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  1. Hello all, I paid for a lifetime subscription for the Cinavia Removal solution from DVDFab. On the past few releases, it has not worked at all even for titles that its own forums says are supported. The forums are of no use as my account has been banned. If I try to email their admin about it, the link just goes to a black hole. I wouldn't recommend buying that software just in case you are wondering. Are there any other tools out there which can bypass Cinavia? I know CinEx HD had a solution. I cannot seem to get at my previous purchase of that software to see if it works (it wants me to buy it again) and I thought AnyDVD had a solution as well? Maybe I ought to just forego discs and buy a large HDD and use Plex. Thanks.
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    There never was and probably never will be a way to "bypass" Cinavia. What the DVDFab and other software did/do is replace the Cinavia audio with one from their database of ripped audio from other non-infected releases, probably non-U.S. releases. At first they tried to hide it, but if you read their website claims carefully, they later acknowledged his fact. The reason your discs can't be fixed is probably because (for whatever reason), the soundtracks from the other discs have been taken down.

    As for ripping your discs and streaming through Plex, Cinavia detection and compliance is hardware and software dependent. If they comply with the Blu-Ray Association specs, example most hardware Blu-Ray players, Cinavia will still be detected and complied with. Fortunately, most standalone media players aren't compliant and will ignore the signal.
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    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Hello all, I paid for a lifetime subscription for the Cinavia Removal solution from DVDFab. On the past few releases, it has not worked at all even for titles that its own forums says are supported. The forums are of no use as my account has been banned. If I try to email their admin about it, the link just goes to a black hole. I wouldn't recommend buying that software just in case you are wondering. Are there any other tools out there which can bypass Cinavia? I know CinEx HD had a solution. I cannot seem to get at my previous purchase of that software to see if it works (it wants me to buy it again) and I thought AnyDVD had a solution as well? Maybe I ought to just forego discs and buy a large HDD and use Plex. Thanks.
    what titles are you trying to remove Cinivia from ?? did you try looking at the supported disc list - https://blog.dvdfab.cn/cinavia-protection.html#discs_list
    click on UHD discs list for the drop down menu to appear to select DVD BLU-RAY. titles highlighted in green are supported.
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  4. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    ...or maybe just play the original disc and have no problems.

    Scott
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    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Maybe I ought to just forego discs and buy a large HDD and use Plex. Thanks.
    If you don't want to play the original disc, this is a good solution as long as you don't use a Blu-ray player or software like Cyberlink Power DVD Ultra that can detect Cinavia to play the streamed video.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 2nd Oct 2020 at 20:51. Reason: fix bad edit
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  6. Originally Posted by october262 View Post
    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Hello all, I paid for a lifetime subscription for the Cinavia Removal solution from DVDFab. On the past few releases, it has not worked at all even for titles that its own forums says are supported. The forums are of no use as my account has been banned. If I try to email their admin about it, the link just goes to a black hole. I wouldn't recommend buying that software just in case you are wondering. Are there any other tools out there which can bypass Cinavia? I know CinEx HD had a solution. I cannot seem to get at my previous purchase of that software to see if it works (it wants me to buy it again) and I thought AnyDVD had a solution as well? Maybe I ought to just forego discs and buy a large HDD and use Plex. Thanks.
    what titles are you trying to remove Cinivia from ?? did you try looking at the supported disc list - https://blog.dvdfab.cn/cinavia-protection.html#discs_list
    click on UHD discs list for the drop down menu to appear to select DVD BLU-RAY. titles highlighted in green are supported.
    A few examples are:
    Legend
    Jason Bourne
    The Karate Kid (2010)

    All three are on their list of supported titles but it does not show the C with the line through it like it would if it were able to remove it. Why pay for a lifetime subscription to a product that doesn't work half the time? I tried posting on the DVDFab forums but for some reason my account is permabanned? I think it has to do with me creating an account there, then never posting (timed out).




    Originally Posted by Cornucopia View Post
    ...or maybe just play the original disc and have no problems.

