This is the place where you can find all the relevant info on the new protection for audio-video called Cinavia. It is reported to be used for protection of movie from theaters and disc releases on DVD & Blu-ray. It consists of a multi-level watermark that is embedded in the audio track and, while being theoretically transparent(not-audible) for the listener, it is supposed to resist various transformations of the audio stream like re-compression, analog playback&record, re-sampling, pitch shift, etc. The base levels are analog, but on the top level there’s the watermark payload that contains some restrictions regarding the playback environment.
The protection has two elements (one cannot work without the other):
1. The watermark embedded in audio-video content.
2. Cinavia enabled player, that will refuse to play the content if it does not match the restrictions.
Examples:
1. A movie copy made with a camcorder in a theater that contains Cinavia (THEATRICAL_NO_HOME_USE) watermark will stop playing within about 1 minute on a Playstation 3 and display a Message 1.
2. An unprotected (no AACS) Blu-ray backup of “The Losers” (US release) will mute the audio after about 20 minutes with Message 3 (for not coming from a TRUSTED_SOURCE).
We consider that it is useful for the users to know about discs that contain Cinavia protection and about players that have detectors for it.
Also, DVDFab and DVDFab Passkey provide information about original discs that have the watermark.
| Title | Studio | Release | Cinavia |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Losers* | Warner Bros | 20jul2010 | English track only |
| The Karate Kid (2010)* | Sony Pictures | 05oct2010 | most of the tracks |
| The Other Guys | Sony Pictures | 14dec2010 | English track only |
| Resident Evil: Afterlife* | Sony Pictures | 28dec2010 | English track only |
| Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D* | |||
| Salt | Sony Pictures | 21dec2010 | English track only |
| The Social Network | Sony Pictures | 11jan2011 | English track only |
| Takers | Sony Pictures | 18jan2011 | English track only |
| Burlesque | Sony Pictures | 01mar2011 | NOT CONFIRMED |
| The Tourist* | Sony Pictures | 22mar2011 | English track only |
| How Do You Know | Sony Pictures | 22mar2011 | NOT CONFIRMED |
| The Green Hornet | Sony Pictures | 03may2011 | English track only |
| The Green Hornet 3D | |||
| The Roommate | Sony Pictures | 17may2011 | English track only |
| Battle: Los Angeles | Sony Pictures | 14jun2011 | English track only |
| Priest (2011) | Sony Pictures | 16aug2011 | English track only |
| Priest 3D (2011) | |||
| Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night* | 20th Century Fox | 26jul2011 | English track |
| Zookeeper | Sony Pictures | 11oct2011 | English track only |
| Bad Teacher | Sony Pictures | 18oct2011 | English track only |
| Larry Crowne* | Universal Studios | 15nov2011 | English track only |
| 30 Minutes or Less | Sony Pictures | 29nov2011 | English track only |
| The Smurfs | Sony Pictures | 02dec2011 | English track only |
| The Smurfs 3D | |||
| Friends with Benefits | Sony Pictures | 02dec2011 | English track only |
| Life, Above All* | Sony Pictures | 06dec2011 | Northern Sotho track |
| Straw Dogs | Sony Pictures | 20dec2011 | English track only |
| Colombiana* | Sony Pictures | 20dec2011 | English track only |
| Midnight in Paris* | Sony Pictures | 20dec2011 | English track only |
| The Guard* | Sony Pictures | 03jan2012 | English track only |
| Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark* | Sony Pictures | 03jan2012 | English track |
| Moneyball | Sony Pictures | 10jan2012 | English track only |
| Higher Ground | Sony Pictures | 10jan2012 | English track only |
| Courageous | Sony Pictures | 17jan2012 | English track only |
| The Ides of March* | Sony Pictures | 17jan2012 | English track only |
| Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star | Sony Pictures | 17jan2012 | English track only |
| Restless (2011) | Sony Pictures | 24jan2012 | English track only |
| Drive* | Sony Pictures | 31jan2012 | English track |
