Keys dvd.keys.tar.gz

[garg_art2002]

In trying to recover a broken Linux MCE, I noticed that there are many files <movie_name>.dvd.keys.tar.gz

What are these? And what is the significance of their loss?

How can they be recreated from <movie_name>.dvd file which is about 7GB in size?

Many thanks.

[merkur2k]

they are the css encryption keys for the dvd. as far as i know, there is no way to recover them without having the original dvd. it would kinda defeat the purpose if they were embedded in the iso

[krys]

It was my impression that just playing the movie file would create the new key, no need for the original disk. As long as you have libdvdcss2 installed.
-Krys

[tschak909]

the keys file is literally just a cache of the decoded keys from libdvdcss, so that it doesn't have to decrypt them again from the disk, resulting in slightly faster playback.

-Thom