PowerDVD BD Live question

[SamuriHL]

Does anyone know how to shut off the network downloading crap in PowerDVD 7 Ultra? I unchecked the "Automatically connect to the internet..." option under the player tab but that doesn't appear to be it. I'd rather not block the whole damn thing from seeing the network. There must be an option to shut this nonsense off???

[BDMinus]

You can try using a firewall that can block individual programs from accessing the internet.

[SamuriHL]

That was the part about rather NOT having to block the network. :) I know that can be done. I was looking for a less intrusive method of shutting that crap off. I don't believe one exists which is ridiculous. The PS3 at least gives us the option. Oh well. Yes, I could block it but that was not the route I was loooking to take.

[BDMinus]

If there were software to monitor what dlls or exes access the internet then it could be possible to locate the offending file and rename it much like renaming a file to turn off the registration check I saw in another forum. You could always add an entry into your HOSTS file to where ever powerdvd is trying to reach and re-aim it to localhost.

[SamuriHL]

Hmm, webdownload.dll seems like a good candidate. :) I'll have to check that out at some point unless someone else has time to try.

[SamuriHL]

webupdate.dll and webdownload.dll don't seem to do a damn thing. The code for the bd live download is in bdj.jar somewhere and I ain't playing around with that.

[Fernando]

You can use "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" (Administrative Tools) and block PowerDVD from accessing that live server or block PowerDVD at all.

[SamuriHL]

Yea, I know. That's not my objective. :)

[Fernando]

You can explicitly configure that PowerDVD has network access but cannot access a specific server.

And this rule you can enabled and disable. Like an "option button".

[SamuriHL]

That's also possible, yes, but, I'd rather fix the problem rather than the symptom. Somewhere in the BDJ.jar is what I'm looking for. I just haven't found it yet. :) This wouldn't be worth it to anyone else as you can cure the symptoms easy enough. But to me this is something I consider useful. Otherwise every time you get a new disc you potentially will be blocking servers. I'd rather just tell it not to try to download the BD Live content. I'm going for a more elegant solution.

[Fernando]

Maybe. But in PowerDVD's and Fox's greedy eyes stopping or not wanting to use BD live is like stopping to breathe. Unimaginable. Impossible. ;)

[SamuriHL]

Oh I'm aware. That drives me even more to wanna kill it. :D HD DVD was much easier. And there were just as many problems with HDi as there are with BD Live. It's not that I dislike the idea or concept. I just want to be able to selectively disable it when I want.

[SuperGoof]

I think it should be done the other way round - AnyDVD HD should have a "Disable BD-Live" checkbox in the Blu-ray section. If it is checked, AnyDVD would somehow modify java .class files inside .jar archives in a way similar to what it does to remove java-based region check. A new task for Peer, it seems! :)

EDIT: And the fact that Iron Man does not work when region check removal is on in AnyDVD leads me to a conclusion that mybe to fix region code removal, there will be a need to deal with BD-Live anyway. Maybe that downloaded content checks the authenticity of .jar files. If so no wonder it does not work when region code removal is on... Can someone tell if Iron Man's certificate still self-signed as on other discs or it is signed by some other authority?

[SamuriHL]

I would love to see that kind of option, but, I don't think they're modifying the PowerDVD BDJ.jar, are they? I thought they were modifying something on the disc realtime. So, I doubt they wanna get into the business of disabling stuff in one player only. And I can hardly blame them for that.

[BDMinus]

I think it should be done the other way round - AnyDVD HD should have a "Disable BD-Live" checkbox in the Blu-ray section. If it is checked, AnyDVD would somehow modify java .class files inside .jar archives in a way similar to what it does to remove java-based region check. A new task for Peer, it seems! :)

EDIT: And the fact that Iron Man does not work when region check removal is on in AnyDVD leads me to a conclusion that mybe to fix region code removal, there will be a need to deal with BD-Live anyway. Maybe that downloaded content checks the authenticity of .jar files. If so no wonder it does not work when region code removal is on... Can someone tell if Iron Man's certificate still self-signed as on other discs or it is signed by some other authority?

Disabling bd-live should be easy (for peer the bd guru who has no peer...mariska hargitay slysoft lol), i'd guess just altering the files to point to 127.0.0.1 instead of discupdate dot com or whatever. And as for checking authenticity of the files, i'd bet they do, like a blu-ray version of wga and if they didn't do authentication before, they will now...we need to stop giving them ideas :bang: LOL

[SuperGoof]

I would love to see that kind of option, but, I don't think they're modifying the PowerDVD BDJ.jar, are they? I thought they were modifying something on the disc realtime. So, I doubt they wanna get into the business of disabling stuff in one player only. And I can hardly blame them for that.

They are modifying .jar files on disc, of course. Basically modifying the program which PowerDVD or any other player runs.

[SamuriHL]

So you're suggesting they find the bd live code on the disc and disable it, as well? Hmmm, that could be possible I suppose.

[Peer]

EDIT: And the fact that Iron Man does not work when region check removal is on in AnyDVD leads me to a conclusion that mybe to fix region code removal, there will be a need to deal with BD-Live anyway. Maybe that downloaded content checks the authenticity of .jar files. If so no wonder it does not work when region code removal is on... Can someone tell if Iron Man's certificate still self-signed as on other discs or it is signed by some other authority?

There is an additional certificate: bu.discroot.crt
It looks almost identical to app.discroot.crt
I haven't checked into it yet, though.

[SamuriHL]

Thanks for looking into it, Peer. Much appreciated. It's not that I dislike the BD Live idea. It's kind of neat, I suppose. However, I *NEVER* want it to interrupt me from watching the movie. IMO, they should put this kind of stuff in a menu somewhere and let the consumer go actively get it rather than forcing it up front. I don't trust that all studios doing BD Live titles will learn from this mistake. When I get Dark Knight in a couple months, I can tell you right now it better freaking play without downloading crap. You think Iron Man was a big BD title....just wait.

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Thanks for looking into it, Peer. Much appreciated. It's not that I dislike the BD Live idea. It's kind of neat, I suppose. However, I *NEVER* want it to interrupt me from watching the movie. IMO, they should put this kind of stuff in a menu somewhere and let the consumer go actively get it rather than forcing it up front. I don't trust that all studios doing BD Live titles will learn from this mistake. When I get Dark Knight in a couple months, I can tell you right now it better freaking play without downloading crap. You think Iron Man was a big BD title....just wait.

I believe it should be a setting in standalone players and software players that you can set ahead of time to be on or off for BD Live content. Alas, I don't believe BD Live was fully thought through. They assume every person wants it always and they never took into account the amount of people hammering a server at the same time when a movie is released (ie Iron Man).

[SamuriHL]

I believe it should be a setting in standalone players and software players that you can set ahead of time to be on or off for BD Live content. Alas, I don't believe BD Live was fully thought through. They assume every person wants it always and they never took into account the amount of people hammering a server at the same time when a movie is released (ie Iron Man).

Yea, this is the problem, though. HDi has been around for a hell of a lot longer, and yet, it doesn't always work correctly, either. At least that (usually) gave you a cancel button. BD Live should have learned from the mistakes of HDi, yet, they not only didn't learn, they made the situation worse! Trust the player mfg's to add functionality to their players is a flawed idea. They can hardly get playback right half the time. :) Should we have a feature in the player that can turn it off (or at the VERY least ask you when it encounters a BD Live disc whether to download the content if it hasn't already done so)...? Yes, and the PS3 does that. Do YOU trust Cyberlink? How's that TopGun playback issue coming along? :) I rest my case as to why I think we need this.