Film Studios Sue Samsung Over DVD players

Lam1969 writes "The Korea Times reports that five U.S. film studios have taken Samsung to court for selling DVD players which allow users to bypass DRM features. The film companies, including Walt Disney and Time Warner, are demanding Samsung recall the players. According to a Samsung spokesman quoted in the article, the movie studios probably 'take issue' with Samsung's HD841 model, which Samsung sold in the United States for five months in 2004."

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[TubeSteak]

Engadget has a slightly more information.

And ultimately, Google News will provide all the stories you could want

To summarize the facts:
1. Samsung stopped producing this drive a year and a half ago
2. The 'features' were unlockable through remote control key combos
3. "The DVD-HD841 DVD-player can allow region encoding and high-bandwidth digital-content protection (HDCP) bypassing, provided a code is entered by remote control. Although pulled off shelves, its genes appear to have been transmitted to the DVD-HD747 and DVD-HD941." reference here

HDCP Bypassing!!
Weren't we just complaining about HDCP a day or two ago?

Run, don't walk, to eBay and get one of these players before Samsung pulls 'em.

And for all those who already have one:

[thelonestranger]

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=Sa msung+HD841&hits=50&Search=Search

To change region and/or remove HDCP.

[thelonestranger]

Region
1. Turn on player with no disc in the tray. "No disk" appears on screen.
2. Press the "Repeat" key on the remote.
3. Press "57538" on the remote. A number should appear on screen, indicating your player's current region (e.g. "2").
4. Press the number for your required region (e.g. "1") or "9" for region-free/all-regions. The number will appear on screen, replacing the previous number (from step 3).
5. Press "Open/Close Tray" and leave the tray open for a few seconds.
6. Press "Power On/Off". The tray closes automatically and the player turns off. Next time you turn it on, it is region free (or whatever Region you selected in step 4).

HDCP
1. Turn your television ON
2. Turn the DVD Player ON
(You should see the Samsung screen saver appear on the TV)
3. Ensure the DVD tray is EMPTY and CLOSED
4. Wait for the message 'NO DISC' to appear
5. Press the ANGLE button
6. Press the numbers 4, 3, 2, 7
(You should see the message 'HDCP Free' appear in the upper
left hand corner of your television screen)
7. Press the OPEN/CLOSE button to open the disc tray Your DVD player is now region-free and HDCP-free.

Re:To change region and/or remove HDCP.

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

I wanted to point out that "region free" mode will prevent some American DVDs from playing. Hollywood got angry a few years ago that people in Europe and other parts of the world could buy and play our DVDs on region free machines, so they put a nasty little trick in to prevent that. I have forgotten what they call it. Here is a simplified version of how DVD players normally work in region free mode:

Normal DVD talks to DVD player: My region is region 1. What region are you?
DVD player: I'm region 0. That means region free. I can play you.
Normal DVD: Go ahead and play me.

However, with some American DVDs, the conversation goes like this:
DVD talks to DVD player: My region is region 2. What region are you?
DVD player: I'm region 0. That means region free. I can play you.
DVD: I lied! I'm really region 1. Since you can play me as a region 2 disc but I am supposed to be sold only in region 1, that means you are region free. I won't play on you.

I don't remember the studios that do this except for Paramount, but for these discs, it is necessary to switch the DVD player back to region 1 to play the discs.

Re:VCR

[ajs318]

There's a problem: Macrovision. They deliberately put high-voltage pulses in the vertical retrace interval of some frames to confuse the automatic gain control in the recorder. The AGC sees the spike, winds the gain down and you get a dim picture for several frames. Then it goes bright again. Then they put in another spike and it goes dim. As far as protection schemes go, this one is totally christian. You will just need a DVD player with the option to disable Macrovision; a VCR with RGB inputs; an RGB to composite encoder {NB; must be the appropriate video standard, PAL, SECAM or NTSC, for your region}; a timebase corrector; or an image stabiliser.

One very simplistic way to defeat Macrovision is to build a simple level-limiter circuit, so the extraordinarily high voltage pulses sent in the vertical retrace interval will be clamped to peak white level {1V} before they reach the VCR. This is really nothing more than a DC-coupled, non-inverting, high-bandwidth version of a guitar distortion pedal.

To build a more sophisticated timebase corrector, use a 1881 sync separator to get the timing signals, and some sort of bilateral switch {a 4016/4066 will sort of just about do, but look at the Maxim web site for some higher-bandwidth, lower-on-resistance ones} to switch between the existing video signal, and a locally-generated "black" signal {about 0.3 volts}. The 1881 has a composite sync output which should be used to add "clean" timing to the artificial black {just force it down to 0V when the timing signal goes low}. Be sure to use op-amps with a decent slew rate, not 358's! You will also need either a bunch of TTL ICs {if you're hard} or a microcontroller. At the beginning of each frame, switch to "artificial black" for about the first 20 lines of picture, then switch to the real picture for all but the last 20 or so lines, which should be replaced by more artificial black. You may need to experiment with the number of lines you strip out. If you are 500p3r l33t, you might even care to insert your own locally-generated Teletext information in the newly-created vertical retrace interval; but don't expect this to come out right on a VHS recorder.

Re:Uh, fast forward?

[Mr2001]

So, all those previews, notices and warnings can be fast forwarded through but, yes are still incredibly annoying.

No, not all of them. A DVD author can disable your fast forward button for certain sections of video, just like he can disable your next/previous and menu buttons. That questionable part of the DVD spec is called "prohibited user operations".

Thanks MPAA!

[TPS Report]

You know, I had (honestly) forgotten all about "region free" DVD players, etc. But all the MPAA's fuss, and this associated Slashdot article about it, has reminded me that I do want a more capable DVD player. A while back, I had wanted a player that did DivX, so I could fit two or three of my movies onto a DVD for the little ones to destroy (instead of damaging the original $$ DVDs). At that time, the DivX playback on the units pretty much sucked, so I let it go and forgot about it.

Anyway, this article reminded me that there are really good DVD players out there that support region-free, HDCP-free, high-resolution playback at a reasonable price.... and they play back DivX as well. I think I will order one right now, in fact.

How's that for blowing up in your face, MPAA? I'm sure I'm not the only one that is now thinking, "yes, actually, thats exactly what I want. Thanks for the reminder."

Re:Come after me

[Lumpy]

Let's get even more realistic.

I have a HD display. I recompress my dvd's using the DVD drcryptor and DVD shrink dance to hold only the movie on a DISC in my Pioneer 200 Disc DVD changer. I have a high end line doubler and even after the recompress and other nasties added during the process I STILL get a fantastic picture. It's better than most CableTV HD channels because the cable company is compressing them hard now to fit more in the pipe.

Plus dinking with HD content I can download off the internet and play with my DSM-520 off the server in the house makes any next format player 100% useless to me.

HDDVD and BluRAY are 100% useless. you can easily fit full HD content on a regular DVD using mpeg4HD compression and it looks fantastic. They want it only because they built it with DRM from the beginning and not useability.