Backing up DVDs.

petersmart

petersmart

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If any of you back up your DVDs have you noticed that, even though they are marked with the Copy Protected logo, that copy protection no longer seems to work?

I ask this because I am finding that I can now backup any DVDs using Shrink 3.2 or an old version of DVD Fab.

This seems extremely odd to me because they never seemed to work a couple of years ago and I would have to use specialised software like AnyDvd.
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neil_g said:
I'm surprised anyone bothers copy protecting these days. Its a bit like securing your valuables in a paper bag.
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And who could actually make any money pirating DVDs when you can stream them directly from sites like Netflix?

Or buy them from a single 1p (+postage) from Amazon?
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I'm sure DVDs have been freely copyable using freely available since 1999 when the code was "cracked" by a Norwegian programmer. I seem to remember "dvd shrink" was a popular program for copying copy protected dvd's. It was also handy for people with players with region coding not the same as their discs.
 
Freely and legal don't belong in the same sentence. Easily is probably a better term...
 
As I understand it, backing up DVDs is now legal in the UK so can be discussed here. Can anyone recommend a piece of software that's easy to use and which is capable of copying pretty much any disk so it can be watched on a tablet. Ideally free!
 
Nod said:
As I understand it, backing up DVDs is now legal in the UK so can be discussed here. Can anyone recommend a piece of software that's easy to use and which is capable of copying pretty much any disk so it can be watched on a tablet. Ideally free!
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Handbrake is okay.
 
Nod said:
As I understand it, backing up DVDs is now legal in the UK so can be discussed here. Can anyone recommend a piece of software that's easy to use and which is capable of copying pretty much any disk so it can be watched on a tablet. Ideally free!
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It turns out that on one of my PCs I can copy any disk by simply dragging it onto the desktop.

Have you tried that?

Also my region 2 DVD re-writer can copy Region 1 discs even though I can't even see them on my i7 PC and have to run AnyDVD.

Which is why I wondered if anyone else had found the same.
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Thanks for the suggestions - will try them when I'm on a machine with a DVD reader on it.
 
Nod said:
As I understand it, backing up DVDs is now legal in the UK so can be discussed here. Can anyone recommend a piece of software that's easy to use and which is capable of copying pretty much any disk so it can be watched on a tablet. Ideally free!
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can we only discuss legal things? people were discussing speeding the other day!
 
boliston said:
can we only discuss legal things? people were discussing speeding the other day!
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As far as I understand it it is illegal to use software to crack the encryption so as to copy the DVDs.

But what if the DVD has no encryption?

Which is what I was asking in the first place - because even though many of the DVDs I backup say they are copy protected I can copy them without using any specialised software.
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Also I've just got a copy of "Pacific Rim" and it has a code for UltraViolet and on the inner leaflet it specifically states "....... Share it with up to 5 friends or family members."

So it looks by that that they are allowing others to stream the movie without further payment.

http://www.techradar.com/news/home-cinema/ultraviolet-what-you-need-to-know-1077658

And if you can share it like that maybe they are slowly coming to the realisation that criminalising people for backing up their own copies or even copying the odd one for a friend is not going to increase their actual revenue stream.
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boliston said:
I was talking about the technical aspect of copying dvds rather than the legal aspect, as that is what the OP was referring to.
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boliston said:
can we only discuss legal things? people were discussing speeding the other day!
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I think its down to if you're copying for resale or if its an dvd you don't own,after all we don't like it if somebody take our photos without asking :rolleyes:
 
petersmart said:
But what if the DVD has no encryption?

Which is what I was asking in the first place - because even though many of the DVDs I backup say they are copy protected I can copy them without using any specialised software.
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It was still a no-no. Fundamentally, when you bought the DVD, you are buying the physical DVD. The "ownership" of the data on it effectively belongs to the copyright holder, and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (see: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents) made it illegal to make copies of something owned by someone else.
 
petersmart said:
But what if the DVD has no encryption?

Which is what I was asking in the first place - because even though many of the DVDs I backup say they are copy protected I can copy them without using any specialised software.
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Just because it is easy to do does not make it legal.

However, no-one will care if you create backups of media you have purchased. They only get upset if you start distributing them outside the terms of the licence granted with the purchase, or if you sell the original media and keep the backup.

I've noticed that wedding photographers get upset is someone scans a print and then reprints it themselves to give to family, rather than buying more prints from the photographer. Same thing.
 
it looks like from the 1st of october you can make legal backups/copies of material you own

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2361/regulation/3/made

more on the subject here

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/1...tion_of_copyrighted_material_come_into_force/

from what i remember about ripping dvd's the original programs were very clunky and took hours to copy frame by frame the introduction of programs like DVD shrink made the whole thing more user friendly but dvd shrink did not hold the CSS keys and could not rip protected DVD's it had to be used along side programs like anydvd
one of the ways round the protection was to play the dvd first through software which then held the css key within memory and then was extracted with whichever software utilised that method

one of the original reasons ( not the linux excuse ) for ripping dvd's when dvd players were not so popular and expensive was to rip to VCD, there was a lot of cheap VCD players flooding the market at the time as well as game consoles ( psx, philips cdi and others ) capable of playing vcd format

nowadays copying dvd's doesn't seem worth the effort the price dvd's can be bought makes the whole process a bit redundant not to mention the introduction of bluray which is making the DVD format in general redundant ( IMHO )
 
IMHO the main reason for ripping DVDs or BR is to get the content into a format that is streamable. Apart from PCs we have NO CD, DVD or BR players in the house
 
I just want to rip so I can watch films on a tablet while flying. Might have managed one before it was strictly speaking legal but others wouldn't rip for me. Now it's legal, I'm after alternative software to do the job, hopefully more easily than whatever I used last time.
 
arad85 said:
IMHO the main reason for ripping DVDs or BR is to get the content into a format that is streamable. Apart from PCs we have NO CD, DVD or BR players in the house
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converting for streaming to a different device is a different thing than doing a straight backup/copy of an original DVD/BR and is one of the reasons why copy protection laws have been relaxed to allow this legally

some BR titles already have this covered with the ultraviolet download option but what you get and how you can use it is limited to say the least and from what i can gather you still need access to a BR reader in order to provide proof of ownership ( never tried so not 100% on that )
iv'e always thought the law was a little draconian when it came to converting or backing up your own collection for private use it's about time it's finally caught up

i just wish i could back up the kids xbox360 games collection the amount of games they have ruined between em makes me wanna cry :(
 
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