Homemade DVD Copy Protection
Barry asks: How do I go about putting copy protection on a DVD? Is this something that the higher end NLE’s have or is this strictly done at a post production house?
There are dozens of low cost software products on the market to copy protect a DVD, some NLE’s and stand alone DVD authoring software can even do it for you. Macrovision is the “best” way to securely protect the content on a DVD but it’s expensive and still not always 100% secure as someone always finds a way around the protective barrier.
If you want to protect your work from illegal copying without spending a dime and having your content 100% secure, you can follow this method:
1. Add 10 minutes of blank / black video at the end of the last chapter.
2. Author and burn the DVD as usual
3. Use an X-acto knife to make 3 equally spaced, moderately heavy gouges, approx 1mm (1/25 inch) in diameter on the outer edge of the recorded area of the disk where the different shade is visible to you.
After doing this, the DVD can still be played fine on computer and DVD player. However, when someone tries to make a copy with the computer, it will report an error and won’t copy the entire disc. If the person still ignores the error to proceed with the copy process, everything will be copied except the last 1GB file in the Video_TS folder. The copied DVD also won’t be playable in DVD players.
Thanks for sharing this post.It is truely a useful information for me
Thank you. Any way to make without the scratch?
Very interesting, great idea.
In the text you say to make 1mm (1/25 inch) in diameter gouges but in the diagram you show what appears to be 3 straight lines. Do you mean the lines are to follow just outside the burned area in an arc, is that what you mean by using the word “diameter”? I’m thinking 3 straight cuts about 1/4″ long should work. I also wonder why 3 cuts and why evenly spaced. Is eyeballing the spacing close enough?
Also, the phrase “moderately heavy gouges”…Does that mean cut into the disc 1/4th, 1/3rd or roughly 1/2 the thickness?
Regards
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