Samsung sued over DVD-duping by discontinued player
By Marc Perton 
posted February 20th 2006 2:49PM
posted February 20th 2006 2:49PM
[Thanks, Rich]
posted February 20th 2006 2:49PM
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I bought this DVD player for 50$ and love it. Looks great using DVI output! I wonder what hey will give in exchange for it if the recall it?
Can the factory refurbished ones be "cracked" too? or do they reflash the software when they refurbished them???
It's getting completely out of control with the copy protection, even turning on other companies now. Shame on them
Tell the movie companies to take all these players and shove them up their asses.
Careful what you say Marc - aren't TW and AOL in bed together? And AOL owns Engadget right? heh heh...
Interesting. Maybe I should bring attention to the fact that my Sony DAV-S300 system can be hacked the same way, and Sony might eventually be forced to recall all units and provide me with a new model that ACTUALLY PLAYS CD-R MEDIA!!
Refurb's usually get flashed with the latest and "greatest" firmware, though it's not always the case. If you can find the firmware in the wild, you can almost certainly downgrade.
BTW - This isn't the only player to have this "functionality." Lots of units allow you to go region free, disable macrovision, and HDCP. I have a Samsung 850 that allows me to upconvert over component. There's probably a code to disable Macrovision and/or HDCP too, though I never saw the need.
I picked up a nicer player over the weekend, LG's LDA-511. This unit has codes to disable macrovision, disable HDCP, and go region free. The picture quality is great, too, especially considering the price ($110).
What this means is that manufacturers will have to strip the debug code from their firmware releases so people can't enable this sort of hidden "functionality"
Then again, I don't know why studios are so ticked about this sort of thing. It just means that you can copy a dvd over analog to a dvd recorder, resulting in slightly-better-than-vhs quality. They should be worried about DeCSS type programs that allow you to make near perfect copies. Morons.
All lawsuits like this do is make me want to buy 5 units on eBay and give them to my friends to spread the joy that is pissing off the movie industry.
Sp let me get this straight.
The music and film industry desires to prsecute as many of their customers as possible. Now even for ripping your own material to MP3s etc for use on your own mobile devices (fair use).
Now the same industry desires to prosecute the manufacturers of hardware which shows their products. Merely becaue the hardware can be hacked. And let's face it just about everything can be hacked.
well, i got me one of these- and ya know, i think i need to get a couple VCRs before RIAA closes the analog hole, too.
TANSTAAFL. Robt Heinlein
Thanks Disney, Time Warner, Fox, Paramount and Universal I never even checked out the hacks for my HD841, thanks for letting me know about the hack.
File this under error code= ID10T
what about my apex player that i only spent thirty dollars on and it plays ANYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE!!!!! will i have to trade that in, screw that. that thing has been my best friend since i moved to where there ain't no cable.
Did anyone ever hear the rumor that an eBay seller started the whole controversy over the xray vision cams that could see underwear? Those cams STILL go for above retail on eBay if your item isn't ended.
Thanx for the news. I just bought one on ebay right after reading this.
sweet...for $50, I'll have to pick one of these up. thanks guys!
The RIAA and the MPAA need to rot in hell.
Typical B.S.
Many companies manufacture their equipment with an 'open' firmware to be later configured for the region in which they will be sold. This seems like a no-brainer to me, as it cuts down on manufacturing costs. (read: saves us consumers money)
Note to the MPAA and RIAA, youve already been caught with your hands in the cookie jar. Lay off.
Haha. Backfire. Gonna purchase one too.
Five U.S. movie producers have
filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Inc. for selling DVD
players that facilitate content piracy
----
Now what does this mean? Can it play copied DVD's? Because almost all unmarked chinese players do this. Everyone I know goes to some outlet gets a DVD player from MowieWatcha that plays DVD's DivX CD-r and all other formats for 1/5 of the price of one of the big players.
Is this because they now can attack a giant?
Or does it mean that you can circomvent area coding by using some controller code which is normally used by thechnicians?
I don't think it means this because almost every machine has these codes. They are needed to check out what's wrong with a machine. Even my Sony minidisc player needed some "service manual" hacking to crank up the volume because the French have some law on sound volumes.
"Facilitate content piracy"
It says enough even Samsung doesn't know what they want.
Just bought one off ebay too!!
Disney, Time Warner, Fox, Paramount and Universal, thanks for the info! Now I can make copies of those DVD's I rent from BB!!! Woot
Even if they get Samsung to recall the players, those who know of the functionality will not return their players (And why should they?). Basically, this is a waste of time.
I've had one of these for almost 8 months and it's been able to play Backup DVD's without the hack. What good is a region free player otherwise?
Why do I get the feeling that marketing guys from MS, Apple and Google have been talking to these MPAA guys about protecting their content. M-A-G must be doing overtime freaking these guys out :)
And to all who think this is a stupid step by MPAA -
I think they want to tick of future releases of such player, thats all.
It's going to to be hard to find everyone who has the player. They're only going to know about the ones who turned in a registration card, right?