| The Thing (2011)* | Universal Studios | 31jan2012 | English track only |
| Anonymous | Sony Pictures | 07feb2012 | English track only |
| The Rum Diary* | Sony Pictures | 14feb2012 | NOT CONFIRMED |
| Take Shelter* | Sony Pictures | 14feb2012 | English track only |
| London Boulevard* | Sony Pictures | 21feb2012 | English track |
| The Adventures of Tintin* | Sony Pictures | 27feb2012 | English tracks only |
| The Adventures of Tintin 3D* | |||
| The Skin I Live In* | Sony Pictures | 06mar2012 | Spanish track only |
| Jack and Jill | Sony Pictures | 06mar2012 | English track only |
| Carnage* | Sony Pictures | 20mar2012 | English track only |
| The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo | Sony Pictures | 20mar2012 | English tracks only |
| In the Land of Blood and Honey* | Sony Pictures | 27mar2012 | Multi-language track |
| A Dangerous Method* | Sony Pictures | 27mar2012 | English track only |
| The Vow | Sony Pictures | 08may2012 | English track only |
| Underworld: Awakening* | Sony Pictures | 08may2012 | English track only |
| Underworld: Awakening 3D* | |||
| The Woman in Black* | Sony Pictures | 22may2012 | English track only |
| Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance* | Sony Pictures | 12jun2012 | English track only |
| Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 3D* | |||
| In Darkness* | Sony Pictures | 12jun2012 | Polish track |
| Project X (2012) | Warner Bros | 19jun2012 | English track only |
| Wrath of the Titans | Warner Bros | 26jun2012 | English track only |
| Wrath of the Titans 3D | |||
| 21 Jump Street | Sony Pictures | 26jun2012 | English track only |
| Salmon Fishing in the Yemen* | Sony Pictures | 17jul2012 | English track |
| Lockout* | Sony Pictures | 17jul2012 | English track only |
| Footnote | Sony Pictures | 24jul2012 | Hebrew track only |
| Meeting Evil | Sony Pictures | 25jul2012 | English track only |
| Detention | Sony Pictures | 31jul2012 | English track only |
| The Raid: Redemption* | Sony Pictures | 14aug2012 | English and Indonesian tracks only |
| A Separation* | Sony Pictures | 21aug2012 | Persian track only |
| Think Like a Man | Sony Pictures | 21aug2012 | English track only |
| Darling Companion* | Sony Pictures | 28aug2012 | English track only |
| The Pirates! Band of Misfits | Sony Pictures | 28aug2012 | English track only |
| The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D | |||
| Starship Troopers: Invasion | Sony Pictures | 28aug2012 | English track only |
| Where Do We Go Now?* | Sony Pictures | 11sep2012 | Arabic track only |
| Hysteria* | Sony Pictures | 18sep2012 | English track only |
| Men in Black III | Sony Pictures | 18sep2012 | English track only |
| Men in Black III 3D | |||
| Resident Evil: Damnation | Sony Pictures | 25sep2012 | English track only |
| Resident Evil: Damnation 3D | 30jan2013 | ||
| Damsels in Distress | Sony Pictures | 25sep2012 | English track only |
| Rock of Ages | Warner Bros | 09oct2012 | English track only |
| Neil Young Journeys | Sony Pictures | 16oct2012 | English track |
| That’s My Boy | Sony Pictures | 16oct2012 | English track only |
| Safety Not Guaranteed* | Sony Pictures | 30oct2012 | English track |
| The Campaign | Warner Bros | 30oct2012 | English track only |
| Arthur Christmas | Sony Pictures | 06nov2012 | English track only |
| Arthur Christmas 3D | |||
| The Amazing Spider-Man | Sony Pictures | 09nov2012 | English track only |
| The Amazing Spider-Man 3D | |||
| Sparkle | Sony Pictures | 30nov2012 | English track only |
| Hope Springs (2012)* | Sony Pictures | 04dec2012 | English track only |
| Total Recall (2012) | Sony Pictures | 18dec2012 | English track only |
| Premium Rush | Sony Pictures | 21dec2012 | English track only |
| Resident Evil: Retribution* | Sony Pictures | 21dec2012 | English track only |
| Resident Evil: Retribution 3D* | |||
| The Words* | Sony Pictures | 24dec2012 | English track |
| Looper* | Sony Pictures | 31dec2012 | English track only |
| Frankenweenie | Disney | 08jan2013 | all, but descriptive service track |
| Frankenweenie 3D | |||
