Capturing DVDs

Edward wrote on 6/18/2004, 6:21 AM

I don't know if anyone noticed this, but you can capture DVD movies. With the DVD player into the DVCAM, connected into my computer with firewire. I was using a VCR/DVD player to capture my client's home movies, when I got curious... could I bypass Macrovision thingy, and capture DVD movies... yep. In full stereo too.

This is kinda scarey too, since I'm posting it on Sony's site... yikes!

Comments

Dr_Z wrote on 6/18/2004, 8:03 AM

I strongly recommend to DVD Shrink instead. DVD Shrink is a software to backup DVD discs (by the way DVD shrink doesn't care about copy protection). Thus you can avoid the hassle with the camera... You can find the SW at www.dvdshrink.org. It is freeware! You should use the SW only to create a backup copy of your original DVD and not for piracy! It has good features like "reauthor" that allow you to get rid of the unnecessary stuff (animated menus and movie trailers). Most of the time you will be able to burn a backup of a 9 GB DVD (movie) on a 4,7 GB DVD without re-encoding the actual movie.

Jsnkc wrote on 6/18/2004, 9:23 AM

Macrovision is so easy to crack, there are many ways to do it besides the one you mentioned. It's still illegal though :)

BJ_M wrote on 6/18/2004, 10:10 AM

depending where you live .....

riredale wrote on 6/18/2004, 11:38 AM

There are lots of programs out there that can make copies of DVDs. By far the most popular one was "DVD X Copy" by 321Studios.

The courts recently told them they couldn't sell that product any more, since it got around the CSS encryption on the original DVD. So they sold a version that won't work with an encrypted DVD, but will work fine with an unencrypted version of that DVD on your hard drive. Hmmm... Just so happens there are lots of freeware utilities that will rip your encrypted DVD to your hard drive. PC Magazine mentioned that Smartripper was one of the more popular choices.

I like Nero's "Recode", as it is stable and flexible, and have used it to back up all our DVDs. It, too, works only on unencrypted DVD files. The whole point of these programs is to shrink the overall DVD size down to where it fits on a single DVD-5 disk. Next year, with dual-layer recordable blanks getting into common use, that ability won't be needed as much.

Getting from a DVD to DV directly is simple, but it involves down- and up-converting, so there may be a quality hit. Also, you lose the 5.1 audio.

Edward wrote on 6/18/2004, 12:40 PM

thanks alot guys. i'm disappointed now, i thought i stumbled on the hottest thing since sliced bread... lol.

but hey, if you wanted to use a scene from a movie in any of your projects, this could be a quick fix.