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"Widevine Dump":Leaked Code Downloads HD Video from Disney+, Amazon, and Netflix

(torrentfreak.com)
449 points bertman | 8 comments | 27 Dec 21 12:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.367s | source | bottom
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specialist ◴[27 Dec 21 15:45 UTC] No.29703385[source]▶
I just want to control the viewing experience, not hoard warez.

Effortless rewind, skip filler (car chases, sex), play at x1.25 speed, etc.

aka the "Blu-Ray experience".

If that means I gotta bypass the DRM and download, so be it.

--

Some shows have my complete rapt attention. I'll keenly watch (and rewatch) every single frame. Like Netflix's Maniac. OMG. So frikkin good. (So many other examples.)

Other shows, especially rewatching a series, I just want to focus on the character development, dialog, and plot points.

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1. dijit ◴[27 Dec 21 17:21 UTC] No.29704436[source]▶
> aka the "Blu-Ray experience"

Have you actually used blu-ray or are you thinking about DVDs (and Blu-rays are a natural evolution in your mind?)

Because, honestly, Blu-rays are atrocious.

Every so often I actually buy a BluRay, not only to support the work but also because in the case of losing internet (but not power) I'd like to watch a small selection of carefully curated movies.

I was in such a position 2 years ago, I had moved home and the internet had not yet been installed.

Did you know that in order to play blurays on the Playstation 4 (a Sony product, where Sony is also the maker of the BluRay spec and it was even a Sony movie!) that the device must be connected to the internet to play bluray's?? I didn't.. that was a shock.

So I took to Linux, which... just couldn't play it...

Why?

The DRM keys could not be installed along with VLC (or something), after googling for half a day on my phones 4G to figure it out I ended up not significantly wiser and realised I'd been hoarding a bunch of useless plastic.

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2. specialist ◴[27 Dec 21 17:31 UTC] No.29704553[source]▶
Busted. I conflated the two. Apart from the FBI warning and goofy one-off menus, I mostly loved DVDs.
3. pm215 ◴[27 Dec 21 17:33 UTC] No.29704568[source]▶
Thanks for the heads-up about ps4 bluray playing. Apparently (assuming reddit posts to be correct) the internet requirement is a one-time thing where it downloads codecs, and Sony is supposedly doing it this way so they only pay the codec licensing fee for ps4s whose owners ever actually play a bluray rather than for ever ps4 ever shipped. So I'll make sure to do a test bluray play and then fingers crossed if I want to watch something in future when the internet is out it will work...
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4. fishtacos ◴[27 Dec 21 18:41 UTC] No.29705336[source]▶
Memory isn't quite what it used to be, but if I recall, this was also the case with the Sony PSP, Vita, PS3 and XBOX 360. They all required a separate activation step for playback of specific licensed codecs (I believe it was both MPEG2 and h264, varying with system).

Unfortunate that a pretty basic piece of functionality is forever lost once the activation servers are taken down.

5. salamandersauce ◴[27 Dec 21 19:25 UTC] No.29705857[source]▶
Want something worse? Blu-ray constantly changes the keys as they get cracked/over time. If you don't have new keys you can't play new discs. Our first Blu-ray player stopped getting firmware updates and so stopped getting new codes. Became basically junk as who wants a Blu-ray player where it only can play films released pre-2012?
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6. Fnoord ◴[27 Dec 21 21:12 UTC] No.29706829[source]▶
Then half a day time could've been saved by having the PS4 briefly connected to the internet via 4G.
7. charwalker ◴[27 Dec 21 22:12 UTC] No.29707443[source]▶
That's probably why the PS4 needs internet, fresh keys/updates fetched when launching the disk.
8. nebula8804 ◴[29 Dec 21 09:03 UTC] No.29723168[source]▶
Good News! Look into makemkv and the associated forums. There are a couple of Blueray drives that can have their firmware modified to strip the DRM from the discs and give you clean files you can then play in VLC, MakeMKV or any other player. It gets even better! The software strips DRM but then also bundles the subtitles, all audio tracks, all different angles and everything else into a single file so that you just double click and the movie starts. Its the best of all worlds. Yeah you might have to buy a Blue-ray drive and man are these files large (35-100GB) but I think its worth to so I can banish these discs back into my closet where I will never have to deal with their restrictions again!