    Scott
    What happens if your original discs gets damaged and you need to create a copy to view the content?
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  7. Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    What happens if your original discs gets damaged and you need to create a copy to view the content?
    According to the copyright holders you buy a new disc. You own the disc, not the contents.
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    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post

    A few examples are:
    Legend
    Jason Bourne
    The Karate Kid (2010)

    All three are on their list of supported titles but it does not show the C with the line through it like it would if it were able to remove it. Why pay for a lifetime subscription to a product that doesn't work half the time? I tried posting on the DVDFab forums but for some reason my account is permabanned? I think it has to do with me creating an account there, then never posting (timed out).
    Could be due to a DCMA takedown notice or it just didn't work correctly. Cinavia "removal", actually as I said above, replacement of the audio track is a gray area. The studios aren't preventing you from Fair Use. They're preventing you from playback of your backup on officially licensed and compliant equipment. Rant and rave all you want at DVDFab, but they know their product works and exists in gray market.

    Another factor is that since Day 1, because the audio track is replaced, not fixed, and exact match for the disc you're trying patch is required. The audio may be from a U.S. DVD release without Cinavia (which requires a license fee for every release) or from a non U.S. release. I either case, the audio track may not be an exact match for your version of the movie you're trying to patch and the audio replacement will be rejected. This is how it was revealed and confirmed that Cinavia wasn't being patched or bypassed. The entire audio track was being replaced.
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    1) I have a couple Blu-Ray players whose manufacture predated the Cinavia compliance requirement. Used ones like that can be purchased on eBay, though you will likely be rolling the dice on getting a good one in good condition. But I did this a couple times and it is doable.

    -or-

    2) Use MakeMKV to rip / convert your BR discs to MKV format. I then play these back on one of my WD Live TV players (which are also pre-Cinavia), and this has never failed me. I'm uncertain as to whether this would also (reliably) work with later streamer / player boxes like Roku or Nvidia Shield, but I'm thinking that it would. You do lose the menus, and may have to rename the output MKV files from a generic "Title_001" name, if MakeMKV fails to figure that out and do it for you, as happens about half the time. MakeMKV does not succeed 100 % of the time, but is very good, and I found the $50. permanent license well worth buying. I have to remember to check out BDtoAVCHD to see how well it fares as an alternative. Those files can also go the "via streamer / player box" route. Quite honestly, for some time now I've been finding the digital files playback from HDD to be generally more convenient than bothering with the discs at all.

    Of course, nothing is ever entirely fail-proof: I recently had a very large 1080P MKV movie (not from any rip that I did) which kept quitting during playback. My suspicion is that it had a corrupt index. Finally gave up on it, and had to hunt around for a 720P version that did play properly.
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    But what about when you update the firmware on those old players. I suspect Cinavia detection may be included. As you stated, rolling the dice.

    With the possible exception of Roku and Apple TV (is it still available?), most standalone media players are based on Android, so likely not affected by Cinavia or else we'd have millions of complaints from phone users.

    Personally, I can't think of any reason other than nostalgia to play physical discs on a standalone player. I've never owned a Blu-Ray player and don't own a DVD player anymore. The first thing I do when I get a new disc is rip it and put it away. then I play it back from my hard drive on the PCs attached to my TVs. My discs will never see the light of day again unless my main and backup hard drives fail at the same time.
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    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    But what about when you update the firmware on those old players. I suspect Cinavia detection may be included. As you stated, rolling the dice.

    With the possible exception of Roku and Apple TV (is it still available?), most standalone media players are based on Android, so likely not affected by Cinavia or else we'd have millions of complaints from phone users.

    Personally, I can't think of any reason other than nostalgia to play physical discs on a standalone player. I've never owned a Blu-Ray player and don't own a DVD player anymore. The first thing I do when I get a new disc is rip it and put it away. then I play it back from my hard drive on the PCs attached to my TVs. My discs will never see the light of day again unless my main and backup hard drives fail at the same time.

