunch of gobly gook that resided in the vertical blanking buffer on old
> VHS tapes that screws up the signal for copies, but not laserdisc (since
> that part of the signal is used for time info). In DVDs it is actually
> generated by the hardware (I assume) since it's possible to turn
> it on and
> off.
Macrovision is one copyright protection method, but there are DVD-specific
copyright protection schemes. There has to be. They're not going to just
stay with something that was originally designed for VHS tapes 10 years ago.
But I could be wrong.
Programs that bypass copyright protection (not all DVDs are copyright
protected by the way) were originally designed for the Linux platform. They
couldn't play DVDs on their computers precisely because of copyright
protection. And so some people wrote software to get around it so they could
watch DVDs they bought on their Linux boxes. I guess it was the natural
progression for it to move to PCs.
Anyway. Today my portable minidisc player wouldn't play. I ejected the disc
and put it back and then it played. I hope stuff like this doesn't happen
again, but that's what the extended warranty is for. Does Sony make their
players like this on purpose so they shift more units? They look so fragile.
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