Sort of OT: Anyone else have problems with PNY movie downloads?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Doc
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D

Doc

Got new DDR2 ram and found there was a freebie movie download.
Requires you to install Silverlight and some proprietary media player
that apparently was purpose designed to play these freebie downloads.

The download is a DRM .wmv file. After the over 1 gig file download,
playback has a repetitive popping sound. Reboot doesn't have any
effect.

Anyone else tried these freebie downloads?
 
Doc said:
Got new DDR2 ram and found there was a freebie movie download.
Requires you to install Silverlight and some proprietary media player
that apparently was purpose designed to play these freebie downloads.

The download is a DRM .wmv file. After the over 1 gig file download,
playback has a repetitive popping sound. Reboot doesn't have any
effect.

Anyone else tried these freebie downloads?
Click to expand...

But isn't this the recipe, for how someone tricks you
into installing malware ?

If someone wants to "give you a movie", they could do it
with Adobe Flash, or even some native Windows format. Why
go to the all the trouble of getting you to download a
"proprietary media player" ? This sounds like a trick to me.

How was the information given to you ? On a PHY page ?
There have been cases, where manufacturer web sites have been
hacked.

That's the nice thing about the Internet, it's like
one giant "dark alley", with muggers everywhere :-)

Paul
 
Paul said:
Doc wrote:

But isn't this the recipe, for how someone tricks you into
installing malware ?

If someone wants to "give you a movie", they could do it with
Adobe Flash, or even some native Windows format. Why go to the
all the trouble of getting you to download a "proprietary media
player" ? This sounds like a trick to me.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it might be bait. The enabler (player/whatever) thing is
the most common type of malware I have seen. You realize it after
the malware installs, obviously when there is no movie/whatever.
Then it is time to restore Windows. Allowing a program to install
is the most risky operation.
--
 
If someone wants to "give you a movie", they could do it
with Adobe Flash, or even some native Windows format. Why
go to the all the trouble of getting you to download a
"proprietary media player" ? This sounds like a trick to me.

How was the information given to you ? On a PHY page ?
There have been cases, where manufacturer web sites have been
hacked.
Click to expand...


It's on the packaging for the RAM along with the validation code.

The referenced site is www.pny.com/movies
 
Got new DDR2 ram and found there was a freebie movie download. Requires
you to install Silverlight and some proprietary media player that
apparently was purpose designed to play these freebie downloads.

The download is a DRM .wmv file. After the over 1 gig file download,
playback has a repetitive popping sound. Reboot doesn't have any effect.

Anyone else tried these freebie downloads?
Click to expand...

Would this be the same computer that "simply stopped"?
 
Would this be the same computer that "simply stopped"?
Click to expand...


It is. However, it seems like a bit of a stretch that a major hardware
manufacturer would be distributing malware doesn't it?
 
Doc said:
It's on the packaging for the RAM along with the validation code.

The referenced site is www.pny.com/movies
Click to expand...

The movies aren't hosted on their site. So the next question is,
who are these people, and do they have rights to the movie ?

http://www1.movie-promo.com/PNY-US

http://www1.movie-promo.com/PNY-US/Movie/181/Close-Encounters-Of-The-Third-Kind

OK, and the one download mentioned on movie-promo, is for PNY. So
there is more DRM involved.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/movie-promo.com

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/movie-promo.com/downloads/34720707/

SiteAdvisor claims this is the download. 618,181 bytes.
MD5SUM 2a26be9300f06941cc1f0cc452bfdcfc.

http://www1.movie-promo.com/ClientBin/PNYMoviePlayerUS.xap

PNYMoviePlayerUS.xap

ADD c:\temp\unzip\AppManifest.xaml
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Microsoft.CSharp.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\SilverlightAppUS.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\System.Windows.Controls.Data.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\System.Windows.Controls.Data.Input.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\System.Windows.Controls.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\System.Windows.Data.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\System.Xml.Linq.dll
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Images\Delete-Icon.png
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Images\Play-Icon.png
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Images\pny-128.png
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Images\pny-16.png
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Images\pny-32.png
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Images\pny-48.png
ADD c:\temp\unzip\Images\PNY-Banner.png

The download scans clean (which isn't an endorsement, just a simple first check).

http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan...d47f0af31f01f522a87aa62a541999b3bb-1300842112

The TermsAndConditions on the movie-promo site, mention Sony Entertainment.

This is the site providing the DRM technology.

http://www.eagleeyetechnology.com/

*****************************

Does the movie play in WMP ?

Does the movie only play in your browser ?

If the movie is dropped onto this, what CODECs does the movie use ?

(This is GSPOT, an application that uses DirectShow, to try to
play a movie, and in the process, get the names of the codecs used
for audio and video.)

http://gspot.headbands.com/v26x/GSpot270a.zip

There probably aren't any alternative ways of playing your movie, but
you can try anyway and see what that application says. If the movie
plays in Windows Media Player, you may get codec info from GSPOT.

Paul
 
Does the movie play in WMP ?
Click to expand...


No, will only play on the dowloaded player.
Does the movie only play in your browser ?
Click to expand...


Browser isn't involved at all, the player is a stand alone app.

To be honest, from what I could see of the quality of the video, it's
not that great. Very compromised contrast levels for one thing, a lot
of pixelation in the dark areas. I guess a gig isn't huge for a 90
minute or so movie but I have a movie on CD that I think was done with
DVD shrink or something similar that looks fantastic.
 
It is. However, it seems like a bit of a stretch that a major hardware
manufacturer would be distributing malware doesn't it?
Click to expand...

Some of the DRM schemes come close to being malware. Remember the
rootkit fiasco?
 
Got new DDR2 ram and found there was a freebie movie download.
Requires you to install Silverlight and some proprietary media player
that apparently was purpose designed to play these freebie downloads.

The download is a DRM .wmv file. After the over 1 gig file download,
playback has a repetitive popping sound. Reboot doesn't have any
effect.

Anyone else tried these freebie downloads?
Click to expand...

Anything that requires a proprietary media player is *HIGHLY* suspect.
That's usually a vector for malware.
 
Anything that requires a proprietary media player is *HIGHLY* suspect.
Click to expand...


Somewhat ironic that they're going to all this trouble to protect the
particular titles they've offered - most of them got pretty bad
reviews and are likely to be found at the thrift store video bin and
further the quality of the download is pretty marginal.
 
Doc said:
Somewhat ironic that they're going to all this trouble to protect the
particular titles they've offered - most of them got pretty bad
reviews and are likely to be found at the thrift store video bin and
further the quality of the download is pretty marginal.
Click to expand...

That could be why they only offer you one title. After you've
downloaded it, you don't want a second :-)

Once the word gets out, you may be the only person to have
downloaded a movie from them :-)

Paul
 
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