    I have deliberately blocked any firmware updates to my Oppo BR players. (One of which had a special, was-available-only-for-a-limited-time firmware that supported playback of ISO format files. So I did not want to risk losing that.) In disallowing the internet access I did not care about giving up the streaming apps gateways on it, like for Netflix, because I have that well covered elsewhere.

    The optical discs still have a value, in my view. For one, I believe they are pressed, not burned. In theory they should be more durable than any made-at-home discs if well cared for. The jury may be out on this, but the discs may outlast the HDDs we are relying on for storage. (?) [But this could be a good place for lordsmurf to weigh in on that . . . . ] In any case, I think redundancy is a good policy, for the more important items at least.
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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    While waiting for the blue guy. Yes, commercial discs are pressed with a metallic layer instead of a dye layer for the reading surface. With no dye to break down, they should last longer, but the potential for the adhesive breakdown in still there.

    I'm not saying optical discs don't have a place and use. I count my discs as the second backup for my videos. My statement is geared towards the situation that the OP is facing. Cinavia is not recognized by many standalone media players. This combined with not to burn a backup disc to prevent damage to prevent damage to the original is IMO, strong reason not to use a DVD or Blu-Ray player.

    While there is a nostalgic and possibly sonic reason to put a vinyl record on a turntable, I personally don't see any reason to put a disc on a DVD or Blu-Ray player's tray with the possible exception of sharing the disc copy with someone else, but then that goes against Fair Use.
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    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Originally Posted by october262 View Post
    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Hello all, I paid for a lifetime subscription for the Cinavia Removal solution from DVDFab. On the past few releases, it has not worked at all even for titles that its own forums says are supported. The forums are of no use as my account has been banned. If I try to email their admin about it, the link just goes to a black hole. I wouldn't recommend buying that software just in case you are wondering. Are there any other tools out there which can bypass Cinavia? I know CinEx HD had a solution. I cannot seem to get at my previous purchase of that software to see if it works (it wants me to buy it again) and I thought AnyDVD had a solution as well? Maybe I ought to just forego discs and buy a large HDD and use Plex. Thanks.
    what titles are you trying to remove Cinivia from ?? did you try looking at the supported disc list - https://blog.dvdfab.cn/cinavia-protection.html#discs_list
    click on UHD discs list for the drop down menu to appear to select DVD BLU-RAY. titles highlighted in green are supported.
    A few examples are:
    Legend
    Jason Bourne
    The Karate Kid (2010)

    All three are on their list of supported titles but it does not show the C with the line through it like it would if it were able to remove it. Why pay for a lifetime subscription to a product that doesn't work half the time? I tried posting on the DVDFab forums but for some reason my account is permabanned? I think it has to do with me creating an account there, then never posting (timed out).




    Originally Posted by Cornucopia View Post
    ...or maybe just play the original disc and have no problems.

    Scott
    What happens if your original discs gets damaged and you need to create a copy to view the content?
    for the disc to be supported for cinivia removal, the title is highlighted in green. if it is highlighted in white - not yet supported. The Karate Kid (2010) is not yet supported
    Jason Bourne is supported just make sure that you are selecting the English DTS-HD MA track that is repaired.
    Legend is not yet supported
    Last edited by october262; 4th Oct 2020 at 14:26.
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    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    While waiting for the blue guy. Yes, commercial discs are pressed with a metallic layer instead of a dye layer for the reading surface. With no dye to break down, they should last longer, but the potential for the adhesive breakdown in still there.

    I'm not saying optical discs don't have a place and use. I count my discs as the second backup for my videos. My statement is geared towards the situation that the OP is facing. Cinavia is not recognized by many standalone media players. This combined with not to burn a backup disc to prevent damage to prevent damage to the original is IMO, strong reason not to use a DVD or Blu-Ray player.

