Encrypting a DVD

[WriteON]

My pool instructor is producing a DVD and it needs to be encrypted to prevent copying. The movie is complete on his PC. How to encrypt? Has anyone done this? Thanks. Frank

 

[esheffield]

Assuming he wants to produce a DVD that's playable in most / all normal DVD players, he's out of luck. The standard DVD encryption (CSS) was cracked almost immediately (1999) and is completely worthless now. And it has to be licensed - I don't think there's any way an individual can use it, he'd have to go thru a commercial production house. There's apparently another method that actually involves damaging the disc in a particular way but according to the article linked below even very few commercial movies use it because it's too expensive. Even the newer encryptions used for Blu-Ray have been cracked.

DVD and Blu-ray Copy Protection

Another option he might consider tho - delivering his content thru something like Udemy. If you're not familiar, it's an online education site. Probably have to edit the video a bit, at least breaking it down into short segments. I mostly use it for technology classes, but they offer everything and anyone can sign up to teach a class. Personally Udemy (and similar sites) are by far my preferred way to take classes, esp since I can watch on my PC, phone, or tablet. I really don't think DVD is a very good choice for delivering instructional content any more. He'll probably get a wider audience with some form of digital delivery.

Whatever he decides to do, I hope he succeed!

 

[WriteON]

Assuming he wants to produce a DVD that's playable in most / all normal DVD players, he's out of luck. The standard DVD encryption (CSS) was cracked almost immediately (1999) and is completely worthless now. And it has to be licensed - I don't think there's any way an individual can use it, he'd have to go thru a commercial production house. There's apparently another method that actually involves damaging the disc in a particular way but according to the article linked below even very few commercial movies use it because it's too expensive. Even the newer encryptions used for Blu-Ray have been cracked.

DVD and Blu-ray Copy Protection

Another option he might consider tho - delivering his content thru something like Udemy. If you're not familiar, it's an online education site. Probably have to edit the video a bit, at least breaking it down into short segments. I mostly use it for technology classes, but they offer everything and anyone can sign up to teach a class. Personally Udemy (and similar sites) are by far my preferred way to take classes, esp since I can watch on my PC, phone, or tablet. I really don't think DVD is a very good choice for delivering instructional content any more. He'll probably get a wider audience with some form of digital delivery.

Whatever he decides to do, I hope he succeed!

Hi and thank you. Will pass this on.
And what is "vimeo".
The movie material is about 60minutes.

 

[WIDirt]

Honestly, it is almost impossible to keep things like this from being pirated. When I was an administrator, we saw Udemy videos all the time that had been downloaded, then reposted without the creators approval.

His best bet is to hope that he can make his money before somebody does so.

As for encryption, there are so many different ways to remove it, it isn't even funny. And if he does find a way, it will only slow down the hackers for a few days, possibly weeks, before someone reverse engineers it, and then posts it somewhere.

Not to be a doomsayer, but we saw this all the time. I even know someone that has the knowledge to do things like this. He does it for a company we used to work with, in an effort to keep it from happening. Hasn't worked yet....

 

[WriteON]

Honestly, it is almost impossible to keep things like this from being pirated. When I was an administrator, we saw Udemy videos all the time that had been downloaded, then reposted without the creators approval.

His best bet is to hope that he can make his money before somebody does so.

As for encryption, there are so many different ways to remove it, it isn't even funny. And if he does find a way, it will only slow down the hackers for a few days, possibly weeks, before someone reverse engineers it, and then posts it somewhere.

Not to be a doomsayer, but we saw this all the time. I even know someone that has the knowledge to do things like this. He does it for a company we used to work with, in an effort to keep it from happening. Hasn't worked yet....

Hi and thanks. I understand your post. Let's say someone copies and resells the material. Just the way it goes I guess. Usual discs are copied and one or two are given away. That's about as far as it goes.

 

[WIDirt]

Honestly, it is almost impossible to keep things like this from being pirated. When I was an administrator, we saw Udemy videos all the time that had been downloaded, then reposted without the creators approval.

His best bet is to hope that he can make his money before somebody does so.

As for encryption, there are so many different ways to remove it, it isn't even funny. And if he does find a way, it will only slow down the hackers for a few days, possibly weeks, before someone reverse engineers it, and then posts it somewhere.

