DVD safers - as used in ASDA, Tesco et-al.

[ParkyP]

I was just wondering how those plastic DVD Safers work.

I'm not asking how they stop theft, that much is fairly obvious. It encases the disk in a plastic box, containing an RFID tag that can be removed from the outside. Presumably the plastic will be of a type that is hard to break. It also has what appears to be a rather complicated locking mechanism.

This is what I find rather interesting. I bought a game the other day (Condemned 2 on the 360) and whilst I was following the missus around the store I got to have a good look at the casing (shopping really isn't my thing). I can't see any obvious way of unlocking it. However when you get to the till the cashier just passes it over a plate attached to the till and it unlocks itself.

My best bet would be that the release mechanism is at least partly magnetic. Does anyone know how these things actually work? I can't imagine anyone at any of the stores would tell me, even if they knew, (and I suspect you'd be followed pretty closely by security afterwards) and stealing something just to find out how the anti-theft device works does not seem like a good idea.

If it helps I think the company that makes them is called Fortknox.

[ParkyP]

oops.

meant to say "RFID tag that CAN'T be removed from the outside"

[kempie]

The blurb here states "uses standard magnetic releaser".