The user operation prohibition (abbreviated UOP) is a form of
use restriction used on video
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
discs and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
discs. Most DVD players and Blu-ray players prohibit the viewer from performing a large majority of actions during sections of a DVD that are protected or restricted by this feature, and will display the
''no'' symbol or a message to that effect if any of these actions are attempted. It is used mainly for copyright notices or warnings, such as an
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
warning in the United States, and "protected" (i.e., unskippable)
commercials
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
.
Countermeasures
Some DVD players ignore the UOP flag, allowing the user full control over DVD playback. Virtually all players that are not purpose-built DVD player hardware (for example, a player program running on a general purpose computer) ignore the flag. There are also
modchip
A modchip (short for modification chip) is a small electronic device used to alter or disable artificial restrictions of computers or entertainment devices. Modchips are mainly used in video game consoles, but also in some DVD or Blu-ray player ...
s available for some standard DVD players for the same purpose. The UOP flag can be removed in
DVD ripper
Ripping is extracting all or parts of digital content from a container. Originally, it meant to rip music out of Commodore 64 games. Later, the term was used to extract WAV or MP3 format files from digital audio CDs, but got applied as well to ...
software such as:
DVD Decrypter,
DVD Shrink
DVD Shrink is a freeware DVD transcoder program for Microsoft Windows that uses a DVD ripper to back up DVD video. The final versions are 3.2.0.15 (English) and 3.2.0.16 (German); all other versions, such as DVD Shrink 2010, are illegitimate. D ...
,
AnyDVD
AnyDVD is a device driver for Microsoft Windows which allows decryption of DVDs on the fly, as well as targeted removal of copy preventions and user operation prohibitions (UOPs). With an upgrade, it will also do the same for HD DVD and Blu-r ...
,
AVS Video Converter AVS or Avs may refer to:
People
* AVS (actor), Indian actor and comedian
Sports
* Colorado Avalanche, an NHL hockey team
Schools
* Abbey Vocational School, a secondary school in County Donegal, Ireland
* Amman Valley School, a bilingual (We ...
,
Digiarty WinX DVD Ripper Platinum
WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is a Windows-based DVD ripping program for copying and transcoding DVD discs, disc image
A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data stora ...
,
MacTheRipper MacTheRipper is a Mac OS X application that enables users to create a playable copy of the contents of a Video DVD by defeating the Content Scramble System. During this process it may optionally modify or disable the DVD region code or the User op ...
,
HandBrake and
K9Copy. On many DVD players, pressing stop-stop-play will cause the DVD player to play the movie immediately, ignoring any UOP flags that would otherwise make advertisements, piracy warnings or trailers unskippable.
Hit Stop -> Stop -> Play and Other Tricks to Skip DVD Trailers and Warnings
Lifehacker, 2010
Nevertheless, removing UOP does not always provide navigation function in the restricted parts of the DVD. This is because those parts are sometimes lacking the navigation commands which allow skipping to the menu or other parts of the DVD. This has become more common in recent titles, in order to circumvent the UOP disabling that many applications or DVD players offer.
Newer DVD players (i.e. post-c. late 2010) have, however, been designed to override the aforementioned counter-countermeasures. The DVD reader software inside the DVD player automatically generates chapters for parts of the DVD lacking navigation commands, allowing them to be fast-forwarded or skipped; pressing the menu button, even in these previously restricted sections, will cause a jump to the main menu.
See also
*Comparison of DVD ripper software
This article lists DVD ripper software capable of ripping and converting DVD discs, ISO image files or DVD folders to computer, mobile handsets and media players supported file formats.
General information
''Note: Applications with a purple ...
*DVD Copy Control Association The DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) is an organization primarily responsible for the copy protection of DVDs. The Content Scramble System (CSS) was devised for this purpose to make copyright infringement difficult, but also presents obstacles ...
*Hacking of consumer electronics
The hacking of consumer electronics is an increasingly common practice which users perform in order to customize and modify their devices beyond what is typically possible. This activity has a long history, dating from the days of early computer ...
References
External links
User Prohibited Operations flag documentation
Unofficial DVD Specifications
* {{US patent, 6553180
Microsoft Windows DVD Info, Get Current UOPS
List of User Operations that can be controlled by this flag.
Digital rights management
DVD
Hardware restrictions