DVD Studio Pro and Toast 9: CSS error

I have been authoring DVDs with DVD Studio Pro since 2005.

I archive the VIDEO_TS folders on HDD, then use Toast (9) to burn discs, because you can store so many 4GB VIDEO_TS folders on a 500GB portable USB drive!

Starting a few weeks ago, when I drag the VIDEO_TS folder to Toast, Toast brings up an alert box saying that the file is CSS encrypted and it cannot copy it!! The VIDEO_TS folders was built to the same HDD by DSP (current).

What?!?!? What is CSS in terms of DSP?

These are VIDEO_TS folders created over months and years, with the same DSP, continuously updated as Software Update finds updates for FCP and Pro Apps support.

This happens on my Leopard and Snow Leopard machines.

I submitted a support ticket with Roxio, but 2 weeks later they closed it, unanswered.

Independent photographer, film maker and Producer. In the wonderful UK.

OK, so even though I have been burning DVDs in Toast from the "Clapper" tab > VIDEO_TS folders for at least 5 years...

Someone CHANGED the process to:

If you have DVD data that is already authored in a Video_TS folder, here are the steps you should use to burn it to DVD:
1) Launch Toast and select the "Data" tab.
2) In the drawer, select "Advanced" at the top.
3) Select the "DVD-ROM (UDF)" format.
4) Click on the "New Disc" button at the bottom of the layout.
5) Use the "Add" button to select your Video_TS folder, or drag and drop the folder into your layout.
6) Now you can add additional data content or burn the disc.

Dragging the same VIDEO_TS folder this way does NOT produce the CSS copying error. After it successfully burned a new DVD, I clicked on the Clapper tab again, and sure enough, got the CSS Can't Copy error on the same VIDEO_TS folder!!

Using this new method almost is the same as the previous, except that it does not automatically name the disc based on the Folder name that the VIDEO_TS folder is enclosed in. The default is now "My_Disc", or you can type/paste into a text input box.

To answer your first question, CSS stands for 'Content Scrambling System' and is a form of copy protection applied to DVDs. It is not able to be set up from within DVDSP - you can only set a flag that tells a replication bureau that you'd like CSS applied when they master the disc.

It is easily defeated these days, as is macrovision. However, DVDSP still lets you apply the flag for it.

If you have got a DVD with CSS applied then it will still let you copy the files, but you won't be able to play them back reliably without first unscrambling them.

Quite why you're getting CSS warnings on your own content is a mystery...

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lafcpug mod