Sony copy protection taking heat again: now DVDs won't play

Reports continue to filter in about DVDs that refuse to play on standard players from Toshiba, LG, Pioneer, Sony, and others. The culprit is titles that utilize Sony's ARccOS copy protection scheme, such as Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," The Weinstein Company's "Lucky Number Slevin," and Sony's "Casino Royale," "The Holiday," and "Stranger Than Fiction." ARccOS artificially scrambles sectors on the disc in an attempt to keep users from ripping the disc to a drive. Many older (or less sophisticated) players simply skip these corrupted areas as unreadable and continue on. Computers -- and unfortunately, some newer players -- try to perform error correction on these areas and fail playback. When contacted, Sony seems to deny the problem, much like Microsoft and the 360 disc scratching, and simply passes the buck onto the player manufacturers to upgrade their firmware. Meanwhile, many users have simply downloaded programs to bypass the protection and make copies without the "defect." So, is this a rootkit-like class action lawsuit in the making? Is it just overblown hype over a few players that don't follow standards? Another example of copy protection that bites legitimate users and ignores the real problem? And do average consumers even care?

[zoara @ Apr 16th 2007 7:23PM]

Moff, I am interested in the product you are advertising, but my need is slightly different. Do you have any similar products that protect blogs from comment spam? Thanks.

[JeffnLA @ Apr 16th 2007 4:21PM]

Sony continually shows nothing but contempt for the consumer.

[adrian @ Apr 16th 2007 4:22PM]

I thought I was the only one. My Casino Royale does not play in my LG player but does in my Phillips one. Also doesn't play on my laptop's DVD drive and I thought I had a bad copy but exchanged it twice. Just have to live with it until I get a BD player.

[Jonathan Sundy @ Apr 16th 2007 4:54PM]

Trading one Sony problem for another?

[CopyMe @ Apr 16th 2007 4:22PM]

Sony has now achieved copy protection nirvana. If it don't work you can't copy it

[Zeus the God @ Apr 16th 2007 4:27PM]

Goddamn, don't complain about the 360 "disc scratching" thing.

The reason that happened is because dumbasses decided to move their Xbox around while it was running a disc. In no way is that MicroSoft's fault.

This is a shame though.

[Ayle @ Apr 16th 2007 4:52PM]

Have you actually read the news saying that Microsoft aknowledged the issue?

[JDL @ Apr 16th 2007 4:35PM]

I've been having the damn problem for some time. My HTIB LG is perfect for my little apartment. it's about 5 years old, but still rocks! the only problem is when rent DVDs that are produced by Sony. Guess what, Sony? The only way around this is to RIP it, extract your lame copy protection and burn it onto a recordable disc. Thus, your attempt at copy protection actually causes me to copy your DVDs. I don't rip other DVDs b/c i just play them and return them. But, since your DVDs won't play on my DVD player, I gotta copy them. Thanks SONY! I have stacks of copied DVDs and they are only from SONY!

[Zorque @ Apr 16th 2007 4:37PM]

Is anybody else getting really sick of Sony?

[eric @ Apr 16th 2007 4:41PM]

i got stranger than fiction and couldnt play it. sony sucks

[JediFonger @ Apr 16th 2007 4:41PM]

pshft, this is old news. only diff. is that sony is making it standard. there have been many DVD's like Capote that are supposedly un-rippable. check this out:

http://free-codecs.com/download/DVDFab_Decrypter.htm

problem solved. if you want to shrink to DVD5, you can either use DVDShrink again or nero recode (it's the same programmer as DVD shrink) or just buy dvdfab and do it all in one step.

[James @ Apr 16th 2007 4:42PM]

Zeus: Read a few posts back. Microsoft has done their own testing and determined that on certain machines, a part was missing that caused discs to scratch with extended use, not through any fault of the user's. It is, in fact, Microsoft's fault, at least in those cases.

I, for one, would make an argument that even if a scratch was caused when the user moved the Xbox while the disc was spinning, that's *still* Microsoft's fault, at least to some extent -- why has that never happened on my PS2, or my original Xbox, or any of my 3 laptops? Certainly my laptop DVD drive is capable of everything the 360 drive can do.

