Comments on: Stupid DRM handcuffs

By: Paamayim

Paamayim — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:23:34 +0000

> a way to hack into the core API calls to kill screengrabs.”

At any rate said core API is still there, it’s just the application that’s been ‘hacked’ (internally, as it were.)

You can recreate this function with a one line script:

By: dnorman

dnorman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:12:26 +0000

@matt – I don’t buy that. Jing was able to capture a screengrab of the DVD Player app just fine. It’s not hardware acceleration getting in the way, it’s the software deciding to turn off a core feature of the OS.

I can’t imagine a group of Apple software engineers sat around a whiteboard one day, brainstorming ideas for the next version of the DVD Player application. One of them blurts out “I’ve got it! what would make the whole thing SO MUCH BETTER would be if there’s a DVD playing, the screengrab feature should be disabled. Wouldn’t that be great? Yeah! Let’s add that. I’ll start coding that right away.”

For some reason, I’m guessing it was probably more like “Legal says we need to kill screengrabs if there’s a DVD playing. Is that even possible? I mean, screengrabs are part of the core OS. Dammit. Tony? Call someone from the Core OS team. Is there a way to turn this off? Dammit. What a fracking waste of time. I’d be coding the new UI, but now I have to backburner that to figure out a way to hack into the core API calls to kill screengrabs.”

By: Matt Brubeck

Matt Brubeck — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:37:06 +0000

The actual reason might not be DRM-related at all. Lots of playback software takes advantage of hardware acceleration to send video through a separate pathway that bypasses the normal graphics driver, and can’t be captured by normal screenshot methods. To allow screenshots, applications either need to forgo hardware acceleration or include extra code specifically for capturing images from memory. More info:

http://www.allformp3.com/dvd-faqs/44.htm

By: dnorman

dnorman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:19:56 +0000

I haven’t – but the point wasn’t taking a screengrab of the DVD, it was the evil attempt by the MPAA to try to control what I can do with my own content. I wasn’t even trying to take a screengrab of a DVD – it just happened to be open (and hidden) in the background – I was originally just trying to take a screengrab of a small portion of a browser window. When DVD Player complained when I tried to do that, I decided the natural reaction would be to take a screengrab of the DVD, though 🙂

By: Raj

Raj — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:17:13 +0000

Have you tried to use VLC to do your DVD screen grabs?