Rational for not playing protected DVDs

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
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Generation 2 WDTV Live model WDBAAP0000NBK

I have shared my DVD drive on my PC.

The WDTV can play an unprotected DVD from this shared drive without a problem and stream it over my network.

Why did WD design the device so that it won’t allow you to play a protected DVD - even one I have legitimately purchased or rented.

I assume it is something to do with some deal with the movie distributors - but what. I can’t think what benefit I am getting by streaming the DVD that creates any disadvantage to the movie house. Because I can play the same DVD in the PC and watch it on my PC screen. I can also play it in any DVD player.

So why would WD go and make their product less attractive by not allowing you to do the same thing but stream it over your network.

Their logic defies me.

Does anyone know if there is a work around. I don’t see this as breaking any copyright as I own the DVD and can already watch it on the same PC DVD player.

Interested in others thoughts

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Just guessing, DVD’s can be played only for “Personal Use” 

Prevention and Prohibited  “Broadcasting”  Protection most likely falls under the class of  “Streaming” as well.

Doesn’t matter if you “Bought” the DVD and you want to  “Stream It” within your own home …

Because if is was possible to stream “Protected” DVD’s then there would be a flood of

Pirate Websites “Streaming” DVD’s on the Internet.

On a similar note, of all the DVD’s that ive Legitimately Purchased … Why am i subjected to Copyright Warnings (that i

Cant Skip or Fast Foward through ) and am bombarded with Piracy is a Crime Messages on a DVD that i purchased Legally. ?

P.S. It’s MPAA Logic  (which is a oxymoron)

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steve2222 wrote:

So why would WD go and make their product less attractive by not allowing you to do the same thing but stream it over your network.

 

Their logic defies me.

You might just be the first person that has ever asked that…  

The main answer:   The WD can’t play them because your PC will not SERVE them.  If your DVD drive doesn’t “unlock” the disk with a decryption key, then Windows (or Mac or whatever) can’t even open the files.

The DVD drive won’t “expose” the decryption keys to the operating system, so the WD can’t access them, so the WD can’t decrypt the content.

It’s the same thing as why you can’t just pop a DVD into the tray, and Cut & Paste the files.   It won’t work.

“Ripping” software does low-level hardware calls to the DVD drive to access the decryption keys in order to decrypt the media.

Another answer is, even if it COULD do it, if it DID do it, then WD would have to purchase a CSS license.   That same license REQUIRES the player to adhere to the FULL DEMAND of the licensor, which includes implementing Macrovision, Content Protection, Region Coding, compliance with “Prohibited Ops” that prevent you from skipping the advertisements and Warnings, etc.)

Yet Another answer is:  Most people who want to continue to use physical media are just going to continue to use a cheap-o $29 DVD player hooked up to their TV.    What would defy logic to me is buying a $100 piece of hardware, go through the effort of hooking it up to a network, and use a PC to run the movie.   That’s an aweful lot of complexity to play a DVD disk.

So, in short, why on earth would they want to? There’s no benefits that would outweight the cost and complexity.

If I recall, Slysoft sells a software package that decrypts the DVD on the fly.  Presumably, if you run that software, you can do what you want and then serve it to the WD.

1 Like
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Thanks Tony and Joey.

That helped my understanding of the whole protection thing.