Sonic and Macrovision today announced a licensing agreement to provide content protection solutions to enable the custom manufacturing of secure DVDs by retailers, e-tailers and DVD production facilities.

The new solution will make it possible for movie studios and other content owners to expand the number of titles in their catalog that are available for purchase by consumers in a variety of channels.

The solution will integrate Macrovision's RipGuard and ACP technologies into Sonic's DVD On Demand technology solution, which will allow content encrypted with the Content Scramble System (CSS) found on mass-replicated DVDs to be recorded directly to optical DVD media. Sonic will license the new combined solution to video publishers and distributors.

With the addition of RipGuard and ACP technologies to Sonic DVD-on-Demand, Macrovision and Sonic can together enable DVDs on Demand that feature "triple protection" to safeguard against digital ripping and analog and digital copying.

"Today DVDs remain the easiest way for consumers to watch movies at home and on the road, but most DVD stores have a limited inventory, which results in lost sales opportunities," said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group. "What Sonic and Macrovision have done is make it possible to move nearly unlimited and secure DVD libraries incredibly close to potential buyers, opening up new profit opportunities for studios and retail partners that simply were not possible before."

Systems equipped with the Sonic and Macrovision solution will produce DVDs that offer the same audio and video quality, features, and protection as today's commercially mass-produced titles. Sonic's DVD On Demand platform will provide content owners with copy protection against analog copying and digital ripping using three technologies (CSS, ACP and RipGuard) while also maintaining the highest possible playback compatibility with set-top DVD players.

The new Sonic and Macrovision solution will be available later this quarter.