On November 5, we brought you “Blu-Ray BD+ DRM Cracked again,” the story of DRM hackers using a virtual machine to trick Blu-Ray discs into believing they were running on legit hardware. Today marks the next entry in the never-ending saga, as vigilante DVD ripping company Slysoft has announced that they’ve cracked the update that fixed the November 5 loophole.
In this new DRM-laden era, ownership of the disc is not enough to play the disc. To display the content at 1080p, Blu-Ray discs check for the presence of an HDCP-protected display path. This means that every device or software involved in the playback of Blu-Ray content must be HDCP-enabled. A raft of hardware (such as my perfectly good Samsung 215TW) arrived before the industry move to HDCP and effectively end any chance at the 1080p experience.
Because the HDCP specification is proprietary, open source players and even operating systems like Linux find themselves out in the cold on the DRM front. Users attempting to play 1080p content without a complete HDCP display path are treated to 480p content or, in most cases, a blank screen. AnyDVD HD changes all that.
Like the legally-nebulous HDCP strippers, AnyDVD HD kicks BD+ in the teeth by ignoring HDCP. Circumventing the scheme allows any user to play any Blu-Ray disc on any PC. While such a program runs afoul of the American DMCA laws, Slysoft’s team resides outside of the US and has thus far been able to give the finger to big media unscathed.
Articles RSS