DVD Password Protection

2 Jun 2005 11:41 AM

Gogarty

2 Jun 2005 5:03 PM

Jukka Aho

Gogarty wrote:

> Does anyone know any way -- simple or complex -- to put passwords
> on home made DVDs

That's doable (although not necessarily trivial!) if you can find an
authoring application that allows you to use the DVD player virtual
machine command set. More information can be found in here:

<http://www.dvd-replica.com/DVD/vmcommands.php>

and here

<http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/Helppro/vmcommands.htm>

DVD-Lab Pro [1] is probably the only affordable authoring application
that lets you do this. Professionals would use something like Sonic
Scenarist, but that will cost an arm and a leg.

[1] <http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/comparison.html>

> so that they cannot be read on any machine, settop DVD
> player or computer, unless the password is entered.

OK, this is something you can't really do. You can control the flow of
playback in ordinary, stand-alone DVD players, but once someone pops
your disc in a computer DVD-ROM drive, he can do pretty much anything he
wants (with suitable software tools.) The ordinary software DVD player
applications will, of course, respect the VM commands, but there are
many tools which allow you to view the contents of DVD VOB files in
"raw" format, without paying any attention to how you have originally
intended to restrict the playback.

> I am not talking about parental protection which locks out a
> machine but has no effect on the DVD itself. But some system
> or scheme that will lock out the casual intruder no matter
> what machine he tries to play the disk on.

As above, password protection is doable, but whether it will keep casual
intruders locked out or not depends on your definition of "casual". A
teenager armed with a PC, a DVD-ROM drive and some rudimentary knowledge
of Google and Internet, and a little bit of determination, will pass
through your "password protection" in no time, while mom & pop and your
sister and that non-technical accountant guy living next door
necessarily won't.

--
znark

3 Jun 2005 11:43 AM

Gogarty

5 Jun 2005 12:53 PM

Ingeborg

You can, with an authoring program, create invisible links (or non-obvious)
to your hidden(?) menus/videos.
Fred

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"Gogarty" <Goga***@Clongowes.edu> wrote in message
news:cLydnT3a1fPH3z3fRVn-hA@bway.net...
> In article <02Hne.1893$LT.***@reader1.news.jippii.net>, jukka.***@iki.fi
> says...
>>
>>
>>Gogarty wrote:
>>
>>> Does anyone know any way -- simple or complex -- to put passwords
>>> on home made DVDs
>>
>>That's doable (although not necessarily trivial!) if you can find an
>>authoring application that allows you to use the DVD player virtual
>>machine command set. More information can be found in here:
>
> (Snip)
>
> Many thanks for your detailed response, which I have printed out for
> further reference. Indeed, it is not a trivial problem.
>
> I have had a suggestion that one way to do it is with cascading menus. The
> DVD screen opens up with a bunch of menu options. Choosing one gets to
> another set of menus. Again you choose one. Only when you have chosen a
> certain number of menus in the correct sequence will the DVD play. A
> program called SpruceUp was reccommended. Very cumbersome to set up but it
> should be effective.
>
> However, as you say, anyone can open any VOB file on a computer using all
> sorts of free software or none at all.
>
>>As above, password protection is doable, but whether it will keep casual
>>intruders locked out or not depends on your definition of "casual". A
>>teenager armed with a PC, a DVD-ROM drive and some rudimentary knowledge
>>of Google and Internet, and a little bit of determination, will pass
>>through your "password protection" in no time, while mom & pop and your
>>sister and that non-technical accountant guy living next door
>>necessarily won't.
>
> Not at all concerned about persistent teenagers. None will have access to
> my effects in the event of my untimely demise. It is indeed my sister or
> adult daughter who will sift through all the stuff and who I hope will be
> discouraged after trying to play the first one and then just throw them
> all
> out with the shoeboxes full of photos of people they never knew. As for
> the
> computer itself, protecting individual files and pholders is no problem at
> all.
>
>