Sorry - shoving executables onto an entertainment optical media to install themselves on unsuspecting customers is unforgivable. Having a brand new optical drive that considers the disc to contain an unreadable file format is just plain silly (is this Sony at war with Lite-On - or in collaboration with?).
And yes - the disc is perfectly readable using my Benq drive - and rippable using a freebie program (RipIt4Me) as well as AnyDVD - so my message to Sony is what is the point?
The disc is going back tomorrow due to the fact that it is unreadable in my Lite-On disc drive - and it wanted to install something on my computer.

Oh, don't get me wrong ... I despise Sony for their RootKit abomination. For their refusal to conform to industry standards commitees in an attempt to collect licensing royalties by forcing their own standards on the marketplace such as: their attempt to hijack the Video standards in the 70's, their attempts to hijack the CD standard in the early 80's, their attempts to hijack the DVD standard in the mid 90's. This is a despicable orgainization.

But I might like the director, actors, writers, the score, and everything that went into the production. Great movies end up being produced by bastards like sony. And whatever happened to the caveat that foreign corporations are not allowed to own interest in American media. MONEY and the corruption of the American ideal of "For The People". And don't anyone try to say that they are not foreigners unless you really want to see me let loose.

But Rich, wadayagonnado? A few guys returning movies is gonna be about as effective in fighting Sony Imperialism as believing that the US can successfully occupy Iraq! This is what I mean by silly. But I understand your need to vent and "do something" about itYah, I have always felt that with power and wealth, kinks could begin to show up in firmware updates. An encoding only on certain "brand" originals that a drive responds to. Suggest never putting any original into your drive without AnyDVD running for exactly this reason.

Whisperer

I'm certain you're copy also has 99 VTSs, you're just referring to the '83' bad sector removals...

Disabling autorun serves that purpose . .

Everyone gets to make their own decisions regarding who they will give their hard earned money to for what level and type of products and services. If you are ok with entertainment oriented optical media designed to install malicious software on your computer, and/or be completely unreadable by new optical drives, then by all means continue to plunk down your money for this stuff.

Yes

Yes.

I love copying Sony titles! I'm giving copies to everyone I know and telling them to *never* buy Sony again!

Wheeeee!!!!!

Sure, but lot of the problems come if you include the extras too, because lot of these protection are in the extras only. If this is the case then the movie only copy will be fine.

Not anymore. See the thread on "A Good Year". I tried to back up main title only with AnyDVD/ CloneDVD and it actually backed up the garbage movie. I had to run the file through VOBblanker then open in shrink and reauthor and carefully select the good movie.

This movie had more issues than just copying.

My sister bought this movie and it will not play in her 300 disc Sony dvd player. It plays in her other two cheap cyberhome type players but not in the Sony. She has exchanged the disc twice and same thing. She tried other slots without success. None of her other movies have this problem.

Yes - this title will not play in my Lite-On computer dvd drive either (note I said "play"). The drive says it is an "incompatible format". Doesn't Sony use oem Lite-On drives? It would be real justice if these titles don't play in Sony drives either . . . .

Yeah, shes not too happy now after making 2 addictional trips to the store and still cant watch it on her big screen.

Same problem here. I have got 2 different copies of Stranger than Fiction from netflix and neither will play on my 6 month old Sony 400 disc cd/dvd player. I just hooked up my three year old Cyberhome player and the latest disc from netflix plays. You would think Sony would test their discs on their own players. If I had had a better choice of multi players I would not have bought the Sony player but......

@ Mick26,

Welcome to the Forum.

By definition your particular copy of Stranger Than Fiction DVD is defective. The remedy is to return this particular copy of Stranger Than Fiction DVD and demand a replacement or total refund.

For background reference suggest reviewing the below Forum posting and note the comments starting at posting #15 concerning defectively manufactured DVDs.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=210868

Regards,
bjkg

I recently put the "Stranger than Fiction" DVD into my Lite-on LH-16W 16x dvd drive in my computer. I had never disabled autorun before so the disc opened a window, which I was not interested in, so I promptly closed the window. Whenever I opened any program to access this DVD it either would not recognize it, or it would report some type of error. I gave up, removed the DVD and went about my business. This morning when I turned my computer on the DVD door popped out and every time I pushed the button to have it go back in, it just pops out again and refuses to stay in. I threw a few discs in it to see if it just wanted to have something to read in order to stay in... But it just popped out again. As far as I can tell, the rest of the computer is working fine, but it seems that this movie has wrecked my DVD drive, or at least the settings that control the DVD drive? A search online revealed this thread which showed that there seems to be many problems with this DVD so it seemed a good place to ask if anyone here experienced a similar problem and/or know how to remedy this awkward situation?

Thanks in advance,

Erick

Hi berickf and welcome to the forum. If this is happening with all your DVDs you may well have a defective drive. I doubt whether a movie can break a drive. It could be a defective eject button. The movie that you mentioned can be backed up a number of ways with many programs. It was a problem at first but then programs like AnyDVD were updated to handle these protections. But I have never heard of it causing anything like you have explained. Try it on another computer, if it works you know you drive is bad.

Hello Alan,

Thanks for the quick reply. I continued to play around with the DVD drive after I wrote the original post... reinstall drivers, reseeded the cables a couple of restarts. Then with the front of the server removed I noticed that the front panel of the DVD drive was slightly ajar. Clicked it back into place and, voila, door shuts. I'll blame it on the wife as she was using the computer after I gave up on that DVD, but I'm truly mystified how that panel became dislodged?!? I have now put a disc in the drive and can confirm that it is working again. At least one good thing came out of this as I went about learning how to disable the auto-run... have never liked how discs sometimes had a mind of their own before!

Thanks again,

Erick

Dear Erick: Great news, you are fast becoming a true CDFreak, and don't blame the wife. It probably was a little loose to begin with. Try not closing the drive by hand. If you right click on the drive in your Control Panel you can see the options to open and close. I am glad you got it sorted. Hope you will come back and saty with us for awhile, your input and questions might be of help to you and others. Again welcome to CDF.

Thanks for the compliment Alan, but in actual fact I'm just a tourist and don't know if I'll ever have the computer know-how to be a proper CD Freak. I have visited the forum on many an occasion to follow other wise people's instructions, but I know when to admit my limitations. If I was ever to be able to contribute some wise advice that contributed to solving someone's computer dilema... well that would be a happy surprise, emphasis on surprise!

Thanks again,

Erick

PS. pushing in the drive manually has always been a pet peeve of mine, so no problems following that practical advice!

Install trial AnyDvd. Install DVDFab Decrypter. Install Nero. Install DvdShrink. Dvd Shrink uses nero to burn the files but useing nero vs dvd shrink... well dvd shrink is a bit easyer to use. Now all installed just have anydvd running put dvd in wait then run DVDFab Decrypter and decrypte the main movie then burn the files to a dvd5 with dvd shrink or nero. Great copy. No idea about toher programs with about 5 hours of f...ing around this is the only way i had it copy. Hope this helps others.