"Fault tolerance" is an important aspect of any consumer good, and having a drive that needs to be shock-mounted and immersed in non-conducting oil just to make sure it doesn't twitch 1/96th of an inch to run "properly" is, in fact, a bad product. Microsoft *should* have picked up the problem in testing and either modified the drives or chosen a different supplier; failing that, they should have had a BIG BOLD WARNING LABEL warning the users not to touch the machine while a disc was in use. I have not been bitten by this yet, but in an era where they keep you from backing up content at gunpoint, I don't want to wait around quietly until it happens.

[g_stewart @ Apr 16th 2007 4:45PM]

I get all my Sony movies online, They all play great!

Sony as a company rocks! They're forcing people to live in a physical media free world!

[g_stewart @ Apr 16th 2007 4:47PM]

... on further thinking, Sony are single handedly solving the problem of global warming, if consumers can't play DVD's or other sony media due to the awful DRM, think of all the greenhouse gasses that'll be reduced!

Rock on Sony, saving the planet one screwed up DVD at a time!

[Totalfixation @ Apr 16th 2007 4:57PM]

We all know this is stupid, so why do they continue? This is one reason why i don't want to support any of Sony products anymore.

[WTangoFoxtrot @ Apr 16th 2007 5:01PM]

@g_stewart
are you nuts ? all this time i thought sony was trying to force the crapy blu-ray down peoples throats i had this vision that MS was promoting a physical media free world through XBL. but now that you put it that way thank you for opening my eyes !!

//end sarcasm

[Brien Downie @ Apr 16th 2007 5:04PM]

so THAT's why I had to install the latest version of AnyDVD to play it in my computer. CSS and copy-protection be damned. Let me play the dvd I rented!

[alexjlee @ Apr 16th 2007 5:16PM]

i own a brand new SONY dvd player and rented one of these last week. The sony dvd's don't even play in current players! terrible.

[Penguin Warlord @ Apr 16th 2007 5:18PM]

Sony has f-ed up again. I hate sony sooooo much right now. And if you wanna see whether or not the public cares go check out the Slashdot comments on this article. 600+ in less than one day.I am personally boycotting Sony and encourage as many people to join in as possible. Instead of buying a sony TV, buy a sharp, they're cheaper and much better. Instead of a Vaio computer get any other brand or build it yourself; instead of a PS3, get a Wii and a 360 or a 360 and the HD DVD drive, instead of a sony movie, download it with Bitorrent (make sure you check the back of your cases and look closely to see that Sony symbol since it has many different faces). Same thing with music. I feel bad for the artist but maybe this will encourage them to switch away from Sony.

[sycks @ Apr 16th 2007 5:36PM]

Thats like saying everything the people who do actually comment on slashdot actually care, actually experienced the malfunction themselves, or are just Sony-bashing.

Lord knows this would have a different spin if was only LG's dvd players, or Samsung's DVD players. But it's not its Sony, and yea I would be pissed too, real pissed.

No I'm supporting Sony as I don't support any DRM. But sometimes people need a little perspective.

[Trent @ Apr 16th 2007 5:21PM]

Sony: Still forgetting who pays the bills in '07!

[Demaar @ Apr 16th 2007 5:26PM]

Sony's copy protection isn't part of the DVD standard I dare say. It's probably NOT the fault of players.

[js @ Apr 16th 2007 5:31PM]

iTunes, FTW!!!

[Cycosuicide @ Apr 16th 2007 5:41PM]

I just rented Casino Royale, and it instantly played on my MAC. In fact, I sat at home and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. So quite frankly I have no idea what anyone is talking about....oh...sorry you are too busy Sony Hating. Nyuk Nyuk!

[John Doe @ Apr 17th 2007 1:06AM]

Cycosuicide, Go back downstairs to ya mama's basement. You are giving Mac users a bad name with your stupidity on a subject you know less then jack about. OOOOO it plays on my computer so its obviously a nonissue. Dumbass.

[steve @ Apr 16th 2007 5:42PM]

lol sonys copy protection doesnt even work on some of their dvd players
if it doesnt work on their own players, then its their fault no matter how you look at it
they should have the copy protection
or
they need to release a firmware update for all of their none working dvd player....
(can you even update a dvd players firmware.....i never checked)

[Mike @ Apr 16th 2007 5:50PM]

I wish the "The Holiday" failed to play on my DVD player this weekend. I want that two hours of my life back.

