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How to rip DVDs with newer copy protection?

wastelands — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:13:50 -0800

How do I work around the newer DVD copy protection? Recently I tried to backup a DVD of Hancock to a hard drive via DVD Shrink. It failed with a CRC error at 8% into the disc (almost exactly where the movie starts). Handbrake also choked and showed encoding times that kept doubling indefinitely. The movie played from the actual disc mostly okay in VLC with a only slight hiccup at that beginning of movie mark. I saw at least one other person online who had trouble ripping this particular DVD.

I have heard some newer DVDs have better copy protection on them. I'm not totally sure this was the case with Hancock; maybe it was a bad disc. But in general, is there a good way to work around these schemes?

I'm on Win XP.

Help me figure out why my DVDs won't play on my computer.

MadamM — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 19:39:10 -0800

Why won't these DVDs play on my computer? For some reason, a few new DVDs I've tried to watch on my computer recently won't play properly. They won't play at all on my usual DVD program, and when I use VLC (my usual last resort) they play without any dialogue. Because older DVDs still work fine, I figure it's some fancy pants new copy protection scheme. Why aren't these DVDs playing properly, and how can I force them to? Some sound still comes through (mostly music and background noise), but dialogue comes through about one line out of twenty. So far, A Knight's Tale works fine, and A History of Violence and The Devil Wears Prada have the no dialogue problem on VLC.

When I try to play either of these DVDs in Windows Media Player or the standalone DVD player program I use, they won't play at all, giving wierd error messages or saying that the disc isn't a format recognized by Windows.

Oh yeah, this is a Windows machine. I haven't installed any new software since this problem arose. I haven't had any other audio problems. I'll try to answer any other questions that might help diagnose the problem.

Mostly I just want to know how to play these DVDs on my computer. I'm also interested in what the heck is happening though, because none of my googling has found anyone with a similar complaint (which makes me doubt my copy protection scheme theory).

Copy-protect a book?

londongeezer — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:18:11 -0800

A few years a book of mine was published by a well-known house. Now it is out of print. Last time I looked, a used copy cost $1,000 on amazon.com. Despite such indications of continuing interest and demand, the original publisher does not want to reprint the book. The publisher's point is, it was a very expensive book to produce: hundreds of pages, hundreds of colour plates. I believe I may be able to regain the rights to the book and republish it myself. But I also balk at paying tens of thousands of dollars (maybe more) to print it. I would like to redesign it and offer it as a web download, for a modest but not entirely negligible sum, maybe $25.

My question is: assuming my book is offered as a pdf file (no other type springs to mind as offering both instant readability and unvarying design/formatting on all computers), is there a way to limit a purchaser's ability to make copies of the file? I want something like the existing copy protection systems for music. Put simply, I would like anyone who buys the digitised book to be unable to pass a digital copy on to anyone else (although I wouldn't limit their ability to print a hard copy).

Can't read audio CDs

monkey closet — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 15:29:16 -0800

Help! My CD drive has stopped seeing audio CDs Win XP SP2
One little oddity is that properties will report the correct disc size if started in safe mode (but still can't see the contents), but reports size 0 normally.
I've already had removal of GEAR drivers recommended. Hasn't helped, but doesn't seem to have screwed anything either...
My guess is some kind of copy protection, but I really can't work out what, or where it lives. How do I find it?

Isn't it outrageous...

thejoshu — Thu, 11 May 2006 15:09:49 -0800

Surprise! Paul Simon's newest album works on an external CD player but not on either of my Macs. I assume this is a DRM issue (my experience, backed up by one Amazon review). The iBook says it can't recognize the CD and spits it out; the PowerBook says nothing and spits it out. Any ideas here, beyond bittorrent, returning the disc or initiating the class-action lawsuit? The label is Warner. There is no mention of DRM/compatibility on the disc.

Does anyone have experience creating a copy protected eBook?

aaronh — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 09:26:14 -0800

I have a client who has written a book that has been moderately successful in her field and she wants to create an eBook to sell online as well. Like any small volume author, she is concerned about sharing of her book in electronic format and is looking for a DRM solution. In my mind, Adobe eBooks are the most compatible and easy to distribute, but while they can be password protected, they have no inherent DRM to prevent copying to multiple machines. Microsoft's eReader (.LIT) would be next. It's pretty widely distributed and does have DRM available in the paid version. However, it seems that protection may have been cracked. I'm not super keen on tying something to MS security if I can avoid it but not completely against it, either. The 3rd option I can see are the millions of various 3rd party eBook creators. Most make executables which tend to be pretty bad to use and only available for Windows. None of these solutions seem like an obvious winner. Any thoughts or experience would be greatly appreciated. Also, I want to make sure this doesn't turn into a DRM/Open debate. As a software engineer who's written copy protected software in the past, I'm well aware of the problems and pitfalls of DRM and copy protection. My suggestion, like I imagine many of yours would be, is to protect the download and not the content, but that's out of my hands at this point.

Photocopy Watermarking Designs

medium format — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:57:55 -0800

designfilter How do I go about creating a Photocopy-Proof background for a document? I'm looking for something like what you see on certificates that reveals "Copy" or something similar when the document is put through a copy machine. I'm willing to pay for a design to use, but am also interested in how to go about creating one for myself. I'm sure that it has something to do with either dot-gain or screen angles, but have been unable to find any type of tutorial or otherwise that describes the process.

How do I copy the copy-controlled Beta Band CD?

ashbury — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 18:35:24 -0800

Does anybody know how to make a backup copy of the latest copy controlled Beta Band cd? When I put it in the computer, I was asked to install a player that I assume would play the cd "safely".

Why don't CDs in the US have copy protection?

punishinglemur — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 17:42:52 -0800

Why don't CDs in the US have copy protection? [mi] Over at BoingBoing, there's a post about copy protection on the new Beastie Boys disc. An update to the post notes that discs sold in the US and UK do not have copy protection, but discs everywhere else do. I've seen this before - the CDs will be copy protected in Europe, maybe even Canada, but won't have any DRM in the US. Of course, there are some DRM'd discs in the US, but it seems like the majority of them are outside of the states. Why?