Sep 08, 2017, 21:17 pm
I have a few things to say so I wanted to raise the issue regarding the whole Cinavia problem.
First of all some basic facts regarding what it's all about and what causes it.
This is what I know so far...
1. Cinavia is like a virus that lives on a Blu Ray disc and infects the audio track
2. It lives on the audio track and is like a watermark embedded into the sound
3. You can't really do anything about it, if your player or whatever you choose to play your MKV files on detects Cinavia then you're screwed.
4. Cinavia is found on Sony discs, it is Sony's protection system. There are ways of removing it but I will go into that later on in the post.
5. Cinavia is mostly found in countries like the UK and the USA so I've heard that countries like Australia and places around those areas they don't tend to bother with it when they put it on Sony Blu Ray releases, not always do they use it.
6. Cinavia is very annoying if you try and copy it, because it's like a watermark you can't really get rid of it unless you spoil the audio track of the movie.
7. There is software to remove it, which I have tried, I would say it's a giant failure, there is no technology that can remove this protection so again you are screwed if your player detects it.
8. Most new players that have firmware releases from recent years will detect Cinavia which is why it's a bad idea to buy new players otherwise if you're playing MKV files you're gonna run into trouble.
So with that being said, what I wanted to talk about is that I do have an older player, a while ago I managed to grab myself a WD TV Live and I've always found that Streamer to be one of the best. I don't like all the Streamers that are on the market now they all look really cheap and don't play quite as many files as what the WD TV Live plays.
I have tested recently the very latest firmware for the WD TV Live and it doesn't have problems with Cinavia at all. A good movie to test it with, something which I ripped a while ago, the Ghostbusters Remake. I did find that after 20 minutes of watching the movie it was fine on my WD TV Live but on my friend's latest OPPO Blu Ray player he paid a lot of money for it suffered with the Cinavia detection problem.
This is where Sony have cornered the market really they have made it now that all these lastest things you can get like Blu Ray players will all detect it which is why I wouldn't recommend getting one. The WD TV Live that I've used for a while now came out a few years ago. It's a shame now that product it's discontinued now where as a while ago it was a huge product on the market I think lots of people all bought one. It's a great device, on the new firmware it's good I've found for playing lots of different file types, the subtitles all seem to work just fine on the latest firmware, there's no Cinavia detection either I tested Ghostbusters and after 20 minutes nothing happened.
Cinavia will mute your audio after 20 minutes, that is what it's designed to do, to spoil your viewing experience, to take the fun out of watching movies. I know that there's lots of Sony titles out there, some of them are really good and some of them are rubbish and crap. Some of the Sony releases are terrible quality in the picture etc.. I would say that it's a bit hit and miss with them, some are actually great Blu Rays you can get.
There is software you can purchase, I did try it out to see what it was all about. I won't mention the name but if you look around you might figure out what I'm talking about. I did try this software by purchasing a license for it, cost me a good $50 or so, it was quite expensive. Turns out, what it does to the audio track of the movie it just ruins it trying to remove the Cinavia. These nice Crisp sounding audio tracks you get on movies these days like DTS-HD Master Audio for example, what this software does to that. By the time you have finished processing it, it ends up sounding like something that was recorded inside a washing machine, that bad really it's just not worth the bother.
It goes to show that the technology isn't there yet for removing it, I gather this was Sony's intention really to put something on the disc that you can't do sod all about really. Spoiling that lovely crisp audio track the movie plays on is like just murdering the movie really. I know I happen to share lots of MKV files but yet I always share the proper full quality audio as a lot of people already know. I don't like compressing Audio for movies if you're not careful you can spoil it. It's a shame with the Cinavia thing, remove it and you're left with this horrible sounding crappy soundtrack. Leave it in and your current modern player will respond to it and mute your audio after 20 minutes of watching the movie and spoil your whole movie experience.
This is why I can't do a damn thing about Cinavia really so I'm explaning my views on it. I guess I'm lucky that I can use a WD TV Live to watch movies on the TV and just stream them into the Streamer. It's never had any problems for me but not so lucky for other people. That so called "Greatest" Cinavia removal software you can buy and use, I don't rate that at all. Found some kind of infected trojan in there last time I went to install the latest version. It was a waste of money really, don't fall into the trap of trying to convert Cinavia there's nothing you can do about it. That software I mentioned, they use like a database system where you log into the database and access the files for each movie. You then process using their files which you have to be a proper customer for.
It's pretty crap really the whole database contains mostly the USA releases also which isn't very good either, poor in my opinion. Who knows how that all works anyway but the bottom line is that you can't do nothing about it, if you buy the original Disc that's the way they want you to do it, so you don't have a problem then. That worked for my mate he's gone out now and bought about 500 movies just cause of Cinavia and it must have annoyed him so much when he was trying to download MKV copies instead.
I'm not sure if anybody is going to be able to produce a tool that can easily remove this protection as I think Sony have made it so that nobody can do anything about it they must have invested lots of time and effort and money into making something that is uncrackable.
My theory is that if you can afford to go out and buy the latest expensive player then I'm sure you've got that much money you can also afford to go out and buy all the proper releases to go with your expensive player and then you won't suffer from Cinavia. If you're trying to do things on the cheap and download Sony titles instead and watch them on a modern Streamer then I'm afraid you are going to suffer this problem. The whole idea of Piracy is doing things on the cheap. No good really trying to go and blow all your hard earned money on a good player if you're planning on downloading all your movies from the internet as that won't work. My friend found that out from buying an OPPO player and he loves the player but he's now had to go and buy all his movies on Disc because at the end of the day it's Cinavia which has pushed him in that direction so I guess Sony's little trick has worked on him, I'm sure there's others that are just the same.