[WillJ @ Apr 16th 2007 5:53PM]

Casino Royal and Stranger than Fiction wouldnt work on my JVC Home Theatre system when I rented them. These new copy protection scemees are going overboard.

**Note these legal copies of these movies wouldnt work on my player, this is not sony bashing**

[Phour ZwanZig @ Apr 16th 2007 5:56PM]

I agree with Demaar.. The DVD's in ? prob dont fit the true DVD standards.. I myself dont by many DVDs so Ive yet to see this but I did by Weird Al's last Album and Sony pissed me off..

They marketed the disc as a Dual Disc, CD one side DVD on the other.. But by doing this they didnt have to meet the True CD standards.. So it doesnt work in any of my PC's, and only 3 Car Head decks that ive found.. What pissed me off is that there wasnt a way for me to put it on my MP3 player.. So I had to do the same thing I did with my SoaD Dual Disc.. And that was rip the audio from the DVD side of the disc.. Was a pain but it worked..

To me I think Sony is turning non-pirates into almost-pirates..

And from now on I won't be buying any Dual Disc's..

Oh.. and Dual Discs should be in DVD sections.. NOT CD.. IT IS NOT A F***IN CD...

[Bill @ Apr 16th 2007 6:01PM]

I feel better knowing that I've phased out nearly all Sony electronics with the exception of my PS2's. The PS3 won't be on my shopping list in the foreseeable future.

I always check to see who distributes the DVD's I rent or buy, making sure not to get Sony, MGM, Columbia, Tri-Star, Screen Gems as well as Triumph and Destination Films titles. For those, I either wait for it to air on television since the turnaround these days is fairly tolerable or download but the quality is usually not there or it's in some oddball codec or archive format.

Truthfully, I'm sorry to see the glory days of Sony have passed. They're surviving only on the merits of their long dead reputation.

[Ethan Duffy @ Apr 16th 2007 6:36PM]

Consumers do care about this; there was a sort-of media-backlash in newspapers when they did this with cds.

[Kyle @ Apr 16th 2007 6:39PM]

Clearly this is Sony attempting to "improve" security on standard DVDs, where a fair number of DVDs can't even legitimately play the movie they're protecting. Is there any kind of warning on the DVD label that, say, Casino Royale is stuffed with this new protection sceheme?

As for actually protecting the content -- anyone who wants to bypass it will find a way to bypass it. Pure and simple. Just creates a little more work for some hackers, who no doubt become annoyed with Sony each time a new protection scheme emerges. Surely it didn't take long for this particular security device to be hacked.

Besides, last I knew, it was legal to make a personal backup so long as you own the original. Has that fair use standard changed? Sony is interfering with this consumer right, and I'd like to see them get stiff armed for it.

[Juaquin @ Apr 16th 2007 6:40PM]

I had some problems playing Bobby on my laptop in VLC, but it played fine in my desktop. Wonder if this is connected, the laptop does have a newer drive.

[benjamin :? @ Apr 16th 2007 7:05PM]

yup,, sony is goin overboard,, they think that they are the market leader & all other manufacturers should follow them,, yet, sony cant even get there own sh*t together,, (now without laughing at me people) i have a sony camera, & an NW-HD5, & wouldnt ya know,, not even the chargers are interchangeable, i have noticed with most sony products, that nothing (like a simple frinken charger lead!!) is compatible..

when i purchased my HD5, i wasnt aware how sh*t sonic stage was (boy has that f**kd me over since i bought a laptop!! -not sony) & i was told that the way the programme was designed, was to prevent pirating music,,, hmpf,, like that worked,, i went & borrowed all my friends cds, & copyed them into s.stage,, i believe that is still pirating music?! so all their efforts are simply backfiring,, come on sony,, how big is your corporation,, get with the frinkin programme!!!

[Philip S @ Apr 16th 2007 7:09PM]

What is Sony going to tell the people who use a Media Center PC to watch DVDs?

[h0mi @ Apr 16th 2007 7:27PM]

"buy a ps3 and bluray discs".

[Moff @ Apr 16th 2007 8:19PM]

To be honest. I have had to resort to using those hard to read character pictures. They work very well against the programs that leave comment spam.

Engadget's method seems to be very good to. Require a user and password for every comment. Although I'm sure they have to maintain that a bit.

As a C#/PHP programmer, I find the characters to work the best!

