Settec Alpha-DVD protection used on German Mr.& Mrs.Smith

"In order to activate this technology, a software adaption has to be made on your computer [...]. This includes a modification of the operating system, that has been evaluated by the manufacturers of these systems (1) and found to be harmless."

Upon denying the EULA, Windows ejects the DVD again - this is the same behaviour was already shown by the Media Player that was used on Sony BMG's XCP protected Audio-CDs. Upon accepting the EULA, the installation programs adds three files (cmtl.dat, dmdmgr.exe and hadl.dll) to the system32 folder and configures dmdmgr.exe as "SystemManager", followed by dmdmgr.exe searching for ASPI and ASAPI drivers.

Settec's copy protection appears to be very radical during system surveillance. According to user reports in several online forums, DVD burners and virtual drives have been inaccessible. Heise online could not confirm these reports, but several other irregularities appeared in our editorial office: One PC crashed even before accepting the EULA, a second one consequently burned coasters after installation of this copy blocker - writing data NOT video DVD - even permanently ruining an RW disc. On a third PC burning a data DVD with installed Alpha-DVD was possible, but with a much lower speed. The drive noticeably stopped during the burning process.

Although Settec offers a deinstallation routine, they try to make accessing it as difficult as possible. First of all you have to enter your email address on Settec's website. Several requests with the same address were denied with a message that "Alpha DISC protection can only be removed once". Soon after this the user receives a direct link to the uninstaller together with a 32 characters alphanumeric key code. This one has to be entered in the uninstaller.

The deinstallation tool also requests confirmation of an EULA. Afterward the program connects to Settec's server via Internet for verifying the serial. On PCs without Internet access, deinstallation fails with a not very helpful "Please check if the key code you received via email was entered correctly" message. The same message is shown if Internet connections have to be made with a proxy server. On the other hand the deinstallation routine reports a successful run on clean systems, although Alpha-DVD has never been installed on them.

The Alpha-DVD EULA claims "The movie contained on this DVD usually cannot be played back on PC" but this is not true. If users deactivate the Auto run functionality or keep the shift key pressed while inserting the DVD, the DRM software does not start and the DVD can be played back without problems. Another possibility is to ignore the EULA and at the same time start a DVD player software. Users of a Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) also don't see the protection if they configured their system in a way that it starts with the media center interface. MCE blocks auto run of DVD-ROM contents similar to the software DVD player TheaterTekDVD.

In Germany "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" from Kinowelt is the only title to contain Settec's DVD copy protection using revision 1.0.3.5. Rumours say that Alpha-DVD will soon also be used on different Video-DVDs. Previous Alpha-DVD versions were used on the Korean movie "Old Boy" and the swiss "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" disc.

With all the affords, Alpha-DVD does not reach their primary aim: well established tool for copying Video-DVDs transfer that disc's data to the hard disc - disregarding the copy protection.