Decrypt or decode ultraviolet videos

Question

I was on Vudu because I have some Ultraviolet movies in my collection and I saw you could download them from their site for offline usage.

The files on the computer from that download are an h264-2000.mp4 file and aac-256.mp4 file (along with a json subtitle file and some other meta data stuff). When I try to run them individually however nothing happens and when I try to convert to m4v with ffmpeg it fails.

• Are these files encrypted so that only their video player can play it?
• Is there a way to combine all of these files that I'm just not aware of?

Vudu uses Adobe Air if that gives you any more information.

Also, if it is encrypted, does that mean it's illegal for me to try to be messing with these? I thought since I bought the movie it would be fine to try. I know I could rip the movie with something like handbrake but the quality from Vudu & other Ultraviolet sites is really nice and my computer doesn't have a bluray reader to try and rip from a bluray.

Answer 1

Yes the files you are downloading from Vudu are encrypted to prevent file-sharing and other copyright infringements. They can only likely be opened with Adobe Air.

Attempting to circumvent these encryption methods is potentially illegal and is not something you should be messing with even if you already own the movies. Your country specific laws pertaining to copyright should be referenced.

If you're simply trying to convert the file so that you can view it on a mobile device, I recommend simply downloading the Vudu application.