New compy - how do I rip DVD's???

[kexodusc]

Just got a new computer for home, a long overdue upgrade to my aging Pentium 4 machine..
Finally I have a DVD burner/drive outside of my company owned laptop -
So here's the deal - I'm keeping my old machine and using it as a multimedia device for my upstairs/bedroom system...I've got about 34 GB of music on it (all legit, I swear)....I'd like to copy ever freakin' DVD I own onto it too, so I can hook it up to my bedroom system...Is there a way to rip my DVD's to WMV or divx or something?

I've never copied a DVD before, so what's involved in it? I put the disc in last night (Spiderman) and none of the stock loaded programs seemed to be able to rip the DVD to the hard drive. Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way, but for CD's I just put them in, open Realplayer or Windows Media, and rip away with great satisfaction...what do I have to do for DVDs? Is there a cool program out there (free of course) that does this? Or do I have to crack every freakin' DVD or something? Maybe I just need to find the right codec or something? Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing

Help me out guys!

[JoeE SP9]

Hi Kexodusc, I'm sending the URL for DVD Shrink. This is legal freeware. This will allow you to rip your DVD's to HDD and decide how much if any compression you want. If you have Nero you can use the Nero burning engine with DVD Shrink to burn copies of your DVD's. The Shrink engine allows you to shrink a DVD to fit on a single layer DVD R using the Nero burn engine. http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/dvd_shrink.cfm

[noddin0ff]

The rub is that commercial DVD's are encrypted to prevent copy. The DMCA (http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm) forbids breaking the encryption. This doesn't have any bearing on fair use and copyright, except that it poses a barrier. So you will not find commercial 'legal' software that will allow you to do this.

That said, there are programs available for the seeker that will allow you to remove the encryption, remove macrovision, and remove region codes when writing to your hard drive. After you extract the DVD minus encryption, then the commercial programs can work on the files and allow you to copy them.

I'm sure you can get the complete list of PC based software with a few PM's. I'm Mac based so I'm not up to date on the PC side.

edit: fixed the link, sorry

[kexodusc]

The rub is that commercial DVD's are encrypted to prevent copy. The http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm (DMCA) forbids breaking the encryption. This doesn't have any bearing on fair use and copyright, except that it poses a barrier. So you will not find commercial 'legal' software that will allow you to do this.

That said, there are programs available for the seeker that will allow you to remove the encryption, remove macrovision, and remove region codes when writing to your hard drive. After you extract the DVD minus encryption, then the commercial programs can work on the files and allow you to copy them.

I'm sure you can get the complete list of PC based software with a few PM's. I'm Mac based so I'm not up to date on the PC side.

My laptop is a Mac, but I don't dare do anything of the sort on that - work owns it and I'm audited monthly on its use.

So, let me get this straight - I'm breaking the law copying my DVD's to my hard-drive?

[noddin0ff]

Technically, you're breaking the law when you defeat the encryption. It's not the copying per se.

[noddin0ff]

Hi Kexodusc, I'm sending the URL for DVD Shrink. This is legal freeware. This will allow you to rip your DVD's to HDD and decide how much if any compression you want. If you have Nero you can use the Nero burning engine with DVD Shrink to burn copies of your DVD's. The Shrink engine allows you to shrink a DVD to fit on a single layer DVD R using the Nero burn engine. http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/dvd_shrink.cfm

Ok, I’m not harping on this because I’m a law-abiding prude. I’m harping because people should be aware of the legality of their actions. I figure if enough people were made aware of how flawed the DMCA is, it may one day be changed.

You can’t assess the legality of software based on the fact that it’s freely downloadable! This argument has been posted here several times. It’s free! It MUST be legal! …Right…use your head.

AfterDawn Ltd. is a privately owned company in FINLAND. The laws in Finland likely differ from those in the US, and from those in Canada.

AfterDawn hosted 321 Studio’s popular DVD X Copy in 2003. DVD X Copy included decryption capabilities that were prohibited by the DMCA. They argued that it was OK to have this based on Fair Use. They were sued. And, they lost badly in US Federal Court. There are many, many articles about this.