Thanks for the headsup. I just bought 42 of these from a warehouse retailer near me and plan to sell most of them on ebay.
Also, I believe the Toshiba SD4960 is a rebadged model of this same samsung player.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Philips-DVD-Player-DVP642-/sem/rpsm/oid/100066/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
This is almost the perfect DVD player. Supports DVD, DVD+R/RW, VCD, SVCD, MPEG-4, CD-R/RW, MP3-CD, JPEG and DivX 3.11/4.x/5.x. Now if that isn't sweet enough for ya then read this.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=2296896
Now go get one before they are gone - its even got free shipping from Circuit City!
#22. "It's going to to be hard to find everyone who has the player. They're only going to know about the ones who turned in a registration card, right?"
And even if they do know who has one by, like you said, the registration cards, who cares? They can't actually force you to turn in a device that has been recalled, can they?
I was always under the impression that a recall, although usually beneficial to the customer, was completely voluntary.
There's a better player. a Philips DVP642, not only REGION FREE, but a DIVX support as well. Burn any type, ANY type of File and DIVX will play it. Better than that Samsung, I hope MPAA doesn't see this.
Wow, over here in New Zealand its standard for most players to come from the Factory multi zone (we are zone 4) even brand name players. If there are not all ready multi zone they come with a piece of paper with remoter codes for how to do it.
I just bought this player on ebay. Does anyone know the code to make it region free?
I too am puzzled by this action. How is this POTENTIAL hack any more dangerous than all those previously mentioned no-name chinese decks that will play nigh anything out of the grease stained box...
And lets not forget $50 DVD+/-RW drives and 'OneClick DVD'.
Given all that the idea of anyone pirating a movie (with NO features...not even extra languages) in REAL TIME with this Samsung unit is simply asinine...
Then again, perhaps this is just a roundabout way of taking a snipe at Samsung as we move into the so called 'format war'. A pretty weak and abstract swipe it would be, don't get me wrong, but I can't think of any other reason to bother suing Samsung over this issue at this point in time...
Shouldn't movie studios be more concerned about PCs with dvd ripping apps than a DVD player that can be hacked to disable macrovision and region protection? Who in their right might would goto the troulbe of backing up a DVD at 1x with a set top dvd player to a DVD recorder (or worse, VHS) when the same can be done in about 15 minutes with a PC with a DVD writer?
here is a link of a forum that mention how to hack this player
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=DVD-HD841&hits=50&Search=Search
I just bought the DVD-HD850 from local retailers after reading this news. HD850 is the newer model, stores here don't have HD841 anymore.
The hack for HD850 and HD841 are both very simple. I got the HD850 hack working in 10 minutes. No problem playing region 2 DVD at 1080i through component after applying the HDCP disable hack and multi-region hack. Thanks MPAA..for letting me knowing about this!
Anyone who has this can you confirm that it has discreet output for 5.1 sound. (I am still paying for a poor choice in HTaudio several years ago) For me to enjoy 5.1 the dvd player has to do the decoding and send it out over 6 RCA cables. It appears this player has this but I haven't been able to confirm it with any ebay sellers yet.
Thanks
My DVD BURNER on my PC can MAKE region 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/0 DVDs. Does it really matter what players can play?
http://www.audiorama.com.br/codefree.htm
Typically no need to go buy a new player if your current player is on the list... just translate it...
It's obvious that Hollywood wants us to pay each time one of their movies is viewed - thus they really don't want us to have dvd's at all. Don't be surprised if next they come after camcorders so we won't even be able to make our own movies anymore.
The issue is that the HDCP can be turned off. That means that you can play back HD DVD's through HD televisions that are not HDCP enabled.
That is not of itself the problem. Hollywood are worried that you might intercept the signals going down the cable between the dvd player and the television, and somehow turn that back into the digital data, and make a copy of the dvd.
I imagine that anyone who has the ability to do that, is going to have the ability to defeat the HDCP anyway.
Quite honestly, if Hollywood want to stop people copying movies, they will just have to stop making movies.
The only effective copy protection is where buying an original is cheaper than making a copy, and I think that those days have gone.
I have a DVD-HD941. Was that effected too?
Thanks for the info, gonna get me another dvd player as a backup unit.
Anyone know of one that can also play files off of a memory card?
I think this whole controversey over players that can upscale through componet is stupid. I have a 2 year old hdtv that only has componet inputs and am not going yo toss it out and go spend another 5 or 6 hundred bucks just ot get one with an hdmi input! I have both the LDA-511 and DVD-HD850 with hdcp hacks enabled and I can watch R1 dvds upscaled to 1080I on my tv, yeah. Nuts to the RIAA and the MPA.
ijust bought a dvd player hd850, can any one explaine how i can make it all regons is there a code i can use, thank you.
You know what's really funny? LG has 2 currently available upscaleing dvd players that can be hacked to shutoff the HDCP and the macrovision and they are better machines than the Samsung in my opinion.