[h0mi @ Apr 16th 2007 7:27PM]

Just when I thought I might consider buying a ps3, Sony pulls a stunt like this and reminds me of why I want the ps3 and bluray to fail so badly.

[Dave Hanks @ Apr 16th 2007 7:40PM]

I bought "Lawrence of Arabia" DVD last summer. It played about 3/4 of the way through and stopped. Same failure, same spot on 6 different Macs... from my G5 to four Intel laptops and one Intel Mac Mini. I exchanged it three times and sent the final DVD to Sony for their analysis. Their answer: nothing wrong with the disc. We do not warrant them to play on comptuers. I now think twice before buying Sony products.

[Ryan @ Apr 16th 2007 7:50PM]

If they don't allow them to play in computers they are in trouble with the increasing number of Media Centres in homes?

[KC @ Apr 16th 2007 8:17PM]

Has anyone had problems with these DVDs in HD-DVD players (that can play back regular DVDs)?

[LikeICare @ Apr 16th 2007 11:42PM]

I rented 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby' recently and It wouldn't play on my computer, which is the only way I watch movies.

So I was forced to de'DRM the disc and essentialy copy it in order to watch it. Now I'm not an expert or anything but forcing consumers to copy your Movies just to watch them?? Is this what you really want SONY??

[SickNic @ Apr 17th 2007 12:11AM]

Yet another reason why I can't stand Sony. I still can't fathom why people are choosing Blu-Ray over HD-DVD also. Do we really want this kind of service with more expensive high definition disks? Why would people support this. They've already screwed up by releasing Blu-Ray players without BD-J support. Imagine being an early adopter and finding out your Blu-Ray player wont play newer BR disks.

Why do consumers put up with blatant lies and mischivous activites? We, as consumers vote with our wallets. It's too bad so many don't use their heads when purchasing from companies like Sony. And to think, I used to love Sony...

[John Doe @ Apr 17th 2007 1:13AM]

#1 - Blu-ray isn't a Sony only format. It was co-developed. Look up the term consortium sometime.

#2 - Disks will play perfectly fine but some of the features like video commentaries may not work.

#3 - That being said Sony still sucks and I'm still rooting for HD-DVD.

[victor @ Apr 17th 2007 12:19AM]

wow, what a bunch of crap. I was wondering why my copy of Casino Royale wouldn't play on my MBP... thanks Sony! You suck. Sadly, the average idiot really won't know, and will continue, zombie-like, to stumble up to the counter at Best Buy and plunk down the rent money for a PS3.

[John Doe @ Apr 17th 2007 12:59AM]

Can someone PLEASE kill that fucking company? Please. I swear to god Sony is the worst company ever to grace this damn planet.

[shimman @ Apr 17th 2007 1:27AM]

i just don'w know what the !@#$ sony's problem is; their latest HTIB dvd player won't play dvds with this copy protection. of course, if i expect a quick support for a firmware update from sony, a big idiot sign must be in my forehead.

i think it's just better without sony

[SickNic @ Apr 17th 2007 1:38AM]

John Doe,
#1 Blu-Ray was developed by Sony in 2002. Even though Sony isn't the only company to support Blu-Ray, they are the ones that stand to gain, or lose, the most with Blu-Ray

#2 If some of the video commentaries and extras wont play, then the disk wont play perfectly fine now will it?

#3 Agreed. I have no quarels with the Blu-Ray format alone, just Sony and it's involvement and influences with Blu-Ray...

[ph @ Apr 17th 2007 1:46AM]

Well, Pirates played just fine on my computer a week ago. And it gave me the ability to rip...so I guess I am not affected by this. But the very fact that some people are affected is enough to make me hate sony all the more.

[benjamin :? @ Apr 17th 2007 7:23AM]

does anyone know why fony doesnt address issues they have? like when you contact their customer (or lack of) support centre, they never contact you back, (hang on, neither does microsh*t)
is it because they already have our money & dont care any further than that?
victor,, you got it right,, the average idiot wil still walk in & drop hundreds of $ blindly for a sh*t product,, i used to buy only fony products, but continuous disappointment has convinced me to steer clear of it,, & i loved ps1,, (ps2 was good, but after 6 months & required a clean out, & being told by sony that its not warrenty?!?-a$$holes) now,, no ps3 4me!