Cinavia DRM

And progress does not stand still. Slowly but surely, Cinavia DRM is gaining momentum to protect copyright holders on Blu-ray players and PS3.

In short, the system analyzes these watermarks and compares them with the source to which the film was distributed (theater release or disc release), and if there are matches, the film will either be reproduced without sound or not played at all. American pirates have already faced protection on 2 popular films on the network, these are the screens of “Wolf Man” and “Island of the Damned”.


How it works?
If someone recorded a movie in the cinema, using the headphone output, then all the watermarks, which will mean that this “cinema release” will be recorded. Cinavia codes (see below) are designed in such a way that they disappear into audio after copying, converting to another format, and even recording onto a video camera.
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“Films protected by Cinavia technology contain an inaudible ear inserted into the audio track by copyright holders, which shows where and how they can be used. For example, movies that are released in cinemas may contain Cinavia code, which means that they can only be duplicated by professional replicators and played on professional projection equipment. ”
(For technical information and details, look here and here ).

It is worth making a reservation that I use only films for example in the future, this protection can also be applied to any video content. TV series also fall into a potential risk zone.

Blu-ray and non-blurred playback.
While Cinavia DRM is included only in some Blu-ray players and PS3. A list of manufacturers who have already integrated Cinavia can be found in this PDF . However, since the technology is now officially recognized and approved in the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) agreements, all major manufacturers of matchers will include it in their products.

“Cinavia has been adopted as a necessary component of the AACS security system. Blu-ray Cinavia detectors with built-in detectors began entering the consumer market at the end of 2009. "

This is a big win for the Verance Cinavia campaign. And although not all manufacturers of blur players decided to adopt it as a de facto DRM standard, Cinavia also has significant support from studios such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment, which can later lead to the widespread dissemination of this protection.

As long as Cinavia protection is limited only to Blu-ray players and PS3, the technology will not affect playback if your system does not have Cinavia detectors. This means that even if you downloaded a file that contains a “DRM watermark”, but you do not have Cinavia hardware-compatible equipment, nothing will happen. You will also quietly watch the movie and not notice anything.

DVD players - it is not yet known whether DVD players will support Cinavia in the future. But at the moment there are no such players, and, as it were, it is not planned.

Download and view on PC - Audio watermarks do not affect PC viewing in any way.

HD Media Centers - Same. There are no restrictions for WD TV or PopcornHour.

Impact on piracy.
As you can see, Cinavia technology will have little impact on piracy in general. People who are used to watching movies downloaded through PS3 or recording on BD-R will simply use alternative methods for viewing. This will bring only some inconvenience, but in no case will not reduce the distribution of the film in the network. It will be much more interesting to find out what happens if Cinavia Verance pushes its technology into the next generation DivX-compatible DVD players. But whether they will be able to nail this DRM to a PC in some way is not clear.

Personal opinion: at the moment Cinavia DRM does not bear the danger of "pirates." But with the further spread of HD equipment and the integration of protection into a larger number of films, not only when shown in films, but also when distributed on discs, as well as TV releases, can significantly spoil the life of dishonest users. Unless of course you can find a protection bypass, which also cannot be ruled out.