| To Rome with Love* | Sony Pictures | 15jan2013 | English track only |
| Searching for Sugar Man* | Sony Pictures | 22jan2013 | English track only |
| Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning* | Sony Pictures | 22jan2013 | English track only |
| Seven Psychopaths* | Sony Pictures | 29jan2013 | English track |
| Hotel Transylvania | Sony Pictures | 29jan2013 | English track only |
| Hotel Transylvania 3D | |||
| Here Comes The Boom | Sony Pictures | 05feb2013 | English track only |
| Celeste And Jesse Forever* | Sony Pictures | 05feb2013 | English track only |
| Company of Heroes | Sony Pictures | 26feb2013 | English track only |
| Playing For Keeps* | Sony Pictures | 05mar2013 | English track only |
| Robot & Frank* | Sony Pictures | 06mar2013 | English track only |
| Smashed | Sony Pictures | 12mar2013 | English track only |
| Zero Dark Thirty* | Sony Pictures | 19mar2013 | English tracks only |
| Rust and Bone* | Sony Pictures | 19mar2013 | French track only |
| Adventures in Zambezia* | Sony Pictures | 26mar2013 | Just announced |
| Small Apartments | Sony Pictures | 16apr2013 | English track only |
| Iron Man: Rise of Technovore | Sony Pictures | 16apr2013 | English track only |
| Django Unchained* | Sony Pictures | 03may2013 | English track only |
| Parker* | Sony Pictures | 21may2013 | Just announced |
| The Last Exorcism Part II* | Sony Pictures | 18jun2013 | Just announced |
* for those, in teritories where the movie is not released by Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios or Disney, the Blu-ray does not have Cinavia
| Title | Studio | Release | Cinavia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Takers | Sony Pictures | 18jan2011 | English track only |
| Burlesque | Sony Pictures | 01mar2011 | English track only, US non-combo release only) |
| The Tourist | Sony Pictures | 22mar2011 | English track only, NTSC release only |
| The Roommate | Sony Pictures | 17may2011 | English track only |
| Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night* | 20th Century Fox | 26jul2011 | English track only |
| Zookeeper | Sony Pictures | 11oct2011 | English track only |
| Bad Teacher | Sony Pictures | 18oct2011 | English track only, except DE/FR/IT/NL release |
| Project X | Warner Bros | 19jun2012 | English track only |
| Wrath of the Titans | Warner Bros | 26jun2012 | English track only |
| Rock of Ages | Warner Bros | 09oct2012 | English track only |
| The Campaign | Warner Bros | 30oct2012 | English track only |
| Frankenweenie | Disney | 08jan2013 | all, but descriptive service track |
Twenty-fifth consumer electronics product developer licensed Cinavia as of 2010.
The bad news is Cinavia technology from Verance Corporation will become mandatory for all Blu-ray Disc players as of February 1, 2012.
There have been identified a couple of workarounds (listed in the order of usability):
1. Use the audio track from the DVD release of the same movie, particularily handy if it was a Blu&DVD Combo release.
Pros:
- Good quality (DVD audio track is probably an AC3, cannot compare to the lossless of a BD but still good, 5.1 channels)
- Works on any Cinavia-enabled player, because the audio has no watermark (future proof).
- So far, there are rather few movies with Cinavia on dvd; see the above table
- Some Blu-ray releases are combo BD/DVD
Cons:
- Needs the DVD version as well (may be hard to source a ‘clean’, matching DVD).
- Needs remuxing skills.
- The DVD version may be a different mix, so the whole track may not be 100% in sync with Blu-ray release.
- Some movies, such as Takers, has Cinavia watermark on both Blu-ray and DVD, making this workaround not applicable.
2. Embed DTS core in a PCM track, like in the DTS CDs. There is a special way in which DTS compressed can be stored in a WAV file, for example, and eventualy written on a CD-audio. A player such as VLC will see there is a DTS track inside and decode it correctly; others may not know that and will produce a hissing noise (static). So appart from embedding DTS sound in a PCM track, one absolutely needs an external AV-receiver to decode it.
