[Loyalty4Life]

This might be the biggest noob question of all time.

When I insert a DVD into the computer, how do I get it to copy to the hardrive so I can play it from there?

Thanks.

[bmcgonag]

Assuming you own the DVD, and are not committing copyright infringement, you can use Mac The Ripper which will create a large file, or Handbrake which will allow you to compress the movie into an avi or mp4 smaller file format.

Brian

[frankthetank966]

mac the ripper is awesome. i would recommend it over handbrake any day.

[Ace of Spades]

i use mac the ripper - works great

[badidea]

Originally Posted by bmcgonag 

Assuming you own the DVD, and are not committing copyright infringement, you can use Mac The Ripper ...

He can even use MacTheRipper if he doesn't own the DVD! MTR doesn't check owner rights!

[shifuimam]

Sort of off-topic, but why hasn't the RIAA shut down Handbrake? They're made it effectively illegal to even run DVD decrypting and converting software on a Linux or Windows OS...

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

Sort of off-topic, but why hasn't the RIAA shut down Handbrake? They're made it effectively illegal to even run DVD decrypting and converting software on a Linux or Windows OS...

Developed and hosted outside of the United States. Since its outside the jurisdiction of the DMCA, the MPAA (the RIAA is for music) can, respectfully, suck it.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by badidea 

He can even use MacTheRipper if he doesn't own the DVD! MTR doesn't check owner rights!

Yes, but it is against the rules here to discuss piracy.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

Yes, but it is against the rules here to discuss piracy.

Yes, but he's not asking how to pirate, he's asking how to exercise his fair use right to make a personal backup.
To answer a question further up, MtR does something different to Handbrake - MtR rips the DVD pretty much 'as-is' with all of the menus etc, and you end up with a huge file. Handbrake lets you trans-code to play it on iPods, or make a smaller file that is just the video.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

Sort of off-topic, but why hasn't the RIAA shut down Handbrake? They're made it effectively illegal to even run DVD decrypting and converting software on a Linux or Windows OS...

Handbrake uses the DVD decoding library that hasn't been challenged in court; it's based on a reverse engineering of the CSS encryption system, rather than just using a few keys someone managed to pull out (like DeCSS did).

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Yes, but he's not asking how to pirate, he's asking how to exercise his fair use right to make a personal backup.
To answer a question further up, MtR does something different to Handbrake - MtR rips the DVD pretty much 'as-is' with all of the menus etc, and you end up with a huge file. Handbrake lets you trans-code to play it on iPods, or make a smaller file that is just the video.

The post Person Man mentioned was NOT about "fair use." It mentioned how to copy a DVD that a person doesn't own. MACNN FORUMS DO NOT ALLOW, TOLERATE, OR ENABLE PIRACY, NOR DO WE TOLERATE DISCUSSION OF METHODS TO PIRATE. Handbrake, MacTheRipper, or other software used for FAIR USE PURPOSES is fine. Telling someone how to pirate something is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

[peeb]

You are correct that BadIdea was out of line. What I meant was that that is not what the op asked to be told how to do.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by peeb 

You are correct that BadIdea was out of line. What I meant was that that is not what the op asked to be told how to do.

And I wasn't responding to the OP. I was responding to BadIdea who was the one who brought up the idea of copying something you don't own.

[badidea]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

And I wasn't responding to the OP. I was responding to BadIdea who was the one who brought up the idea of copying something you don't own.

No I wasn't! I just said that MtR still works if you don't own a DVD - I never said that you should use it then!
In fact I was just making fun! Or would you tell someone who asks "how do I use this gun?", "well, if you don't point it at someone then it works by pulling the trigger!"??
Stupid discussion! Typical MacNN...

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by badidea 

No I wasn't! I just said that MtR still works if you don't own a DVD - I never said that you should use it then!
In fact I was just making fun! Or would you tell someone who asks "how do I use this gun?", "well, if you don't point it at someone then it works by pulling the trigger!"??
Stupid discussion! Typical MacNN...

You ARE the one that brought up that you CAN use MtR unethically/illegally... If you were making fun, it would have been much easier for us to know that if you'd done something to make it clear, like a smiley or something...

