Pay-Per-View edition. Packaged in a generic white "Pioneer" jacket, the film is spread across 3 discs. Each disc has the same program on both sides so the operator wasn't required to know which side was up. Disc 1 in player 1, Disc 2 in player 2 and so on, and the players would "switch" at the disc breaks for a seamless transition.

I think I’ve seen a dual disc industrial system at some point that would explain this, of course I don’t remember its name

Do you guys remember DIVX?

Yes, we're old... sorry, vintage!

DIVX lasted barely a year ... and made a $114 million hole in Circuit City's bank account.

For our younger audience... here is a good catch up:

https://allisonveneziowrites.com/2020/09/16/retro-tech-divx/

Julien

That seems like it'd be pretty easy to bypass on a PC where you can eliminate UOPs entirely.

In addition to the normal Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption, DIVX discs used Triple DES encryption and an alternative channel modulation coding scheme, which prevented them from being read in standard DVD players.

I can't verify this but the Blog quoted that nobody has been able to play a DIVX disc in 20 years after the dial-up system went cold.



It is likely what the decryption key was a mix of your player ID and disc ID or something similar so that each combinaison inside the decoding chip would get the right key but each dial-up data would be different and couldn't be replayed on another player.

Can't find a Service Manual for the few players released commercially.

I don't think anyone ever bothered to reverse-engineer and crack their encryption, it's just easier to buy the regular DVD version of the 140+ titles released

Even Doom9.org didn't bother!

Julien

I could be wrong but I think Divx versions are worse…maybe all 4:3 perhaps? There can’t be too many exclusives, if any.

I suppose if the warning screen is something that's the only part of the disc recognized by a standard DVD player and the rest of it doesn't conform to a DVD video standard then I could definitely see it not being that easy.

Title: Slums of Beverly Hills
Disc Label: DIVX148635663_1_1
Disc Capacity: 3.92 GB
Disc Format: Universal Disc Format
Root Folders: ECCTRANA, ECCTRANB, VIDEO_TS, ZOOM

The disc WILL play an error / tech screen if played in a regular DVD player, which only tells the user to call 1-800-456-DIVX (out of service). There is nothing more in the VIDEO_TS folder other than this warning.

The ECCTRANA and ECCTRANB folders have a few 360kb files that all but one or two are corrupt (presumed to be encrypted). A HEX Editor didn't tell me anything obvious, but I'm not a programmer.

The ZOOM folder contains the bulk of the data.

It contains a ton of JAR files, which are corrupt or otherwise encrypted as well as some BUP, IFO, and VOB files. Examples of these IFO/VOB:

BC_VMG00.IFO (with matching BUP)
BVTS00_0.IFO (with matching BUP)
BVTS00_1.VOB (through BVTS00_4)

Yes, they were mostly in pan&scan full screen with no extras on a single layer disc which meant high compression.

I doubt they made much profit on these discs back in the day. I bought my first ever DVD burner in 2003. Blank DVDs were still very expensive.

It never occurred to me to think they used recordables since they were like $20 each probably at that time. I assumed they were stamped.