Hi guys,

(I'm not a pirate pre-amble)

I am setting up a Windows Media Centre PC at the moment, and I'm considering my options for storage of media.

I have a bunch of DVDs and obviously don't want to be swapping them in and out of the machine. My first thought was to DVD-Shrink them to ISOs and then load the ISO with daemon or something, but at 3-5 Gig + each this is not very practical. I was sort of hoping to avoid having to install a terabyte+ array!

(The point of the post)

Is anyone able to recommend software (or a website tutorial) to reliably rip DVDs to XViD or DivX etc? I've had a look around but there's a LOT of software out there, some complicated some streamlined, and there must be a geek-recommended solution.

Is this legal if you own the DVD?

Thanks!

DVD Decrypter plus Auto Gordian Knot.

Don't know about legality. I believe it is illegal. Technically.

DVD Decrypter rips/decrypts the DVD to VOB/IFO files to your hard drive, then you can use Auto Gordian Knot to Divx/Xvid up the files to a nice neat 700mb avi file if you like.

doom9.org

It's not legal (under current Australian copyright law) to copy something without permission of the copyright holder. This will probably change soon.

It MAY be legal (not sure) to circumvent copy protection technology (eg, CSS DVD copy protection) for interoperability purposes. This will almost certainly change under the FTA so that it will become illegal to cirsumvent that sort of protection.

Xvid legality is dubious in that it includes an open source implementation of a patented software process without paying the relevant licensing fees to the organisation that controls that patent. So while you're probably not ever going to get in trouble for using Xvid at home, you'd probably want to avoid it commercially (unless you're fortunate enough to live in a country that isn't going to bend over for software patents).

Thanks for the links / info infi and Mr. H.

Interesting stuff trog - I wonder how much this will change or be affected as technology becomes more mainstream. A lot of people are starting to get into using media centre PCs for home ent (hell even my old man asked me about it the other day).

My gut is that as a consumer you should be able to take a DVD that you've purchased, and move it to more convenient media formats, as long as you are not re-distributing the data.

To be honest, I'd rather that the media owners pull their fingers out of their arses and get some downloadable MPEG-4 versions of their catalogs up there on teh internets. I'd muuch rather pay for the DL (resonably priced) than f*** about with all this ripping and encoding crap!

Basically, it is covered by the same law as taping stuff off TV.

Believe it or not, it is illegal in Australia! You cannot tape stuff off TV. Whether you just tape it to watch it once by yourself and then wipe it after that, doesn't matter. It's illegal.

And thats why i think Australia's copyright laws are a crock of s***.

Why can't I copy my legally purchased CDs onto my MP3 player?

Why can't I DivX up my legally purchased DVDs?

Why can't I make a backup copy of my Software CDs?

And yet they happily sell us mp3/mp4 players, dvd burners, VCRs, DVD recorders. Its like buying a whole heap of chocolate and telling a child he can't eat it!

poor kiddies can't eat their chocolate!

Is this legal if you own the DVD?

No unfortunately. This includes CDs as well.


P.S. Don't be so lazy, just get off your arse and swap those DVDs maens ! ;)

You cannot tape stuff off TV. Whether you just tape it to watch it once by yourself and then wipe it after that, doesn't matter. It's illegal.

That changed recently didnt it?
You can tape something off TV and watch it a later time, but you have to watch the advertisements as well and wipe the tape after you have finished watching it.

about copying software CDs. sometimes the EULA allows for one backup copy for archival purposes.

but this does not apply to all software though of course

That changed recently didnt it?
You can tape something off TV and watch it a later time, but you have to watch the advertisements as well and wipe the tape after you have finished watching it.

yeah I think I saw this on the tv news recently.

I lol'd.

Basically, it is covered by the same law as taping stuff off TV.

No it isn't.

You have a license to have the copy of the content on the media it was distributed, ripping dvds to your pc has nothing to do with timeshifting broadcast content.

I wouldn't be suprised if the tiny rights you have to that disk even include you being able to view it. I know you are permitted to view it, but can you return it if you can't view it, i.e. your only dvd player doesn't support RCE or some other copy protection or you don't own a dvd player and your record player doesn't accept these small shiny disks after all.

i thought that the new rules where that you can make a backup copy of the cd's, but your not alowed to change the format.

(as in, rip to mp3's)

who cares though, no one is going to listen.