strange (obfuscated) VOB files

[chris22]

Hi,

on a DVD I bought with a (french) magazine, there are vob files that Both PowerDVD and VLC can't play. When you play them directly, the film is mostly black, only intermittently (once or twice a second) you see a correct frames. The sound is ok.

BUT - when I play the movies from the DVD menu (where I have to enter a code via the mouse before playing) the movies play ok.

Does anybody have any kind of idea what kind of format that is? The CD is NOT css encrypted, and plays both on my PC as well as standard dvd players.

And if you know what it is, any idea about how to convert that to any standard format? I would like to get rid of that code entering...

[setarip_old]

Although you say it's not CSS encrypted, it certainly sounds like the VOBs are scrambled and require the entry code for descrambling and proper playback.

What movies are they?

What's the big deal about entering the code?

If nothing else, you could use a program such as "Camtasia" or "CamStudio", or similar, to capture it from your PC in real time...

BTW - What happens if you try to copy the DVD (or individual .VOBs) to your hard drive?

[chris22]

Although you say it's not CSS encrypted, it certainly sounds like the VOBs are scrambled and require the entry code for descrambling and proper playback.

Well. I have anydvd, so they would be decrypted omn the fly anyway. But - anydvd says the dvd is not css encrypted in its status page. I tend to believe that.

And if its not css, wouldn't that require another encryption algorithm being built into the standard DVD playback (which, AFAIK, is not there)?

What movies are they?
Porn.

What's the big deal about entering the code?

Maintaining and saving them (its abourt 20 codes, one for each clip).


If nothing else, you could use a program such as "Camtasia" or "CamStudio", or similar, to capture it from your PC in real time...


VLC recording does fine, fwiw. I just have to babysit it.

But I am looking for a general solution - I find it generally annoying not being able to playback any such cd, although I should be able to. THis obfuscation scheme is somewhat outrageous - i bought this magazine and the dvd said its content was free - but it reqires (in their mind) to send 20 premium SMS,, $4 apiece, $80 in total (!) to get those codes (too bad they accidentally left the codes on the dvd in clearetxt as well, but that mistake will certainly not be repeated on other dvds of them).

BTW - What happens if you try to copy the DVD (or individual .VOBs) to your hard drive?

I have a copy on my hd that behaves exactly like the one on dvd. Did that and verfied with vlc.

[bnshrdr]

When you say you enter the codes, where do you enter them? Is there a proprietary media player that comes with the videos?

[setarip_old]

@chris22And if its not css, wouldn't that require another encryption algorithm being built into the standard DVD playback (which, AFAIK, is not there)?Are you saying that if you play it on a standalone DVD player, you DON'T have to enter the code(s)?

If that's the case, the disc must have an autorun file on it (Only affects PC)...

[chris22]

@chris22Are you saying that if you play it on a standalone DVD player, you DON'T have to enter the code(s)?

If that's the case, the disc must have an autorun file on it (Only affects PC)...

Nope. Its the same there. Codes (4 digits) are entered in a menu where you activate number symbols on a screen keypad with the mouse (PC) or the remote like you activate any other DVD menu item. With the wrong combination you just get another menu screen with only a back item, with the right combo the movie starts. So, it must be *something* in the .IFO files....

As for autorun, I have anydvd configured to block any autorun.