Copy protected DVD's

[robs]

Can someone explain why and how it works? I know CDs you can copy, and tapes you just put a something over the button and you can copy them. Is there a way to disable them on DVDs? I know it's illegal, and I'm not going to sell them or anything like that. My sister and I share a lot of movies and it would just be easier if I can figure out how to copy them and get around the copy protection.

 

[winslayer]

So you know, making copies of DVD's aren't always illegal. Depending on what you do with the DVD after you copy it determines if it's illegal or not. Say you are a parent with kids and they have a DVD player in their room... making a copy of Finding Nemo and keeping the original and giving them the copy to play isn't illegal. You are making a backup of the DVD for your own personal use. That way if something happens to the DVD (broken/lost/stolen) you don't have to run out and buy a new copy of the DVD. This is Fair Use.

Anyway, now that that is out of the way... the first thing you need to understand is that there are two types of DVD's, single layer and dual layer. Single layer DVD's contain roughly 4 GB of data and are generally what you buy when you go out and buy blank DVD's. Dual layer DVD's contain around 8 GB of data and are generally what movies come on when you buy them. You can buy blank dual layer DVD's, but they are more expensive (naturally).

To rip a DVD you need to get some kind of ripping software. As I don't know what Operating System you are using, there's no way of knowing what kind of software to tell you to get. Use Google and see what you can find by means of DVD ripping software. As I use a Mac, I use MacTheRipper. It takes some time to learn how to do this, so don't expect to just jump right in and be able to do it immediately. The more you do it, the more you learn about it, the easier it gets. But step 1 is ripping the movie from the DVD. As DVD's are (usually) encrypted, that is what you are doing here. Taking the encryption off the movie. It is copied from the DVD to a hard drive, as you cannot write information to a movie DVD, and as it is copied, the encryption is removed. Depending on how fast your computer is and how long the movie is, this can take anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour.

The next step, after you have got the movie ripped, is to shrink it. As discussed previously, you most likely have a movie that is 8 GB and you need to put it on a disc that is 4 GB. You need some kind of compression software to shrink DVD's. Again, you are going to need Google here to help you find what you are looking for. On my Mac I use DVD2OneX to shrink the movie to the 4 GB size.

After you have recompressed the movie, you will have the movie, unencrypted and in a size that will fit onto a blank DVD, so all that is left is to burn the DVD. You will find that most of the data is in a VIDEO_TS and maybe a AUDIO_TS folder. This is the contents of the DVD that needs to be burned. Just use burning software to move these folders to a Data DVD (Using UDF preferably) and burn.

There is some software out there, I know, that will do most of these steps for you in one step. I don't what this software is called or where to find it, this is just how I make copies of my own DVD's for my use. This is just a very simple explanation post and that's all I can give. I recommend you use Google to search for tools that would help you better than this post can. It takes time to learn how to do it. Trial and Error are a big part of this at the beginning. Hope this helps you out.

 

[wirega56]

For windows use dvdshrink(will shrink dvd's to fit on 4.7 gb disc) and for the more difficult ones use dvdplatinum. Go to this site http://www.videohelp.com/ for more info

 

[mike_n_herrin]

DVDshrink is what i use to make a duplicate of a DVD. if you have a dual layer DVD drive, then you don't have to "shrink" the DVD down to 4 GB to fit on a standard DVD. You can leave its size as is and put it on a 8 GB DVD (which is called a dual layer DVD).

DVDshrink is free and available from the web. here is a good tutorial on how to use DVDshrink (it uses Nero to burn the DVD once it shrinks it): http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/

A commercial product is AnyDVD: http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html

 

[mike_n_herrin]

/\ cool thanks!

 

[tornZorak]

One additional piece of information - most DVD's contain multiple videos (the actual movie, extras, bonus, etc). On many DVD's the movie itself only takes 4GB of space with all of the extras taking the rest of the space. Many of the DVD shrink programs can shrink from a dual layer to a single layer disc by omitting all of the extra stuff (including the menus). The big advantage here is there is no loss of quality for the main movie and no re-encoding time (making the shrink very fast).

 

[Master Bates]

In the US, doing anything that circumvents copy protection violates the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)

...criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, even when there is no infringement of copyright itself.

Which means that making a copy of your legally owned DVDs, even for your own personal use, is illegal. It also makes it illegal to rip and convert them so you can watch them on your iPod.

It's a very stupid law that severely restricts how you can use something you paid for.