    While there is a nostalgic and possibly sonic reason to put a vinyl record on a turntable, I personally don't see any reason to put a disc on a DVD or Blu-Ray player's tray with the possible exception of sharing the disc copy with someone else, but then that goes against Fair Use.
    If you wanted to retain it all in your HDD backup, as is, it seems to me that you'd need to retain the original DVD or BR structure. One of the things MKV does not do is keep the menus, and its handling of Extras content (if present) is clunky and much less convenient. There is the ISO format (at least for DVDs, don't know if that also exists for BR ?), that does retain everything in one package. Some don't seem to care for ISO -- it doesn't bother me. But as the "report card" summaries I've been posting in the Android Box thread demonstrate, very few of these streaming player boxes support the ISO single-file archives. Very few as in almost none.
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    Imgburn can create a Blu-ray ISO from a Blu-ray file and folder backup.

    DVDFab Player 6 Ultra, which costs $99.99, ignores Cinavia and allows playing Blu-ray menus but is only available for Windows PCs and Macs. It's the only alternative Blu-ray player software that I have heard of that claims similar functionality to PowerDVD Ultra and ignores Cinavia. However, I'm not sure it will work if the ISO is not stored on the same computer that is running DVDFab Player 6 Ultra.

    I haven't heard of anything like DVDFab Player 6 Ultra for Android and I don't think there will ever be anything similar DVDFab Player 6 Ultra available from the Google Play Store for the Nvidia Shield TV. Alphabet would never approve such software for distribution on its platform. It would have to be obtained by other means.
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    MakeMKV can create an ISO from Blu-Rays, but not DVDs.

    However, as stated above, few hardware devices and software players can play Blu-Ray ISOs because it requires a license from the Blu-Ray Association. So saving a Blu-Ray to ISO for most, including myself is pointless unless I want to burn a copy for use on a Blu-Ray player, which I don't have.

    The fact that the DVDFab Player ignores Cinavia, another requirement from the Blu-Ray Association, points to it highly likely to be unlicensed.

    As for menus, as I've stated in other threads, I highly dislike them. The only time I keep them in a DVD ISO is when it's highly useful, for example if there's features such as branching that only works through the menu or things like shorts where you can choose the individual title. Otherwise, I find menus slow and in case of Blu-Rays where a menu can be a couple of GBs, a waste of space.

    Personally, especially since my choice of playback software is PotPlayer which doesn't support Blu-Ray ISOs, I don't find having a folder full of invidiual MKVs clunky at all. I rename all the individual MKVs <movie name> - <Making of/Behind the Scenes, Trailer, etc> <movie name>. Even with multiple movies in a single folder, I can quickly find what I want faster than the time it takes to load a Blu-Ray menu. It's even faster if I just want to watch a particular video since I can just jump directly to it in the folder.
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    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post

    However, as stated above, few hardware devices and software players can play Blu-Ray ISOs because it requires a license from the Blu-Ray Association. So saving a Blu-Ray to ISO for most, including myself is pointless unless I want to burn a copy for use on a Blu-Ray player, which I don't have.
    I take a step back on his statement. if you have a hardware or software media player that can play back a Blu-Ray ISO correctly*, then you may have good reason to save your disc as an ISO on your hard drive for direct playback.

    *There have been reports of VLC with the correct Java plug-in is able to navigate some Blu-Ray menus. However, because the menu is in Java, not all menus work correctly.
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    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    The fact that the DVDFab Player ignores Cinavia, another requirement from the Blu-Ray Association, points to it highly likely to be unlicensed.
    What it mainly points to is that China (like Russia) thumbs its nose at notions of intellectual property and copyright. Fab, among other things, is unofficially Piracy Central. Or maybe not so unofficially.

    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    if you have a hardware or software media player that can play back a Blu-Ray ISO correctly*, then you may have good reason to save your disc as an ISO on your hard drive for direct playback.
    I know that my WD Live TV boxes play back DVD ISOs effortlessly. I think they have played back BR file structures also, but would have to double-check that to be certain. Don't know if they would handle a BR ISO. This was never tested for my "report." If they happen to, I'm sure that they wouldn't be troubled by any licensing issue.
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    Please try and report if your boxes play back Blu-Ray ISOs. I believe I tried years ago and it didn't work. I know they play back .TS without remuxing and I think even some TV .TS recordings.