[badidea]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

If you were making fun, it would have been much easier for us to know that if you'd done something to make it clear, like a smiley or something...

You mean a smiley like this one: ?

Please check my post!

[sanford]

When you can buy a 6 or 12 month old DVD of a contemporary blockbuster or award-winning, or both, film for about the cost of renting it, or buy an HD Blu-ray copy of your absolute favorites for $25 at Wal-Mart of all places, I don't even see the financial incentive behind piracy for personal use anymore. This is what iTunes did for personal-use piracy in the music industry. I mean, hey, it's a dollar; it's proven worth a dollar for most pirates not to have to hunt down a free copy somewhere on some confusing and slow file-sharing network.

I am however a proponent of fair use of the DVDs and CDs and electronically distributed media you do purchase. If you buy a DVD, you should be able to store it on your Mac, Apple TV or iPod if you wish -- so long as you don't give away or resell the original physical media.

[peeb]

There is no such thing as 'personal use piracy'. The concept of personal use is a right that people have to make use of otherwise copyright material under certain circumstances (eg personal backups, review, academic, etc). It is not piracy. It is a question of erosion of rights and freedoms.

[sanford]

peeb,

Personal-use piracy as in downloading copyright music otherwise for sale, from file sharing services for free. Or copying rented DVDs and then returning the rental. Copying or downloading commercial video games, with the no intent of duplicating the game and distributing it. That's piracy, and it's for personal use, instead of selling the pirated material or making copies available to others, electronically or on physical media. It's certainly not fair use.

I was talking about a social phenomenon, not a legal doctrine. Now if I'd said "fair-use piracy"... Well, "fair use" is a legal doctrine intrinsic to western copyright law; and it's antithetical to piracy, or at least not legally considered piracy. But there is such a thing as piracy for personal use: pirated, not for sale or distribution, but just for one's own enjoyment.

At any rate, I was saying that the hard cost and effort of, say, renting a DVD, copying it, returning, the rental, is about equal to the cost of actually purchasing the DVD. So I'm having trouble, ethics aside, even seeing a cost incentive for people to pirate DVDs.

[Uncle Skeleton]

There's more incentive when you're talking about movies that aren't available on video (yet/in your area/etc).

[sanford]

Ah. But aren't we talking about the kind of stuff people tape with camcorders off a theater screen (other than releases already out but not in your region)? I can't imagine how poor the image and audio quality. I'd much rather wait and pay for a quality release. I see this has an element of preference here, but I can't imagine watching a movie that someone shot with audio off a theater screen with a Handicam when I could wait 6 or 8 months and pay $17 for a DVD or $25 for a BD version. Indeed right now, with the cost of duplicating HDTV and BD set-ups around the house, we prefer DVDs just because we can play them anywhere we have a TV, rather than limited to the HDTV/BD set-up in the living room.

Generally, I also don't see the point of converting DVDs for my Apple TV as I can just play the DVD. I bought the Apple TV for music, both my converted CD collection and particularly for iTunes purchases, and for TV programs, movies or other video purchased from the iTunes Store, for which of course I'm provided no DVD to play.

I was under the impression that Internet piracy was strictly the purview of youth, the young, impoverished college or first job set. That is until I had an acquaintance, a couple years older than I, who got very much into downloading films from the Internet and burning his own... Well, *stolen* DVD collection. He talked about downloading over a day or two, or more, format encodes for a couple hours more at least, DVD burns of sometimes a half hour or so. I told him that at a very conservative hourly rate of $10 -- he is actually a $60 or 80,000 per year professional -- excluding unattended computer time, considering only the time he spent actually fooling with the process, he was spending about $40 for a movie, at best at DVD quality, for which he could buy as a new release for $17 dollars or within six months of release, $12 or even less. He'd *save* $15 a movie buying all HD BD versions at discount brick-and-mortar retailers.

