How to handle structurally protected DVDs?

[minaust]

There is a problem I haven't encountered yet, but undoubtedly will. That problem is the new structurally protected DVDs – I still use DVDdecrypter and am quite comfortable with it. I do my rips the same way I've done them for years. Here's my workflow:

1 Rip the appropriate Pgc with DVDdecrypter.
2 Open the vobs with Dgindex to create an index file and demux the audio.
3 Create an avs script file and test it in virtualdub.
4 Encode the avs script with x264.
5 Mux the resulting .264 stream and the audio track(s) with mkvtoolnix into a mkv container.

I'm done. If I should encounter a structurally protected DVD, what changes would I need to make?

[Ghitulescu]

It that would be this easy, then there would be no need for updates for AnyDVD or DVDfab (to name only 2 of them).... :)

Protected DVDs needs before anything else a little bit of brain from the user, he needs to identify the problem then to take the appropriate measures. Medium knowledge on how a DVD is structured (commands, cells et.) is needed.

[manolito]

I have to disagree with Ghitulescu here. If you employ a current version of AnyDVD (or maybe DVDFab Passkey), you don't have to spend any time and brains to identify the kind of protection used in this DVD.

IMO you do not have to change a single thing in your work flow if AnyDVD runs in the background. AnyDVD is completely transparent to other software, so DVDDecrypter does not even know that AnyDVD is there. It just sees an unprotected DVD and works normally.


Cheers
manolito

[setarip_old]

@minaust

Since you've not mentioned any requirement to COMPRESS your DVDs, you can replace your ENTIRE workflow by using ONLY MakeMKV (No need for AnyDVD, DVDFab, etc.) with your original, commercial DVD...

[manolito]

@minaust

Since you've not mentioned any requirement to COMPRESS your DVDs,

Oh, he did...
4 Encode the avs script with x264.


Cheers
manolito

[minaust]

@minaust

Since you've not mentioned any requirement to COMPRESS your DVDs, you can replace your ENTIRE workflow by using ONLY MakeMKV (No need for AnyDVD, DVDFab, etc.) with your original, commercial DVD...

I do want compression - but I've experimented with MakeMKV, and I did consider using it as a fallback - let MakeMKV do it's thing, extract the video from the resulting MKV, and run DGindex on that.

...and if it weren't "original, commercial DVD", we wouldn't be having this discussion...:D

[minaust]

Oh, he did...



Cheers
manolito

Thanks! That sounds like the way to go. I didn't consider AnyDVD at first because I'd experimented with DVD43 and that was a waste of time. DVD Decrypter got completely mindblown over what was in the drive...

Since I now have a recommendation, I'll give AnyDVD a shot - or will when the time comes....

[Ghitulescu]

I have to disagree with Ghitulescu here. If you employ a current version of AnyDVD (or maybe DVDFab Passkey), you don't have to spend any time and brains to identify the kind of protection used in this DVD.

I agree, just that one has to wait until someone else identifies the issues with that particular DVD and releases the next AnyDVD version, capable of handling that DVD. This burden simply shifted from the user to the programmer, but, boy, what a hacker is one that does something he has no clue about :)

Due to the way the DVD was created, one can rip ANY DVD (pun intended) with only free software, some of them dating back to 2002 or so.

[minaust]

but, boy, what a hacker is one that does something he has no clue about :)
...and I did that for money a few years ago - Y2k was coming up, and a local chain of video stores was using point-of-rental software that would cough blood and die when the century rolled over, and the original software vendor was OOB. And yes, i was clueless. But I did it.:D

Due to the way the DVD was created, one can rip ANY DVD (pun intended) with only free software, some of them dating back to 2002 or so.
Seems that what the studios had to do was exploit holes in the UDF specs. Throw in something that the old, dumb mid-90's technology DVD players won't notice, but will cause a modern OS to blow chunks. Then the modern Blu-ray players just have to emulate that old DVD player behavior when it encounters a DVD. When we figure out their hack, they do a new one.

This is an old problem, thousands of years old - armor versus weapon.

[Ghitulescu]

The DVD specs are flawed in respect to protections, much like the CD-Audio. One cannot go too much in altering the things or a massive rejection from the existing players will have to be expected. As far as I see the things, the issuers do nothing than to trick the latest versions of AnyDVD/DVDfab - because of the inherent structure of the DVD one can rip a DVD with free tools, some even 10 years old. I also believe the DVD will (be let) fade from self ... the fighting arena is now the BD - whose specs are continuously changed to match and stop the decoding efforts.

For me the best copyright enforcement is that I can buy a BD for 5 to 10€, while a BDR is only slightly cheaper (I am talking about a comparable, high quality BDR with jewelcase, not about the 25x spindle nonames), and 50GBs are even more expensive. So far, almost all BDs I have, and I have a lot, do not force me see countless trailers, like in the US (I heard).