    I don't have any WDTV boxes to test. I recently passed all of them, both Live Plus and Live Streaming because they all started to have issues, especially after several hours of use.

    They never had issues with Cinavia, primarily because most of them were manufactured before Cinavia was added to the Blu-Ray specs in 2010.
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    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    The fact that the DVDFab Player ignores Cinavia, another requirement from the Blu-Ray Association, points to it highly likely to be unlicensed.
    You are correct. DVDFab Player has not been licensed by the BDA. The current versions of licensed Blu-ray player software don't ignore Cinavia.
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    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    Please try and report if your boxes play back Blu-Ray ISOs. I believe I tried years ago and it didn't work. I know they play back .TS without remuxing and I think even some TV .TS recordings.

    I don't have any WDTV boxes to test. I recently passed all of them, both Live Plus and Live Streaming because they all started to have issues, especially after several hours of use.

    They never had issues with Cinavia, primarily because most of them were manufactured before Cinavia was added to the Blu-Ray specs in 2010.
    Another thing that I need to test for -- on all of my various streamer / player boxes, in order to keep up to date -- is for support of the ExFAT formatting, or lack thereof. This seems to be widely replacing NTFS, for higher capacity HDDs and flashdrives, though I sure don't know why ? That is to say, I'm finding this formatting present (like on the MyBook series of backup HDDs from WD, or some Samsung flashdrives), direct from the manufacturer. I took a quick glance at the Wikipedia entry on ExFAT, but did not come away from it very enlightened. Where I have found this in place on a new flashdrive, I have tended to reformat it as NTFS. My (mostly W7 x64) computers can work with ExFAT on the MyBook HDDs, so I've left them alone for now. But I'm generally all about maximizing compatibility. [NTFS is necessary for the movies file storage, rather than the old FAT-32, because there are many MKV files etc. that are over 4GB in size that are represented. And all the player boxes can handle this.]

    My initial suspicion is that most or perhaps all of the streamer / player boxes won't even see the ExFAT storage at all. But we shall see . . . .
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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  22. Thanks all. I think the solution here is just that I am going to have to buy another copy or find a different way to watch that does not recognize the Cinavia watermark.
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    Originally Posted by Seeker47 View Post
    My initial suspicion is that most or perhaps all of the streamer / player boxes won't even see the ExFAT storage at all. But we shall see . . . .
    WDTV boxes can't use exFAT. The Shield TV boxes (2015 and later versions) are supposed to be able to use external storage drives formatted with exFAT, HFS+ (standard for OS X), or NTFS. Android KitKat and later versions are supposed to be able to support exFAT but individual manufacturers may choose not to support it on their box.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 10th Oct 2020 at 11:02.
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  24. Why would you want to store things on an exFAT formatted drive? You would run into tons of issues with data corruption. I would think you would want HFS+ or NTFS.
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    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Thanks all. I think the solution here is just that I am going to have to buy another copy or find a different way to watch that does not recognize the Cinavia watermark.
    Nothing to think about. Unless DVDFab or you find a replacement soundtrack to replace the one on your disc, these are your only options. If it's available, you might try buying a non-U.S. version of the movies since likely they may not have Cinavia. Though the fact that DVDFab doesn't offer a replacement soundtrack may point to it a non-Cinavia version existing.
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    Forgot to mention. Plex doesn't support playback of ISO, DVD or Blu-Ray, so your discs would have to remuxed into individual files, losing your menus. Mezzmo supposedly supports Blu-Ray ISO playback, but when I tried it years ago with DVD ISOs, menu support was spotty. I suspect Blu-Ray ISOs would be even spottier as reports are that support on non-dedicated players like VLC stumbles because Blu-Ray menus are Java based.
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    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Why would you want to store things on an exFAT formatted drive? You would run into tons of issues with data corruption. I would think you would want HFS+ or NTFS.
    I always use NTFS myself. Everything that I have used for playback from a storage device supports NTFS.

