How do I put copy protection into my videos?
 

I know that no copy protection is full proof. But I would like to be able to discourage some. Is there a software solution for this or is it all hardware?

Thanks for any info.....
Bryan

From what I understand, Macrovision is software based. But the catch is, you have to have a certain burner to be able to include it on your disk. The burner is rather pricey, at a few thousand I believe.

The way around this, is to send your DVD to a replication house, and pay them to dupe your DVDs with Macrovision on them.

What output format? VHS? DVD?

Adobe encore has copy protection.

Encore has the ABILITY to add Macrovision, but you will still need a specific DVD burner to encrypt the data onto the disk.

for every software encrypter you bet someone has written a software decrypter


the best solution I have seen is on the Beatles 5 disc DVD 9 anthology set

program material is two hours and audio is 48khz LPCM on a DVD9 disc

even a ripper like DVD2One can rip the disk but because the audio takes up so much space there is little left for the two hours of video - resulting in a potential copy which is very blocky in noise artifacts - defeating the whole purpose

the work involved in making a single disc copy with ac3 or dts sound would far outstrip the cost of purchasing the discs since a complete re-authoring of the material is required

macrovision is not the answer - and you have to be licenced to use it.

a semi-secure system I have used is to encorporate a top level five layer menu system which acts as a combination lock, the disc is unplayable without the keycode

layer 1 - enter a number 1-10, move to layer 2
::::::
layer 5 - enter a number 1-10, play or eject

after succesful entry of the five digit number the disc plays otherwise the disc ejects (GPRMs can hold the user keystrokes)

this is only workable if you are producing small numbers where each disc can be coded at authoring time. (eg corporate marketing / business planning DVDs for internal use)

so how do you guys copyright your VHS tapes?