copy protected MP4 file?

I have an MP4 file of a movie and a corresponding SRT file for subtitles. As I've done before, I used the software Convert X to DVD to turn those files into a DVD that can be watched. The MP4 had been ripped from a Blu Ray disk (and maybe the SRT file too -- not sure). I played the DVD I burned on our Blu Ray player and high end high-def TV. It looked great until about 16 minutes into the movie when a message flashed up on the screen saying "unauthorized playback on this device, disabling sound" or something to that effect. We ejected the disk and tried playing it again, only to immediately get that same message. So I put the MP4 onto a thumb drive and played the movie in the Blu Ray player that way. I didn't really need the subtitles from the SRT file because the movie's in English anyway. We were able to play the movie just fine from the thumb drive. Also, the DVD that prompted that message played just fine on older equipment. I played it on a DVD player and a really old TV and never got the message.

Are Blu Ray players (or TVs) now coming with copy protection technology that can detect an MP4 file that was ripped from a Blu Ray disk (or even a DVD)? I've never heard of a ripped video file still containing any copy protection. I thought once it's ripped all copy protection is stripped away. What about other file formats such as AVI and MKV? (I was actually surprised it was an MP4 from a Blu Ray disk and not an MKV -- I hear MKV is the way to go).

If anyone knows the lowdown on the latest copy protection crap for Blu Rays and DVDs, I would appreciate any info. And why did the copy protection only work on the burned DVD and not when I played the MP4 directly?

 

I think I've found why the copy protection prevented the playing of the movie from the DVD, but not from the thumb drive. From the Wikipedia article you linked to:

Looks like our workaround is to just always play from the thumb drive. As the other poster pointed out, the quality's better that way anyway.

In the event that I want to use a Blu Ray or a DVD for any reason, you said there are ways to make your Blu Ray player ignore Cinavia? I'm going to google "breaking Cinavia" and other things, but if you have recommended links feel free to post them.

 

Thanks for the info, everyone. I googled around and learned that hackers are working on more extensive defeats of this crap. Looks like there will be software at some point similar to SlySoft's AnyDVD that will let you either rip a BluRay/DVD into a video file while automatically removing Cinavia or take a video file and convert it to another one while taking out Cinavea. I'm going to watch for that. For now there are the workarounds.

I am surprised that my playing the MP4 from the thumb drive worked. Does anyone know why it did? It was plugged into the same Blu Ray player that the DVD was in. (And, btw, I had burned it to DVD because I originally had planned on playing it on older equipment.) You would think that the Cinavia would have still activated while the MP4 was playing since it was in the same Blu Ray player, just playing a different way. Not that I'm complaining. It worked. Our backup plan was to plug the thumb drive directly into the TV, which is also capable of playing video files like MP4s. We never needed to.

Leave it to the industry to give us features that we absolutely don't want. You might pay hundreds of dollars for a Blu Ray set and want to back it up and only play the backups to protect your investment. But, no, force us to use our originals and if they get damaged we just have to buy them again. Here's rooting for the good guys to defeat this crap.