    Seeker47 seems to be buying drives that are pre-formatted using exFAT. Reliable or not, I suppose the use of exFAT could become more common now because Microsoft is open sourcing exFAT. exFAT is already compatible with Android, Mac OS and Windows, and there are plans to add exFAT support to Linux.
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  28. Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Why would you want to store things on an exFAT formatted drive? You would run into tons of issues with data corruption. I would think you would want HFS+ or NTFS.
    I always use NTFS myself. Everything that I have used for playback from a storage device supports NTFS.

    Seeker47 seems to be buying drives that are pre-formatted using exFAT. Reliable or not, I suppose the use of exFAT could become more common now because Microsoft is open sourcing exFAT. exFAT is already compatible with Android, Mac OS and Windows, and there are plans to add exFAT support to Linux.
    It may be open source, but there are valid concerns about data corruption with exFAT (there is no journaling built into it like NTFS has). Same argument against FAT32 (except that FAT32 is further-limited by a 4gb file size limit). I wouldn't use it for anything beyond moving data around on USB flash drives. I am surprised no one is supporting EXT4 as a universal, open format for everything. And especially since it doesn't face any of those issues with data corruption like exFAT does, nor having to defragment drives like NFTS suffers from.
    Last edited by stonesfan187; 11th Oct 2020 at 11:54.
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    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Why would you want to store things on an exFAT formatted drive? You would run into tons of issues with data corruption. I would think you would want HFS+ or NTFS.
    I always use NTFS myself. Everything that I have used for playback from a storage device supports NTFS.

    Seeker47 seems to be buying drives that are pre-formatted using exFAT. Reliable or not, I suppose the use of exFAT could become more common now because Microsoft is open sourcing exFAT. exFAT is already compatible with Android, Mac OS and Windows, and there are plans to add exFAT support to Linux.
    Thanx for the info in your post #23 above. As I indicated, not my choice: Samsung (one of the very few mfr.s to still give a 5-year warranty on some of their flashdrives) is now pre-formatting them with ExFat. I purchase and use flashdrives regularly, so I've been reformatting them to NTFS as soon as they come out of the package. Other mfr.s seem to be following suit. I left the WD MyBook backup external HDD -- used only with my computers -- as it was, pre-formatted with ExFat, and now lingyi has me wondering whether that may have been a mistake ? That HDD is already about half-full. What is the evidence for this purported corruption risk ? (Longer ago than many here may be in a position to recall, Norton Utilities had some util that could redo / replace a drive's format without disturbing or harming the files recorded there: the computer equivalent of that old trick of whipping away the tablecloth but every place setting remains intact. This was prior to the more complex formatting systems like NTFS, however.)
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    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Originally Posted by stonesfan187 View Post
    Why would you want to store things on an exFAT formatted drive? You would run into tons of issues with data corruption. I would think you would want HFS+ or NTFS.
    I always use NTFS myself. Everything that I have used for playback from a storage device supports NTFS.

    Seeker47 seems to be buying drives that are pre-formatted using exFAT. Reliable or not, I suppose the use of exFAT could become more common now because Microsoft is open sourcing exFAT. exFAT is already compatible with Android, Mac OS and Windows, and there are plans to add exFAT support to Linux.
    It may be open source, but there are valid concerns about data corruption with exFAT (there is no journaling built into it like NTFS has). Same argument against FAT32 (except that FAT32 is further-limited by a 4gb file size limit). I wouldn't use it for anything beyond moving data around on USB flash drives. I am surprised no one is supporting EXT4 as a universal, open format for everything. And especially since it doesn't face any of those issues with data corruption like exFAT does, nor having to defragment drives like NFTS suffers from.
    No journalling, but I thought FAT-32 at least had duplicate File Allocation Tables -- for whatever that may be worth ? Have to mention that in the days of Win NT (before XP or Win-2K), I totally lost 3 or 4 sizable NTFS partitions. No mechanical HDD problem either, one day they just went poof and were gone, non-recoverable. My understanding is that NTFS underwent a few significant spec revisions after that, presumably with improvements, and is not the same NTFS we've been using in recent years. I've not encountered any recurrence of incidents like that, but I got a lot more serious about backing up partitions after that experience.
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