If you live outside the US and are not confined by the DMCA, DVDFab Decrypter if a free program that will let you rip DVDs to your computer. You can then use DVD Shrink to copy it to a DVD-R.

 

[btgk86]

I know for sure that Sony DVD's have copy protection. We can't copy any movies we get that are fron Sony, which suchs cuz Spiderman and alot of good movies are from Sony

 

[Xenos Morphe]

First thing you need to do is download and save to your desktop the following
DVD Decrypter http://www.soft32.com/Download/Free/DVD_Decrypter/4-75586-1.html
DVD Shrink http://majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=4020&file=10&evp=6ac72403b4eba0413a5a26a2ca805f93
RipIt4Me http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=5408&file=10&evp=593ffaccf7f5a859b435fabac34f514d
IMGBurn http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

Unzip (if needed) and install Decrypter and Shrink before RipIt4Me. During install, do not select check for updates for Decrypter and do not replace Decrypter with IMGBurn. Install all 4 programs.
Create a new folder on your desktop named DVDs and move the 4 shortcuts there.

Now open Decrypter and insert your DVD. (note: if you are running a dual core you may need to set affinity for Decrypter and RipIt4Me to a single CPU) If a RCE Protection window opens, select OK. Open the Mode tab and select File F. Under Destination, browse to the DVDs folder, make a new folder, name it whatever the movie title is and select OK. Click on the green arrow and the rip will begin.

When the rip is done close Decrypter and open Shrink. Select Open Files and Browse to the rip folder and select OK. For a movie only transfer, after the Analysis select Re-author and double click Title 1 under Main Movie to create your DVD Structure. Select the Compression Settings tab and unselect everything in the Audio section except AC3 5.1 English. Unselect everything in the Subpicture section if you don't want subtitles. In the Video section note the % of compression and select the Backup tab.

In the Backup DVD window there are 5 tabs. Target Device Tab: Select backup target as 'ISO Image and burn with DVD Decrypter".Select target image file, browse to DVDs folder and create a new folder and name it Backup. DVD Region tab; select Region Free if your player supports it. Quality Settings tab; Select 'Perform deep analysis before backup...' Select 'Compress video with high quality...' if compression % is below say 75%, default setting is fine. Options tab; unselect all 3. Burn Settings tab: click OK.(DO NOT load a blank DVD in the burner. not yet)

To Shrink a full disk dual layer to a single layer DVD (good for episode DVDs) stay in Full Disc and select Menus so it is highlighted. In the drop down menu change Automatic to Still Pictures, this is a must or the menus won't work right. Leave the Main Movie on Automatic. Change the Extras to Custom Ratio and compress as much as possible. Change Unreferenced Material to Still Pictures. Now you can go back through and change anything you don't want to Still Image, usually in the Extras. Select the Backup tab and procede as above, making sure 'Compress video with high quality...' is selected when doing a full disc.

When the Encoding is done and Decrypter opens, close Decrypter and open IMGBurn. You need a nice slow and steady burn to get a good DVD and you can't set the burn rate in Decrypter like you can in IMGBurn. Under Source, browse to the Backup folder and select the ISO image. Change the Write Speed to 3X, insert the blank DVD, when the arrow turns green your good to go.

To do a ARCOS protected DVD from Sony or Lionsgate open RipIt4Me and select 1-Click Mode. Target directory for DVD flies; browse to the DVDs folder on the desktop and make a new folder as before, click Next and wait for Shrink to open. That's it, it never fails.

Suggestions:
Always use the DVDs folder on the desktop to save your rips and ISOs. The hard drive will fill up fast if you loose track of these files.
This is a rough guide. Open Shrink - Help - Help Topics - Guides for more.


Aliens vs. Predator 2: Requiem
Countdown = http://www.latinoreview.com/filmpreview.php?id=527

 

[dalton41]

I'm sure you are now totally confused with all of the high tech jargon so I'll just cut the red tape for you.

Yes, you can copy DVDs for your own use. But I'm sure that the authorities have other important issues right now than breaking into someone's home to confiscate a movie that was copied illegally. Even if you sold it, it's not like you're going to make millions.

So let's move on. Go to the link below. This is what I have and it does copy movies successfully. I've had mine for 5 years. I'm very satisfied. You can get one at Best Buy.

http://www.everlastinglove.com/electronics/copy_dvd.htm

 

[Xenos Morphe]

Check out this guide, Works great!
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/494836