Pros:
- Very good quality, the bitrate of the DTS track is higher than of a AC3 one, from a DVD.
- Not detectable by the Cinavia enabled player if it is set to pass-through the audio to an external decoder. This way the information about the source of content is lost and the external decoder has no reason not to decode the audio.
Cons:
- Well, there could be a reason: if it does not know how to extract DTS from PCM. We tried this a while ago, but could not find an AV-receiver to cope with the DTS-in-PCM track, so we only mentioned it now to present you all the posibilities, even theoretical ones. This is more like: “what a nice idea, too bad I cannot use it”
3. Apparently there is another trick to be tried on a PS3 (only) and it needs you to select optical cable as output in Sound settings and checking all the sound formats (weird and dangerous! see the warning PS3 will display there), then also select the multiple output option. See this and this.
Cons:
- We could not manage to replicate it on our PS3.
- Seems more like a bug in the Cinavia detector of PS3 and it has been reported that it has been patched in recent firmwares.
UPDATE: The following text has been edited to include the information about latest PS3 firmware.
The following applies to fw1.60 up to fw4.00 only, so if you want to benefit from this solution do not update your console!
The first solution to disable Cinavia came from DVDFab. It is a way of creating backups so they don’t trigger Cinavia. This solution is useful for PS3 users who are the most affected by Cinavia so far. What makes it a great solution is that the disc is much like the original (with menus), a protected backup so the Cinavia-enabled player will see it as trusted source and will play it back just like the original. People have made protected (isos) backups in the past, but those had the disadvantage that they only worked with the programs that made them; well, these protected backups are supposed to work on standalone players too.
Technical details: the discs created are called BDMV-REC as they are AACS protected recordable BDMV. Another solution would be AACS protected BDAV, like the ones produced by Japanese BD recorders.
Requirements:
- a Playstation 3 console with a firmware version smaller or equal to 4.00!
- original Blu-ray disc with Cinavia watermark. DVDFab and DVDFab Passkey will tell if you have such a disc
- a BD-RE (recommended for initial tests) or BD-R disc to store the protected backup
- a BD writer
- DVDFab and updated writing software. DVDFab checks for it anyway
Pros:
- It is a solution to disable Cinavia, exactly as it is disabled for the original disc, due to (AACS) protection layer being active.
- DVDFab does all the tricks involved to create such a protected backup at a push of a button.
- The disc can preserve all the original features like menus, interactivity, BD-Live.
- Broad firmware support: PS3 users with firmware from 1.60 and up to 4.00 can use BDMV-REC discs.
- At any time, DVDFab or DVDFab Passkey can be used to remove the protection, if you need to.
- This is kind of an official solution, because it involves support from AACS standards, the same standards that force adoption of Cinavia
Cons:
- Due to the change in AACS LA licensing, starting with firmware 4.10, Playstation 3 have degraded the status of Protected Backups (BDMV-REC) to regular copies without the power to disable Cinavia. They are no more in the Trusted Source list.
- BDMV-REC is not implemented by all players. BD Players implemented Blu-ray standards as they saw fit to market their products. Not all of them have implemented the standard that BDMV-REC is based on, AACS Recordable BDMV, fully. PS3, being one of the best players, did.
- If not on PS3, we encourage users to check the playback support for “AACS protected recordable BDMV” either with BD Player support or with a BD-RE.
- PC players support protected BDAV, but not BDMV-REC.
- Cinavia is not removed, just disabled. Well, whatever works
We tried to provide you with a solution asap and this was the quickest.
Rant: While there was no technical need, we implemented this solution so only original discs could be backed up with this method. Unfortunately, AACS LA didn’t seem to notice that or they were set not to allow people to backup their own, purchased, discs at any cost, including the change of licensing in the last minute, before the “big launch”, plus the change in code of PS3 and other players that have Cinavia implemented already. Too bad, that makes us even more determined to remove the watermark.
We were planning to add support for the above-mentioned protected BDAV which would give a much broader adoption among BD Players, without having all the features: no menu, no interactivity, no BD-live, simply a Movie-only format. But since all AACS-protected Recordables have been degraded it does not make much sense now.
Last but not least, we are also working on a removal solution

