He didn't seem to get it, and felt like he was somehow saving a fortune even though he was spending hours of hands-on time, and even spent *more* time making special labels for the discs and all kinds of madness. It was like some sort of perverse obsession rather than common theft. I don't even like to take the time to convert DVDs we legally own to iPod versions, but it's somewhat more convenient if we're, say, renting a cabin for a couple weeks and want to carry quite a few movies to watch on TV without hauling a big bag full of DVDs. In fact, if I already own a DVD and there's a $10 iTunes Store version available, it's pretty likely if I want it for portability, vacation, that sort of thing, I'll just spend the extra $10 and buy it again as an iTunes Store version. For me, the whole video iPod/Apple TV combination -- it's why I bought an Apple TV -- is best suited for managing converted music CDs -- I have *a lot* more CDs to juggle than DVDs, and it's more important to me to carry 700 albums around than 15 movies -- iTunes Store music, and Store TV shows -- less expensive by the season on the iTunes Store than on multi-DVD sets -- and of course iTunes Store movies bought for convenience because it was quite a bit quicker to buy and download a movie to watch than run out, try and track down a DVD copy, or wait for it to ship from a Web store -- often cheaper, too. But that's just me.

I guess the point of the foregoing lengthy digression is that I just don't see why not-for-profit piracy persists in the West as much as it does. The iTunes Store has a mammoth library of music -- even obscure songs and albums; better inventory than almost any record store -- in stock all the time, 24 hours a day, at a discount price. TV shows of all sorts are readily available, by season or episode, at reasonable, even cut-rate prices. The movie category of the store could be better stocked of course, but that takes time, and the prices are at least no more expensive than the DVD versions.. It seems the prevalence of piracy that doesn't make the pirate a dime has more to do with the feeling of getting away with something, "sticking it to the Man", something like that, than it does really getting anything for free, if you consider your time spent acquiring and managing the stuff, and the hard cost purchasing some sort of permanent or rewritable storage media.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Ok I'm not defending piracy, but in the interests of clarification:
1. You're acting like there's no time investment in buying legit DVDs. Let's call it 45-60 minutes for pirating and 15-30 minutes for legit (unless you are driving to a store to get it, in which case it's probably more time spent than if you pirated it). It's not such a big disparity as you make out, and your friend is obviously not doing it "right," if you're giving an accurate description.
2. Some cams are not that bad, especially for comedies or other movies where video fidelity is not critical. I saw Anchorman for example on a crappy cam version, and it actually added something to the ambiance of the movie. This was not a movie I would have paid money to see, btw. Also there can be a social event of watching a movie at your house that's not out yet. I once invited people over to see a Simpsons halloween special because I got it a week before it aired (internal leak). The content was actually pretty lousy (it was a DVD rip, just not a good episode), but the fact that we got it beforehand was kind of cool.
3. Many piracies are DVD-screeners, which means the quality is just like a DVD, but sometimes it has disclaimers at the bottom of the screen. For a mediocre movie that you'd still like to see, the difference between watching it when the "buzz" is still around on a DVD-screener and waiting to pay for the DVD can be significant.

Whatever convenience and savings there is is about evenly balanced by the risk of getting sued, I'd say. It boils down to your sense of right and wrong. Piracy is quite obviously wrong.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by sanford 

peeb,

Personal-use piracy as in downloading copyright music otherwise for sale, from file sharing services for free. Or copying rented DVDs and then returning the rental. Copying or downloading commercial video games, with the no intent of duplicating the game and distributing it. That's piracy, and it's for personal use, instead of selling the pirated material or making copies available to others, electronically or on physical media. It's certainly not fair use.

I was talking about a social phenomenon, not a legal doctrine. Now if I'd said "fair-use piracy"... Well, "fair use" is a legal doctrine intrinsic to western copyright law; and it's antithetical to piracy, or at least not legally considered piracy. But there is such a thing as piracy for personal use: pirated, not for sale or distribution, but just for one's own enjoyment.

At any rate, I was saying that the hard cost and effort of, say, renting a DVD, copying it, returning, the rental, is about equal to the cost of actually purchasing the DVD. So I'm having trouble, ethics aside, even seeing a cost incentive for people to pirate DVDs.