Not to be a doomsayer, but we saw this all the time. I even know someone that has the knowledge to do things like this. He does it for a company we used to work with, in an effort to keep it from happening. Hasn't worked yet....

Hi and thanks. I understand your post. Let's say someone copies and resells the material. Just the way it goes I guess. Usual discs are copied and one or two are given away. That's about as far as it goes.

Oh, I doubt anyone would resell the material. To easy to get on the wrong end of the legal system. (money trail, unless they are into using cryptocurrency)

On the other hand, reposting it for the world to grab is the issue. There are companies that actually will watch for things like it to be posted, then submit DCMA reports to the hosting websites for removal, but I have no idea the cost involved. Doing your own searches and removal requests would be very time consuming. Probably wouldn't be worth it, but it is an option.

 

[esheffield]

Assuming he wants to produce a DVD that's playable in most / all normal DVD players, he's out of luck. The standard DVD encryption (CSS) was cracked almost immediately (1999) and is completely worthless now. And it has to be licensed - I don't think there's any way an individual can use it, he'd have to go thru a commercial production house. There's apparently another method that actually involves damaging the disc in a particular way but according to the article linked below even very few commercial movies use it because it's too expensive. Even the newer encryptions used for Blu-Ray have been cracked.

DVD and Blu-ray Copy Protection

Another option he might consider tho - delivering his content thru something like Udemy. If you're not familiar, it's an online education site. Probably have to edit the video a bit, at least breaking it down into short segments. I mostly use it for technology classes, but they offer everything and anyone can sign up to teach a class. Personally Udemy (and similar sites) are by far my preferred way to take classes, esp since I can watch on my PC, phone, or tablet. I really don't think DVD is a very good choice for delivering instructional content any more. He'll probably get a wider audience with some form of digital delivery.

Whatever he decides to do, I hope he succeed!

Hi and thank you. Will pass this on.
And what is "vimeo".
The movie material is about 60minutes.

I don't know a lot about Vimeo - just watch videos there once in a while. Just poking around a bit it looks like there are various plans where you pay them to host your content. Looks like you can make videos private so perhaps you can sell access (probably via paypal or something) and the buyer would get a private link / password to access the material there.

I should probably also note that on Udemy it's not just a video delivery platform. There's an expectation that the instructor is available for answering questions in the forums etc. That does put more responsibility on the instructor. As a student tho, it's what makes it worthwhile paying for a class there vs. just grabbing a similar video on youtube or whatever, at least for me. I do tend to wait for things to be on sale since some classes are crazy expensive normally. Don't think I've ever paid more than $20 for a class. Not sure how well instructors do over there either. I suspect it's kind of like with Youtube - some probably do well, most make a few bucks at most.

 

[chartle]

I'm with everyone else.

I'm thinking trying to protect a video is a losing game. I think your friend should try to find a different revenue stream other than selling DVDs. Also think depending on the audience less and less people will have DVD players.

 

[mecompco]

Really, not many devices have optical drives any more. Back when they were relevant, copying and burning encrypted commercial DVD movies was no problem. I think he is facing a losing battle with this business model.

 

[WriteON]

I do appreciate everyones replies. I discussed this with him and he is not going to pursue encrypting.

He is a world class legendary One Pocket player/instructor. The game of One Pocket...the players have a designated corner pocket and must make 8 balls in it to win. He published a book called One Pocket.."A game of Controlled Aggression" that illustrates the proper way to handle typical scenarios.

Here is an example of his talent...shooters pocket is he bottom left corner.
I have been working on this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuU32kBsnyM&t=97s
This is above my pay scale for now... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9vvKQ74bok

watch some of his uTube videos... double click on VIDEOS.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1FDmPyLMclcMphTP2VnYyA

 

[WriteON]

The movie material is about 1 hour. How can it be sold as a download (aside from a DVD). Any help is much appreciated. Thanks, Frank

 

[WriteON]

The movie material is about 1 hour. How can it be sold as a download (aside from a DVD). Any help is much appreciated. Thanks, Frank

I should re-read my own threads. "Vimeo" looks like a good possibility.