First of all some basic facts regarding what it's all about and what causes it.
This is what I know so far...
1. Cinavia is like a virus that lives on a Blu Ray disc and infects the audio track
2. It lives on the audio track and is like a watermark embedded into the sound
3. You can't really do anything about it, if your player or whatever you choose to play your MKV files on detects Cinavia then you're screwed.
4. Cinavia is found on Sony discs, it is Sony's protection system. There are ways of removing it but I will go into that later on in the post.
5. Cinavia is mostly found in countries like the UK and the USA so I've heard that countries like Australia and places around those areas they don't tend to bother with it when they put it on Sony Blu Ray releases, not always do they use it.
6. Cinavia is very annoying if you try and copy it, because it's like a watermark you can't really get rid of it unless you spoil the audio track of the movie.
7. There is software to remove it, which I have tried, I would say it's a giant failure, there is no technology that can remove this protection so again you are screwed if your player detects it.
8. Most new players that have firmware releases from recent years will detect Cinavia which is why it's a bad idea to buy new players otherwise if you're playing MKV files you're gonna run into trouble.
So with that being said, what I wanted to talk about is that I do have an older player, a while ago I managed to grab myself a WD TV Live and I've always found that Streamer to be one of the best. I don't like all the Streamers that are on the market now they all look really cheap and don't play quite as many files as what the WD TV Live plays.
I have tested recently the very latest firmware for the WD TV Live and it doesn't have problems with Cinavia at all. A good movie to test it with, something which I ripped a while ago, the Ghostbusters Remake. I did find that after 20 minutes of watching the movie it was fine on my WD TV Live but on my friend's latest OPPO Blu Ray player he paid a lot of money for it suffered with the Cinavia detection problem.
This is where Sony have cornered the market really they have made it now that all these lastest things you can get like Blu Ray players will all detect it which is why I wouldn't recommend getting one. The WD TV Live that I've used for a while now came out a few years ago. It's a shame now that product it's discontinued now where as a while ago it was a huge product on the market I think lots of people all bought one. It's a great device, on the new firmware it's good I've found for playing lots of different file types, the subtitles all seem to work just fine on the latest firmware, there's no Cinavia detection either I tested Ghostbusters and after 20 minutes nothing happened.
Cinavia will mute your audio after 20 minutes, that is what it's designed to do, to spoil your viewing experience, to take the fun out of watching movies. I know that there's lots of Sony titles out there, some of them are really good and some of them are rubbish and crap. Some of the Sony releases are terrible quality in the picture etc.. I would say that it's a bit hit and miss with them, some are actually great Blu Rays you can get.
There is software you can purchase, I did try it out to see what it was all about. I won't mention the name but if you look around you might figure out what I'm talking about. I did try this software by purchasing a license for it, cost me a good $50 or so, it was quite expensive. Turns out, what it does to the audio track of the movie it just ruins it trying to remove the Cinavia. These nice Crisp sounding audio tracks you get on movies these days like DTS-HD Master Audio for example, what this software does to that. By the time you have finished processing it, it ends up sounding like something that was recorded inside a washing machine, that bad really it's just not worth the bother.
It goes to show that the technology isn't there yet for removing it, I gather this was Sony's intention really to put something on the disc that you can't do sod all about really. Spoiling that lovely crisp audio track the movie plays on is like just murdering the movie really. I know I happen to share lots of MKV files but yet I always share the proper full quality audio as a lot of people already know. I don't like compressing Audio for movies if you're not careful you can spoil it. It's a shame with the Cinavia thing, remove it and you're left with this horrible sounding crappy soundtrack. Leave it in and your current modern player will respond to it and mute your audio after 20 minutes of watching the movie and spoil your whole movie experience.
This is why I can't do a damn thing about Cinavia really so I'm explaning my views on it. I guess I'm lucky that I can use a WD TV Live to watch movies on the TV and just stream them into the Streamer. It's never had any problems for me but not so lucky for other people. That so called "Greatest" Cinavia removal software you can buy and use, I don't rate that at all. Found some kind of infected trojan in there last time I went to install the latest version. It was a waste of money really, don't fall into the trap of trying to convert Cinavia there's nothing you can do about it. That software I mentioned, they use like a database system where you log into the database and access the files for each movie. You then process using their files which you have to be a proper customer for.
It's pretty crap really the whole database contains mostly the USA releases also which isn't very good either, poor in my opinion. Who knows how that all works anyway but the bottom line is that you can't do nothing about it, if you buy the original Disc that's the way they want you to do it, so you don't have a problem then. That worked for my mate he's gone out now and bought about 500 movies just cause of Cinavia and it must have annoyed him so much when he was trying to download MKV copies instead.
I'm not sure if anybody is going to be able to produce a tool that can easily remove this protection as I think Sony have made it so that nobody can do anything about it they must have invested lots of time and effort and money into making something that is uncrackable.
My theory is that if you can afford to go out and buy the latest expensive player then I'm sure you've got that much money you can also afford to go out and buy all the proper releases to go with your expensive player and then you won't suffer from Cinavia. If you're trying to do things on the cheap and download Sony titles instead and watch them on a modern Streamer then I'm afraid you are going to suffer this problem. The whole idea of Piracy is doing things on the cheap. No good really trying to go and blow all your hard earned money on a good player if you're planning on downloading all your movies from the internet as that won't work. My friend found that out from buying an OPPO player and he loves the player but he's now had to go and buy all his movies on Disc because at the end of the day it's Cinavia which has pushed him in that direction so I guess Sony's little trick has worked on him, I'm sure there's others that are just the same.
