Cinavia information

Introduction

Those of you that like to backup your original discs, thus keeping the originals in perfect condition, may be alarmed by Sony’s latest Digital Rights Management system, Cinavia. Cinavia requires two parts to work, an imperceptible audio watermark and the corresponding hardware able to detect it. Many new standalone Blu-ray players are already equipped with such hardware, and unfortunately, so is the PlayStation 3. Movies carrying this watermark, when viewed on Cinavia aware hardware, will only play on said hardware if authorised to do so.

The watermark is recorded into the audio, and what makes this special, or maybe a 'pain' for this present time, is the watermark survives even after the audio has been copied or converted, even to other formats, and even through low quality audio recordings via simple microphones (in movie theatres for example).

 

When you attempt to play a backed up Cinavia 'infected' movie on Cinavia enabled hardware the audio will automatically be muted and playback halted with a message similar to that shown here (photo from PlayStation 3).

Sometimes it will stop within seconds of the movie starting, other times after 20 minutes of playback, depending on its watermark, and you'll receive one of its four message codes.

Attemping to trick it by stopping it after 19 minutes, player off, restarting, e.t.c. is of no use, many have tried, it wont work, it knows! The 'Quick Information' section to the right of this page gives an explanation of the various message codes that can be displayed. There is an ever growing amount of movie titles already infected with Cinavia and unfortunately, we can expect the list to grow.

Blu-ray releases

DVD releases

Digital (telesync|cam) releases
Karate Kid Takers The Wolfman
The Losers Resident Evil: Afterlife Repo Men
The Other Guys The Social Network Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Resident Evil: Afterlife The Tourist Due Date
Salt Battle Los Angeles Battle: Los Angeles
The Social Network Dylan Dog: Dead of Night Just Go With It
Takers The Roommate The Roommate
The Tourist Bad Teacher Sucker Punch
The Green Hornet Zookeeper Fast & Furious 5
The Roommate Just Go With It (region 5) Paul
Battle: Los Angeles Red Riding Hood (Region 5) Hall Pass
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night Priest (region 5) Red Riding Hood
Priest (2011) Friends with Benefits (region 5) Priest
Bad Teacher Zookeeper (region 5) The Hangover: Part II
Zookeeper 30 Minutes or Less (region 5) Bridesmaids
30 Minutes or Less   Bad Teacher
Friends With Benefits   Something Borrowed
Never Back Down 2   Horrible Bosses
Larry Crowne   Harry Potter (Deathly Hallows pt.2)
Smurfs (also 3D)   Zookeeper
Colombiana   Friends With Benefits
Straw Dogs   The Change-Up
Restless   Final Destination 5
The Ides Of March   Contagion
Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star   30 Minutes or Less
Courageous   A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
Moneyball   Arthur Christmas
Higher Ground    
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark    
Drive    
Anonymous    
Courageous    
London Boulevard    

The future

It's inevitable there will be a rise in the Cinavia titles on our shop shelves throughout the year and beyond. The finalised AACS licensing agreements of June 2009 were updated to make Cinavia detection a requirement of all new commercial Blu-ray players. It's definitely a 'pain in the ass', but as with most of these types of things, people always find a way around them, let's hope so.

It appears, at least for the time being, that most of the popular media players have not yet succumb to Cinavia, we will wait and see, just be careful of those online firmware updates, make sure you know exactly what your updated firmware contains, hold off for a few days and wait for feedback.