Mac OS Screenshot does not Allow DVD Player to Appear in Captured Region
jacobirw.wordpress.com
jacobirw.wordpress.com
Then the screenshot tool runs and dumps the framebuffer, and finds no image where your DVD playback is happening, because there isn't anything in the framebuffer for that window.
Come to think of it, I've noticed this behaviour in the past.
It's just that they'd be explicitly excluding that texture from being grabbed in a screencap.
Neither would I. It wouldn't be true ownership. Yet that's exactly what's happening here. The OP bought a Mac, but he can't perform certain activities, because the company that built it disapproves, and they control his machine.
"Your" Mac does what you want, but only if Apple and its partners are OK with it. Is it really "yours?"
Kinect the dots. Say goodbye to your living rooms sovereignty.
I chuckled, then I realized it was probably not too far off, as MS already is collaborating with NYC and using object recognition on its network of 6000 street cams.
This sort of thing is just par for the course and I see no reason to be upset over it (not saying you are, just generally). You've got a for-profit company with close partnerships and deals with various media companies plus their own iTunes store. Of course this is going to happen. But is it a big deal? It's sure a pain in the ass if you really need a screenshot of the DVD you're watching but if you really need it you'll find a way around it.
It's a deal breaker for me. My present computer doesn't have a DVD drive, but even if it did, I wouldn't buy or use a DVD unless I'm in control. I would rather download from BitTorrent -- not only is it free as in beer it is also free as in freedom, which is more important.
Computers are already ubiquitous and this will only get more true. If they do what governments and corporations want instead of what their users want, then they will become a massive tool for oppression, an oppression more fine-grained than anything Hitler or Stalin dreamed of.
Treacherous computing is an evil, and all good people should have nothing to do with it.
Similar to how local government in the United States can dictate guidelines on how your house should look externally etc, building code on how it should be constructed etc.
Basically it's the MPAA that are really creating these restrictions, not Apple.
I wonder what "outside influence" runs the iTunes store?
IMO parent is right, the situation looks like real estate developer with interest in selling as many apartments as possible selling you a "smart" apartment which counts people inside and doesn't allow more than one family to live there.
If we're talking about the rest of the store where they sell books and movies and music you better believe that there is outside influence dictating how they can sell products.
I'd also be curious to know if anyone complaining about this has actually seen the OS and screenshot and dvd player source code. There could be technical limitations that we are not aware of. Chances are that there are none, and if that's the case then you only have the movie studios to blame, not apple.
Yes, obviously I'm talking about this. And the issue is not about how they sell these products, but what they want customers to do with other media. I don't think any studio would deny them permission to sell their stuff just because it's possible to screenshot DVD movies purchased in the meat world.
And face it, by running this store Apple has as much interest as Hollywood in indoctrinating people that "The Content shall never be copied".
I wonder if this "feature" is smart enough to only blank out the player if a licensed movie is being shown (i.e. would it allow the screenshot if you were playing your own home video DVD? Or a ripped copy of a movie with the DRM removed?
I sincerely hope it isn't.
You buy the machine, yes, but iirc, you enter a license agreement for the OS; as in, you do not buy the OS, but you buy a license to use it. There's a technical difference there.
Second, as the owner of the machine, you are allowed to install a non-Mac OS on there that does allow you to take screenshots of movies, or install non-Mac-supplied video software that does not have this protection installed.
Or because the company that built it has to adhere to the rules dictated to it by whatever the DVD-playback licensing authority is.
e.g. see this article on why DVD playback in many Linux distros is illegal http://www.itworld.com/open-source/105736/legalizing-linux-d...
The problem is the DMCA, not Apple. At worst, Apple is being overly restrictive here just to cover their asses -- which is bad, admittedly, but it's the law that needs to change.
> and they control his machine.
But they don't. This is why we can all install VLC :) or even an alternative OS if we choose.
Instead they implement their own DRM (e.g. for iTunes) and invent whole new kinds of locked-down platforms. (App store)
They talk about smashing big brother but they sell telescreens.
This happened to me when we had people over for dinner, somebody wanted to show some video, we bought it from iTunes (in the dining room while eating), and it wouldn't play back.
Of course, at that point we gave up so as not to let DRM ruin dinner. Later, I discovered that it was because somewhere in the house there was a notebook remoting to the TV mac (normal, since that is how we mainly control it).
I don't think this has any underlying technical rationale (hardware acceleration, etc); I'm sure it is just a relic of Apple's deals with the 'content providers'.
https://blogs.oracle.com/ahl/entry/mac_os_x_and_the
http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/macosx/Leopard_PT_DENY_AT...
It's not due to hardware acceleration, I've never been unable to take a screenshot of anything else in OS X, I think it's due to how Quartz does its compositing (everything is a 3D texture, there are no 2D-style overlays).
The lack of borders is definitely harder to explain that way though. Definitely looks like some form of deliberate "limitation".
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd39...
Since Vista it's disabled by default and incompatible with DWM.
It was actually pretty weird the way the picture apeared in paint. It was like having a "frame"in the editor. Everything was fine until you closed the media player.
https://github.com/heardrwt/RHAdditions/blob/master/RHAdditi...
I wonder if part of the reason they agreed to it is that they knew ultimately it was, in reality, basically no restriction at all.
They wanted to make a DVD player. DVDCCA (or someone) required them to block screen grabs during playback as a condition of giving them a proper license for CSS (or something) for their DVD player. They blocked screen grabs during playback.
I doubt "is this really going to achieve anything" ever entered anyone's mind. It would just complicate the licensing negotiation for something Apple doesn't really give a crap about (some random third party app)
You may be right though.
Needless to say, this is a total pain when controlling a media machine remotely. VLC's DVD playback is a little ropey in my experience, but at least it works.
It's the pointlessness of this feature that irritates me. If I wanted to copy the contents of a DVD, I'd insert it and use one of the squillions of programs that are freely available to do so. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't take frame-by-frame screenshots.
Quicktime allows to record a video of your screen. I bet QT leverages the same framework as the screen capture thing.
Macha is actually reporting the opposite, it worked fine. So if it wasnt doing it on a particular version of iOS it was probably just that they were doing the extra work to hide it then.
@mosteveryoneElse yes, it must be mostly related to DMCA BS. And Apple is just being overprotective here. Since the DVD Player App is native to the Mac OS, surely it is mpy difficult to hide 'designated app[s']' windows when a user takes a screenshot.
This used to happen on Windows laptop screenshots a lot - often chroma-keyed - and it was how the video on the generation of phones I worked on worked.
If he now installs VLC and takes a screen shot is he breaking DMCA anti-circumvention laws?
Also, does anyone know the reason Mac OS does this?
Wait... are you kidding?
Among other things:
1 Fair use: Hey, buddy! Check out this cool still.
2 Fair use: Wow, that's a cool shot! I'd love to make it my background.
3 Fair use: Gee, that sucks! Director Martin M. McStupid made a bunch of CGI changes to his classic award-winning 70s film. I'd like to share some of the most offensive changes with my buddies on the Example.net Forum.
4 Fair use: Totally awesome! The DVD9 release of this film was encoded with a high bitrate. Let's take some stills from fast-moving shots so that we can compare it against the DVD5 release from the 90s.
5 Fair use: This movie no longer has its original theatrical color-timing. I'd like to take a sample from each shot so that I can come up with curves to do a shot-by-shot color-correction.VLC is ok of course :)
super annoying.