Content Scramble System (CSS)

Oneway Media offers both CSS and Macrovision encryption for DVD mastering.

CSS is the digital copy protection for DVD.

The content scrambling system was designed to help prevent simple forms of piracy. This is accomplished by storing the movie in an encrypted format. Thus copies of a DVD movie file made to a hard drive or to a writable DVD would not be playable. However it must be stressed that this encryption only prevents casual piracy from taking place. Using professional duplication facilities, one could copy an entire CSS protected DVD disc, including the encrypted movie as well the decryption keys.

Commercial DVD burners are in fact restricted, in that they do not allow burning of the decryption keys needed to watch a movie.

Macrovision

Another copy protection mechanism used to protect movies is called macrovision. In the case of DVD movies this is the primary defence against making a copy of the DVD using your VCR.

Your VCR has circuitry to automatically adjust the picture if the input signal is too dark or too bright. Since VHS tapes wear over time this correction ability can enhance the playback of a degrading tape.

Macrovision protection takes advantage of this circuitry by adding fake bright and fake dark signals to the movie. Your VCR is tricked into adjusting the picture to correct these bright and dark signals. But remember, those were fake signals and the picture was fine... until the VCR tries to "correct" it. The end result is the movie will constantly alternate from really dark to really bright and be considered unwatchable by most people.

Oneway Media can advise you on all aspects of regional encoding for your DVD projects.

The DVD standard specifies eight regions. Players and discs are identified by a region number that is usually superimposed on a world globe icon on the DVD sleeve.

The regions are broken out as follows:

Region 1 - US, US Territories and Canada

Region 3 - Southeast and East Asia

Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand Central & South America

Region 5 - Former Soviet Union, India, Africa, North Korea & Mongolia

Region 6 - China

Region 7 - Unassigned

Region 8 - In Flight Entertainment