Playing Bluray Discs With Built In Protection Software.

Things in my house are about to change this week

. It may surprise you to know that up until now, I have been watching movies in standard DVD format. I have purchased a new Sony Vaio laptop that has a built in BluRay writer so I can now watch movies in high definition.

I got myself ready to witness the massive improvement in picture quality by grabbing a HDMI lead from work, renting a BluRay film and connecting the laptop to the TV. 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 was worried that I might use the signal to create a high definition copy and wouldn't let me play it back on the TV.

I eventually got there by finding a solution online. A free, completely legal, trial version of 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. At this point, after what felt like an eternity, it was almost midnight and we both just about 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. If I had used this method to create a copy then at least it wouldn't be in high definition, I suppose this is the logic behind it.

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?

by: Chris Holgate

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