Ah, the confusion here is that 'personal use', as well as being a colloquial term, is a legal term with a specific meaning. In the context of copyright it is a legal exclusion from the usual restrictions for certain purposes. Using it to refer to non-commercial piracy that is not for distribution muddies the waters.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by badidea 

You mean a smiley like this one: ?

Please check my post!

That was pretty ambiguous-did it mean "I'm kidding" or "Take a hint and copy whatever you want"? I thought the latter. And I still wanted to reinforce that we will NOT tolerate anyone helping others violate copyright laws, so maybe I was being more cynical than I needed to be.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by sanford 

He didn't seem to get it, and felt like he was somehow saving a fortune even though he was spending hours of hands-on time, and even spent *more* time making special labels for the discs and all kinds of madness. It was like some sort of perverse obsession rather than common theft.

I know someone like that - it becomes more of a hobby than anything, the craft of it, if you like. Like making your own furniture I suppose, or model airplanes. Also though, your economics assume that he would convert all the time he spent making DVDs into billable hours, which seems questionable.

[sanford]

Originally Posted by peeb 

I know someone like that - it becomes more of a hobby than anything, the craft of it, if you like. Like making your own furniture I suppose, or model airplanes. Also though, your economics assume that he would convert all the time he spent making DVDs into billable hours, which seems questionable.

peeb,

That's the problem with the above and those "I'm deducting x amount from my internist's bill because he made me wait in his waiting room 90 minutes past the time of my scheduled appointment and I bill at z per hour" sorts of tirades. Just because you *could* bill, doesn't mean you *would* bill.

As for personal use, of course there is, and as a writer, I use it all the time in various direct and indirect capacities. I shouldn't have used "personal use" that way. "Non-commercial piracy" is a much better, in fact about perfect, term -- legal or common -- for what we're talking about.

As for my downloading-DVD-enthusiast acquaintance, I was going to write something just as you wrote to the poster who noted that my logic was perhaps a little skewed: it wasn't the money, savings or loss -- he never made those accountings -- but had become rather an obsessive sort of hobby; so my logic about financial incentive while I think valid, as pointed out, wouldn't really apply to him. (He was out on medical leave at the time, not really what I'd call a very Zen person, also not particularly interested in a variety of non-paying avocations, and was likely bored out of his skull, thus he latched onto the first thing he found of which to make a hobby.)

As for me, I never really had to get to the point of an ethical decision about these things. For better or worse I'm a collector: I like to have the physical item; it has significance for me. I've only recently started buying a lot of my music from iTunes, over CDs, partly due to economy -- the price difference really isn't all that small, especially if you buy quite a bit of music -- but mostly because five years ago I had a used and new record shop with great, diverse inventory a four minute walk from our townhouse; it closed, as did the one a ten minute walk away. These days the nearest, almost only, store of admirable inventory is overpriced even for an independent -- they know they're all that's left -- and an hour bus-and-train expedition, one way, as the closer "electronics super stores" and "book and music mega-chains" have a pitiable selection of classic rock/pop albums I either already own or don't wish to, and a stock of new music that is, except for the odd exception, nothing but over-marketed, low-talent, vanilla ultra-pop. Believe it or not, Super Target has the best selection of diverse discs at good prices; and they only stock perhaps 15 CDs in that category. Once you've run through them, it's a wait until they turn over inventory.

At any rate, when downloading in pirate fashion free music from the Internet was popular and the only electronic distribution option, I wouldn't have even *bought* music in purely electronic form. So it's hard for me to judge too harshly as I was never in a position to make the decision, although I think I probably would have felt quite uncomfortable with it, at least after a short while. At any rate, I'm the same with movies: I want the DVD or BD to possess; or in a pinch for convenience I'll buy a movie from the iTunes Store, knowing I'm getting at least good-quality encode and properly created data file.

p.s. Also I'm probably not as sharp on this stuff as I could be. I can't even get the current version of Handbrake to convert a version of a DVD I own so that it will work on both my iPod and Apple TV. The iPod version won't work on the Apple TV, so, bit-rate and resolution issues aside, I have to have two versions. Of course I can just as easily play the DVD on the system to which the Apple TV is attached, so I've given up trying to figure it out.