I want to ADD MACROVISION to my dvds!! help?

[drewson99_99]

I have a DVR-104, TMPGEnc, Ulead DVD MovieFactory, all that stuff.

Is this gonna be tough? If I had a DVD house make me a master copy with macrovision could I then copy it onto DVD-R in my DVR-104 and retain the macrovision?

I have done a search but found no difinitive answer. I saw one person say that you needed to get an authoring drive, one person said that you needed to pay Macrovision for the service, and one person gave two-word answer "scenarist, maestro". Yet another person said "scenarist and maestro will PREPARE for macrovision." What is all this?

Andy

[banjazzer]

Why go to the effort (and cost - since it is not free) of using Macrovision? In any case, there are many propietary work-rounds to defeat Macrovision.

[drewson99_99]

because I am selling my valuable intellectual property on DVD, and although it is simple to people like us, most consumers won't go through the whole rip process (that is a statistical fact) to copy DVDs.

Now that I have answered your question, would you please answer ANY of mine, and if that was all you intended to contribute, may I please ask any others not to waste my time in such a manner.

I am asking for specific advice in response to my specific questions. I don't need any more excited "Why? macrovision is so easy to defeat!" responses.

Andy

[shadowrunner]

Why not rip it with dvddecryptor and uncheck the options to remove macrovision and other protections. If your DVD is a DVD5 Than just use the iso read option with the remove macrovision option not ticked. Then just burn the image to a blank. This will also increase rip time.
Shadowrunner

[drewson99_99]

that's an interesting idea, but I don't think unchecking "remove Macrovision" will actually ADD macrovision. It is logical though!

I have a homemade DVD, of my own film. It is not a rip of a commercially produced DVD, or any such thing, it is entirely homemade, and, thus, very easy to dub

Thanks for the reply, shadowrunner

Anybody know about this question from my earlier post:

"If I had a DVD house make me a master copy with macrovision could I then copy it onto DVD-R in my DVR-104 and retain the macrovision?"

I'm thinking it may be the simplest way to get quality macrovision with minimal cost (if it works, of course!)


Andy

[solarfox]

Macrovision is generated internally by the DVD player, during the conversion from decoded MPEG to analog TV signal, when the player is instructed to do so by an on/off bit somewhere in the data stream. Hence, the ease of defeating it with an appropriately hacked firmware in the playback unit -- the "Macrovision-less" firmware simply ignores the MV on/off bit.

Yes, you do have to pay for the service. Macrovision still holds the patents on the process, and if you are caught distributing videotapes or DVD's that use it without paying the license fee they will nail you for violating their "valuable intellectual property"...

You cannot do it with the software that you have. TMPenc simply creates MPEG files; and while MovieFactory does let you create DVD menus and author the disc, it has no provision for doing "commercial" authoring functions such as CSS encryption, Macrovision, etc. (Neither, as far as I know, does their professional DVD Workshop package.) You probably need one of the several-thousand-dollar packages the professional mastering houses use.

You also may, indeed, need a DVD-R(Authoring) drive to do this -- I can't seem to find any good information on where the "macrovision flag" is stored on the disc, but if it's in the same area where the CSS keys and such are stored then a DVD-R(General) blank has no place to store that information, nor can a DVD-R(General) drive such as your DVR-104 write it. And if that is the case, then you also would not be able to copy your professionally-made master with your DVR-104, for the same reasons.

Lastly -- consumers may not go through the trouble of "ripping" it, but many of them can -- and will -- plug a $29 "video stabilizer" in between the DVD player and their VCR to copy it that way. So in the end, you're not going to gain anything -- the people who aren't willing to pay for your "valuable intellectual property" will find ways to copy it if they want it.

[banjazzer]

I don't need any more excited "Why? macrovision is so easy to defeat!" responses.

It takes more than someone wanting to use copy-protection to get me excited, I'm afraid. Guess if you want to use commercial protection like macrovision, you will have to pay for it.

[Conquest10]

macrovision isn't all that effective. i didn't even know what the hell it was until i saw it on these forums. i can copy vhs and dvds with no problem.

[drewson99_99]

thank you solarfox (despite the sarcasm quotes!) THAT was useful information, you responded to all my questions, and I guess I'll give it up.

Andy

[solarfox]

Heh -- no sarcasm intended, actually. Being a writer, I have a journalistic habit of using quotes a lot to indicate the use of someone else's words or phrasing, or to indicate a made-up term such as "Macrovision-less"... It's a habit I apparently need to work on breaking, since on the internet quotes are apparently read as sarcasm.

[Greg12]

Scenarist is capable of adding CSS and I think it can do Macrovision.

However U cannot in reality add CSS as you need a floppy disk with your key stored on it.


I supose with work, u could use dvd decrypter and make a keydisk by using the key from anouther dvd

[shadowrunner]

Sorry for misunderstanding But it sounds like you are asking if you could back up a dvd that was made for you (of your footage) by a production house that used macrovision.

"Is this gonna be tough? If I had a DVD house make me a master copy with macrovision could I then copy it onto DVD-R in my DVR-104 and retain the macrovision? "

In which case you could backup the dvd retaining the macrovision.

[yg1968]

Use DVD Re-crypter.
Just kidding.
Sorry, I couldn't help it. (It's actually an interesting question that is being asked).

Solorfox,

Your "valuable intellectual property" sounded sarcastic.
But I guess that my DVD Re-crypter comment was no better...

[drewson99]

wow, shadowrunner, you could do that? Have a macro'd DVD made for you of your own footage and then dub it onto non-authoring DVD-Rs and it would retain the macro?

ZZ

[Nolonemo]

DVD Maestro will let you put Macrovision on disks you burn on DVD-R. The program sets the Macrovison "bit" on the disk that informs the player that the disk is Macrovision protected. I tried this to see how it worked, and sure enough, when I tried to play the disk and tape onto my DV cam, the cam gave me the copy protected message and wouldn't let me do it. However, when I tried to make a VHS tape from the disk, it taped no problem without the distortions Macrovision is supposed to put in. Not sure what was going on with that. Maestro has 3 Macrovision options, I'm not sure what the differences are (couldn't find ready information on the Macrovison web site) and I didn't care enough to try them all.

As far as I know, you can't burn a CSS disk. Maestro will set up your master for it, but the actual deed has to be done by the pressing house.

[snowmoon]

First off I'll echo the legal aspects. Using MV commercially without a licence will get you in trouble.

Technically it's just a flag in the VOB files that is easly edditied. Their are three different levels of MV protection some more effective than others. Personally if you need to be THAT parinoid about everyone copying your stuff you might want to re-think what you are doing. Many studios are starting to experiment with DVD's without MV since most people get them for the quality, so why add a screwy signal. If they are intent they will copy it anyways.

CSS requires an authoring drive or DLT masters. It's impossible to do with general drives.

[drewson99]

what is the difference btw Macrovision and CSS?

[yg1968]

Macrovision is an analog copy protection. CSS is a digital copy protection. In other words, macrovision prevents you from copying the DVD through a VCR. CSS prevents you from copying a DVD with a DVD burner. Many Harry Potter DVDs had CSS protection but no macrovision protection.

[fingernailX]

http://www.lafcpug.org/feature_dvd_comparison.html

Dated but relevant comparison of the dvd for authoring versus dvd general capabilities. The old pioneer A03 can write macrovision bits. I assume at least some if not all newer models can as well.