Portable DVD Player disc restrictions...

[david81]

Hello folks,

I'm hoping there is a genius out there who can help me. My mother recently brought home a portable DVD player that she received at the doctor's office where she works. It was given to the office to show a DVD to patients about a new drug. They haven't used it in over 6 months so they said she could take it home and of course she brought it to me to "fix". The thing that needs fixing is that it is somehow coded to not play commercial DVDs. When a commercial DVD is loaded, the scren displays, "DVD player will not play commercial discs". Same goes for commercial CDs. The model number given is "PDX-1041N" which Google for once fails me on. Luckily she also brought along the disc it does play. It appears to be a normal DVD structure to me, even region free, although I'm by no means an expert. I've dabbled a bit with IfoEdit and PgcEdit but I don't know nearly enough to solve this riddle. I've tried playing a DVD that was ripped with AnyDVD and CloneDVD in hopes that that would strip something off to allow it to play. No luck there. It's not a huge deal, not the best little toy out there, but it's a challenge to me now. If nothing else, I figure I can use the LCD screen for another purpose, as it already has an A/V in option built in. I can provide the IFO's from the working promo DVD is that would help. Thanks in advance.

David

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Perhaps it's a "Cinea" player:DVD Screeners This Year Come With Special DVD Player
from the what-an-expensive-waste dept
The MPAA (complete with their new boss) need to get a little perspective. After last year's screener debacle, this year, the MPAA has come up with a plan they believe is "fool proof." Each Academy member won't just be sent screener DVDs or tapes for viewing, but will be sent a complete special DVD player and all of the screener DVDs that will only play on that particular player. That same player will imprint a mark on the disc to track how many times it's viewed, because apparently the MPAA is afraid that Academy members are holding every-two-hours, all-day-long screenings in their homes or something. Even worse, just in case some weird Academy member decides to try to videotape the movie off his or her TV using a video camera, the resulting video will include a watermark indicating whose screener it was. As you might imagine, this is going to cost a ridiculous amount of money -- but is unlikely to actually stop the movies from getting online. In other words, for all that money, it's not going to stop a single download. Of course, some of the money is being put up by Cinea, the company that apparently makes this technology (which they -- stop laughing -- claim is unhackable), is spending their own money on much of this year's technology in an effort to make the industry use their technology in other parts of the movie making process. No matter how much they do this, however, it's still not likely to stop movies from getting out there -- though it will make movies more expensive.

[david81]

Plausible, but I doubt they went to that much trouble. The DVD provided with it plays just fine in any normal DVD player. So that disc isn't protected. Also, it appears to be a DVD-R that it is written, nice purple color and obviously only written about half full. Going to try using Nero to burn one on my recorded TV shows as a home made compilation style DVD and see if that works.

[david81]

Well, the burning of a Futurama episode did not pan out. I don't think it's CSS encryption status dependent either, since the DVD's I ripped before had the CSS stripped off. Any other thoughts out there that might make this useable?

[Video Dude]

Can a dvd player be locked for a specific disc volume name?

[david81]

Why didn't I think of that....

Just burnt a TV program using a volume name that matches the provided disc and viola! it works. Now if I could just find a remote that works with it (there is an IR sensor up front) Time to get out the universal and play for a while :)

Thanks VideoDude

[setarip_old]

Now that you've determined it's set for only one volume name, perhaps you can discover and explore the player's "setup" program and eliminate that restriction...

[david81]

That sounds like a good project to work on. Any suggestions? Perhaps just randomly holding down buttons while turning on? Key press combos? I'll fiddle with it a bit tonight and see what happens. Sure would be nice to not have to burn a new copy of anything I wish to watch with a special name. (not that it will be used very frequently, but still...)

[mod]

Any suggestions? Perhaps just randomly holding down buttons while turning on? Key press combos? I'll fiddle with it a bit tonight and see what happens.

Hey, buy a new joypad, it's consolle time!! :D