DrewWilson
September 15th, 2008, 07:44 PM
[A]n Internet search for "copy protected DVDs" reveals other workarounds, including free programs like DVD Decrypter (still available but not updated since 1995) and DVDFab (based in China) that effectively defeat the copy protection on commercial DVDs. Such programs can be found online, but software that allows you to make copies of protected movies is not sold or distributed by well-known U.S. software publishers.
That's about to change — sort of. Real Networks of RealPlayer and Rhapsody music service fame has just announced RealDVD, a program that lets you "legally" save the contents of protected DVDs to a PC hard drive. I said "sort of" because the copy you get has its own digital rights management that limits what you can do with it.
I've been testing a pre-release copy of the product and it pretty much works as advertised. I copied several movies from my DVD collection to my PC's hard drive and, after putting the original DVDs back on my shelf, was able to play the movies on my PC. But because of restrictions engineered into the product, the movies can't be played on other devices, such as an iPod, Apple TV, a PS 3 or even a Macintosh. Some other DVD ripping programs, including tinyurl.com/6lu5ob, allow you to play movies on a variety of devices.
Copying a DVD with RealDVD is easy. You just run the program, insert the DVD and click on either Save or "Play and Save." If you pick the latter, the video plays while it's copied. Real Networks says it can take between 10 and 40 minutes to copy a movie, depending on the length of the movie and the speed of your DVD drive. It took me about a half hour for each of the three movies I copied. As you save, the program displays the percentage completed.
More... (http://www.siliconvalley.com/opinion/ci_10467657)
This just in... fuck DRM!
That's about to change — sort of. Real Networks of RealPlayer and Rhapsody music service fame has just announced RealDVD, a program that lets you "legally" save the contents of protected DVDs to a PC hard drive. I said "sort of" because the copy you get has its own digital rights management that limits what you can do with it.
I've been testing a pre-release copy of the product and it pretty much works as advertised. I copied several movies from my DVD collection to my PC's hard drive and, after putting the original DVDs back on my shelf, was able to play the movies on my PC. But because of restrictions engineered into the product, the movies can't be played on other devices, such as an iPod, Apple TV, a PS 3 or even a Macintosh. Some other DVD ripping programs, including tinyurl.com/6lu5ob, allow you to play movies on a variety of devices.
Copying a DVD with RealDVD is easy. You just run the program, insert the DVD and click on either Save or "Play and Save." If you pick the latter, the video plays while it's copied. Real Networks says it can take between 10 and 40 minutes to copy a movie, depending on the length of the movie and the speed of your DVD drive. It took me about a half hour for each of the three movies I copied. As you save, the program displays the percentage completed.
More... (http://www.siliconvalley.com/opinion/ci_10467657)
This just in... fuck DRM!