DVD movie protection : Netflix

[Jonny]

Just a heads up. I recently received a DVD movie from Netflix. Wanted to
play it on my PC as small children were about the TV, (horror/gore). To my
astonishment, the PC (xp sp2) could not "see" any media. Also tried
Millenium and 98SE. Verified with purchased DVD movies, that nothing was
wrong. They worked fine.

After finding a buried email link at the netflix site, wrote them of the
problem. Excerpt of their email response: "All of our discs come directly
from the studios they are produced by. Netflix in no way alters any of the
discs before they are sent to our members. Most newer DVDs have a form of
copy right protection encoded on to the disc this is called Macrovision.
This copy right protection will not allow these discs to play on a DVD-ROM
or CPU. This is a way to prevent the copying of DVDs."

 

[Richard Urban]

Would you care to share the title of the movie?

I have not, as of yet, run into any DVD that I can not play on my computer.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[MAP]

Just a heads up. I recently received a DVD movie from Netflix.
Wanted to play it on my PC as small children were about the TV,
(horror/gore). To my astonishment, the PC (xp sp2) could not "see"
any media. Also tried Millenium and 98SE. Verified with purchased
DVD movies, that nothing was wrong. They worked fine.

After finding a buried email link at the netflix site, wrote them of
the problem. Excerpt of their email response: "All of our discs come
directly from the studios they are produced by. Netflix in no way
alters any of the discs before they are sent to our members. Most
newer DVDs have a form of copy right protection encoded on to the
disc this is called Macrovision. This copy right protection will not
allow these discs to play on a DVD-ROM or CPU. This is a way to
prevent the copying of DVDs."

I get several movies from net-flix every week (including new releases) never
had a problem yet. Here is something you might want to check out.
http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm
Has a 30 day free trial.

By the way, where did you find the email link for net-flix?

 

[Jonny]

Both recent rentals, Saw and Saw 2.
Rented Saw before from Netflix a few months ago. Worked fine on same PC.

Just provided heads up in case someone is pushing DVD movie playing problems
on this newsgroup as happens from time to time.
--
Jonny

Would you care to share the title of the movie?

I have not, as of yet, run into any DVD that I can not play on my
computer.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Jonny]

I get several movies from net-flix every week (including new releases)
never
had a problem yet. Here is something you might want to check out.
http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm
Has a 30 day free trial.

By the way, where did you find the email link for net-flix?

Email link is buried deep inside help regarding rented movies. You have to
login, so its not available to general public.

There's no reason to use a region free utility. All rented within U.S are
region 1 from Netflix. As is my DVD player by the TV using region 1. This
did play the aforementioned PC unplayable DVDs.

 

[E. Barry Bruyea]

Just a heads up. I recently received a DVD movie from Netflix. Wanted to
play it on my PC as small children were about the TV, (horror/gore). To my
astonishment, the PC (xp sp2) could not "see" any media. Also tried
Millenium and 98SE. Verified with purchased DVD movies, that nothing was
wrong. They worked fine.

After finding a buried email link at the netflix site, wrote them of the
problem. Excerpt of their email response: "All of our discs come directly
from the studios they are produced by. Netflix in no way alters any of the
discs before they are sent to our members. Most newer DVDs have a form of
copy right protection encoded on to the disc this is called Macrovision.
This copy right protection will not allow these discs to play on a DVD-ROM
or CPU. This is a way to prevent the copying of DVDs."

Crap. I've never had a rented or purchased DVD that wouldn't play on
my computer.

 

[MAP]

Email link is buried deep inside help regarding rented movies. You
have to login, so its not available to general public.

There's no reason to use a region free utility. All rented within
U.S are region 1 from Netflix. As is my DVD player by the TV using
region 1. This did play the aforementioned PC unplayable DVDs.

Maybe your DVD lens is dirty on your PC? I just watched a movie from netflix
a few hours ago no problems with the pc.

I'll have to look for that link.
Also the region free program I gave a link to does quite a bit more than
just remove the region codes.......ie... busts through any encryption,
prevents that bs popup for interactive player,removes restrictions like
pushing next during the warning titles and production logo just to name a
few of the more useful ones. It will also prevent driver installs during
music cd playback, remember several months ago the Sony rootkit install?
that won't happen with this running.

Since its free for 30 days it won't hurt to check it out.

Off topic>
Thank God the GOP just lost control of congress

 

[Jonny]

Maybe your DVD lens is dirty on your PC? I just watched a movie from
netflix
a few hours ago no problems with the pc.

I'll have to look for that link.
Also the region free program I gave a link to does quite a bit more than
just remove the region codes.......ie... busts through any encryption,
prevents that bs popup for interactive player,removes restrictions like
pushing next during the warning titles and production logo just to name a
few of the more useful ones. It will also prevent driver installs during
music cd playback, remember several months ago the Sony rootkit install?
that won't happen with this running.

Since its free for 30 days it won't hurt to check it out.

Off topic>
Thank God the GOP just lost control of congress

Guess again. I indicated on my original post that I verified the PC's DVD
player played purchased commercial DVD movies that I already have, after
wouldn't play those noted from netflix.

The only other alternative source of the problem, other than offered by
netflix email reply, is the reflectivity of the media is not compatible with
my PC's DVD player.

All the additional assets noted for dvdregionfree thing are related to
copying. I don't want to do that. Just play the movie as is.

 

[MAP]

What I'm trying to get across is if their is something on these DVDs (which
I never noticed and I watch alot of movies) this program will nullify it.

 

[Jonny]

Don't see how that would work in the situation I noted. I indicated XP
(windows explorer) sees no media, nor ME, nor 98SE. All can see the
folder/file layout on other DVD movies with their windows explorers.
For other users with other problems, this may be a solution you're hinting
at.

 

[Allen]

Don't see how that would work in the situation I noted. I indicated XP
(windows explorer) sees no media, nor ME, nor 98SE. All can see the
folder/file layout on other DVD movies with their windows explorers.
For other users with other problems, this may be a solution you're hinting
at.

If you check alt.video.disk.tech in Google, you'll fing some interesting
posts about this. It is a anti-copying scheme that, unfortunately,
blocks even playing the discs in a computer. It has appeared mostly on
audio CDs, though.
Allen