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62397,00.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5162749.html
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/MGM_v_321Studios/20040220_eff_pr.php

and more from the EFF
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/

There really is no question about the legality in the US pertaining to defeating the encryption on commercial DVD’s. It isn’t.

[noddin0ff]

Here's a great article I just found. From JUNE 2006. So it's very current and talks about future formats (HDMI). I include the following quote from that article (page 2 of 4) .
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jun06/3673


In 2003, 321 Studios, of St. Charles, Mo., launched a software product called DVD X Copy for these more typical DVD owners. The company built in aggressive measures to prevent piracy, including an antipiracy splash screen that appeared when viewing any copy and watermarks that would enable copies to be traced back to those who made them. The management at 321 Studios hoped that these cooperative measures would stave off Hollywood's wrath.

The company was wrong. Before the DMCA, 321 Studios would have been on relatively safe legal ground. From the time of the Betamax case, U.S. courts had made it clear that copying devices were legal so long as they had any substantial lawful use. But the DMCA changed the rules. When the movie studios sued 321 Studios, the Hollywood contingent did not argue that any of their movies had been unlawfully copied. Instead, it said that the product circumvented a “technical protection measure,” which in this case was the Content Scramble System (CSS) on DVDs.

The CSS is the scheme Hollywood uses to encrypt movies on DVDs. Decryption requires a key, which manufacturers of DVD players obtain by signing a license with the DVD Copy Control Association, a consortium of movie studios, including Fox and Warner, and technology providers, such as Intel and Toshiba. This license, in turn, forbids licensed devices from making digital copies of DVD content or from offering playback modes that the studios disapprove of. (DVD recorders can copy only unencrypted digital material, such as home movies.) The licensing rules and DMCA put companies like 321 Studios in a quandary. If they signed the license in order to obtain the CSS decryption keys, the document prohibited them from using those keys in software capable of copying a DVD. If they didn't sign the license and forged ahead anyway, deriving the CSS keys on their own, they risked prosecution or a civil suit under the DMCA for circumventing the CSS. After consideration, 321 Studios opted to go forward without a license. The DMCA quickly washed away DVD X Copy. After the movie studios prevailed in court in 2004, manufacturers pulled DVD X Copy and similar ripping tools off the U.S. market.

Though DVD-copying software has been swept off U.S. retail shelves, plenty of it escaped to higher ground. Freeware DVD-copying applications like DVD Shrink, MacTheRipper, and HandBrake wander the Web. To escape the Hollywood hunters, most live on Web servers located outside the United States.



edit: it doesn't mention HDMI explicitly, but it addresses the reason why the industry want you to have an entirely digital path and why you won't be able to record from analog outputs in the future.

[bonsaiguitar]

PM me and I'll set you up with decryption.

[Groundbeef]

Do a google for 1 click DVD Copy. This is an excellent utility for DVD "Backup" Use. Then google DVD43 home. This will take you to their home page. This is a free utility that couple with 1 click copy will allow you to make copies of your DVD movies. Understand that breaking the encryption is not legal, but making backup copies of your own movies is ok by me.

good luck

[IVB]

Be forewarned, each disc takes up ~4-5GB, if you strip out all the menu's and special features/etc.

I'm currently at ~1.5TB in space for my DVDs.

You'll also want to have browsing via cover art so it all looks pretty. Here's what I mean:

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_DVD_Art.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_DVD_Detail.jpg

[kexodusc]

Hard drives are cheap and plentiful these days, not too worried about storage. I'm a little ticked off the industry has been allowed to circumvent fair-use legislation, but I could be fined for circumventing encryption.

So I tried a few of the suggestions here and things seem to work okay. Doesn't matter though - my job requires me to have a squeaky clean criminal record, and stuff like this just isn't worth the risk, no matter how small - guess I won't be storing any DVD's on my computer.

[IVB]

You could always get a Sony 777ES serial-controllable DVD Megachanger, and have the same exact screens I have above. You would still use cover art to select a DVD, and the PC would automatically have the DVD changer load it. The only difference is that you could only playback 1 DVD at a time. [and save a ton on heat/noise issues from tons of HD space]