DRM testing?

Major Attitude · Feb 8, 2010

I want to go through all my MP3's (about 900) and check to see if any are protected by DRM yet can't seem to find a utility that can simply test and report. Thought this would be an easy find with the DRM on\DRM off again attitude of musicians, retailers and everyone else. Tried to burn a DVD off my private collection and it would not play in the car (where previous DVD had) so I need to check that my recently purchased MP3's are not blocking the entire DVD from playing correctly. Thanks for any ideas you might have.

Tux_Rules · Feb 9, 2010

Not sure if either of these would be helpful or not:

http://stream-recorder.com/forum/howto-instructions-removing-drm-drmdbg-freeme2-windows-t2272.html?

http://xbmc.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-55180.html

Major Attitude · Feb 9, 2010

Not really, those are very dated information. Using Tunebite right now to see how it works.

Tux_Rules · Feb 9, 2010

I read the first link a little farther and see it's not applicable, but the second may apply a little more. The last post shows the possibility of running hexdump, which may work (may work for an mp3):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=hexdump

I don't have enough DRM files to check this very well, but I did a hexdump on some m4v files, all of which are from the Apple iTunes Store. Some have DRM, and some don't. One thing that seemed consistent between the files with and without DRM was at the following location in the files.

drm-none2.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 6a4e 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-none3.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 ca44 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-none4.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 1266 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-none.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 9639 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-yes2.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0000 2ae8 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-yes.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0000 16bd 7274 6b61 0000 5c00

That third column, seems to have "0100" in the files without DRM, and a "0000" in the files with DRM. Of course, this is definitely not a large enough sample to confirm if this is the case with all DRM m4v files from Apple, may not apply to audio only (these were videos), and doesn't help with any other DRM technologies out there. But, maybe the idea of hexdump'ing some DRM vs non-DRM files and piping it through "head" and doing a diff might be of some use for someone with a lot of time on their hands.
I don't have enough DRM files to check this very well, but I did a hexdump on some m4v files, all of which are from the Apple iTunes Store. Some have DRM, and some don't. One thing that seemed consistent between the files with and without DRM was at the following location in the files.

drm-none2.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 6a4e 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-none3.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 ca44 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-none4.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 1266 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-none.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0100 9639 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-yes2.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0000 2ae8 7274 6b61 0000 5c00
drm-yes.txt:0000090 0000 0400 0000 16bd 7274 6b61 0000 5c00

That third column, seems to have "0100" in the files without DRM, and a "0000" in the files with DRM. Of course, this is definitely not a large enough sample to confirm if this is the case with all DRM m4v files from Apple, may not apply to audio only (these were videos), and doesn't help with any other DRM technologies out there. But, maybe the idea of hexdump'ing some DRM vs non-DRM files and piping it through "head" and doing a diff might be of some use for someone with a lot of time on their hands.
Click to expand...

Also, you could maybe use Windows Media Player??:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Windows-Media-Player-DRM-frequently-asked-questions

How do I tell whether a file is protected?

There are several ways to tell whether a file is protected:

If you are in the library and you want to see which items are protected, you can display the Protected column in the Details pane. "Yes" appears in the Protected column beside each file that is protected. To sort by the value in the Protected column, click the column name.

For information about changing the columns that are displayed in the library, see Change how you display items in the library.

If you are playing a file that you have downloaded to your computer, right-click the item in the List pane, click Properties, and then click the Media Usage Rights tab. If the file is protected, the license terms appear in the Media usage rights box. If nothing appears in the Media usage rights box, either the file is not protected, the file is protected but the usage rights are not present on your computer, or you are playing a file that is being streamed to your computer over the Internet (for example, you are playing subscription content directly from an online store's website).
Click to expand...

Buck_nekid · Feb 9, 2010

Might not be the solution you want but WMP will do this, just import them into the library then in detail view choose your columns and check "protected." It will list yes or no.

This is for V10, not sure about the newer ones. I tried V11 and went back.

*EDIT* Note to self: Read all replies before answering from now on.

Tux_Rules · Feb 10, 2010

After getting home, I did some more checking. I don't believe there is a program to do what you are looking for. Windows Media Player looks like an option, maybe load all your newly purchased songs and follow the previous post of checking for protection:

If you are in the library and you want to see which items are protected, you can display the Protected column in the Details pane. "Yes" appears in the Protected column beside each file that is protected. To sort by the value in the Protected column, click the column name.
Click to expand...

Other than that, I did notice that if you hover the mouse pointer over the file, the balloon popup will show if the file is protected or not.

Sounds like with that many songs, you might have a day or 2 of fun!

Noone · Feb 10, 2010

I wasn't aware the mp3 format had a DRM encapsulation standard. I know wma, aac, and m4v audio files do though. Are you certain they are all mp3?

If you are trying to convert anything you could play to .mp3, i seem to recall winamp had a plugin that came with it to redirect all output that would normally go to a playback device driver to its mp3 encoding routine instead so you could save it to a file.

Major Attitude · Feb 10, 2010

Windows media player does check them. Noone, if memory serves Napster and other MP# sites sold DRM enabled files but you make a good point. They were iTunes songs, I converted to MP3. I burned a DVD for my car and they play on my pc, but not my wifes or the car. I suspected there was a couple drm diles stopping it.

FYI, Tunebite worked well and could convert 7-800 songs in a few hours. I have Soundtaxi as well but think Tunebit is better. I claimed to search all songs for DRM as well. I may purchase it.

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