Warner Bros: New Program To Digitize Your DVDs 371
shoutingloudly writes "Warner Brothers has just announced a new 'Disc-to-Digital' program to convert your DVDs into digital files that you can play on your internet-connected computers. As the helpful Public Knowledge graphics demonstrate, all you have to do is find a participating store, drive there, pay again for your movie, wait while it's ripped for you, drive home, and hope it works. This will surely have tech-savvy movie fans saying, 'Brilliant! I've been looking for an excuse to uninstall this free, 1-step DVD ripper that I can use in the comfort of my own home. This is much better than DMCA reform.'"
In exchange for paying a bit more you might get a higher resolution copy (DRM encumbered and stored in "the cloud"). The launch process is absurdly cumbersome, but: "Later on, Internet retailers like Amazon.com will email customers to offer digital copies of DVDs they previously bought. Eventually, consumers will be able to put DVDs into PCs or certain Blu-ray players that will upload a copy, similar to the way people turn music CDs into MP3 files." Will the video distributors ever offer DRM-free files that you own? The music industry doesn't seem to be any worse off than they were when they insisted upon DRM.
Handbrake Plug (Score:5, Informative)
Rip them to m4v and host them with PS3 Media Server [google.com] and then they're good to play over your network to your PS3 or XBox 360 (and probably any other UPnP compliant device).
Do I feel guilty that I have shelled out $35+ for each of the 22 sets of MST3K and each season of Futurama and then violated copyright to move said shows onto any device capable of playing video? Not one fucking bit. Go ahead and do your little song and dance, I've got my shit figured out (thank you open source!).
Re:Already have some (Score:5, Informative)
don't forget handbrake and ripbotx264
They stabbed it with their steely knives... (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone remember when you could get self-destructing DVD's that had an oxidizing layer that only made them good for a few days? That flopped, then IIRC Disney bought and tried to resurrect the tech.
Anytime these somebody at one of these companies gets an idea on how to put a fence around their users, they try it. The general idea seems to be if you throw enough shit at the wall, some of it is bound to stick.
Every time I hear of one of these crackpot schemes I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I do get an image in my mind of Daffy Duck going "mine, mine, mine, mine" as he shrinks away.
The music and television references in the above are there because I want them to be. Issues a takedown if you must!
Re:Handbrake Plug (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Handbrake Plug (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Already have some (Score:2, Informative)
I like dvdbackup to rip the contents of the DVD, then I just concatenate the VOBs together manually with cat and pass them through ffmpeg to compress them;
for BLAH in 1 2; do ffmpeg -i [VOB FILE] -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -pass $BLAH -sameq -aspect [ASPECT RATIO] -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec ac3 -sameq [AVI FILE] -map 0:0 -map 0:2; done
Re:Wait a minute. (Score:3, Informative)
Sort of. [wikipedia.org]
I mean, they're shiny and plastic like DVDs, but instead of a digital encoding, they use a series of pits which represent a fully over-modulated multi-band RF signal. The distance between the pit edges is the analog signal.
Re:Handbrake Plug (Score:5, Informative)
It uses libdvdread. libdvdread will use libdvdcss if it's available.... so you just have to make sure you have it in a location the dynamic loader can find it (eg with all the other dll/so files in it's installation)
Re:Wait a minute. (Score:5, Informative)
The summary is misleading (as usual). There is no ripping and copying of each DVD, that would be stupid.
From what I have read about it they just verify that you own the DVD, mark the inner ring with some stamp so that you can't just give it to your friend to take back to the store, and then charge you a couple of dollars for each to add the movies to a digital rights locker (Ultraviolet, or whatever). After that you can stream it on any computer/device/tablet/whatever that supports it.
Better deal than buying a whole new streaming version, I guess, but given how they always make the distinction of "ownership" vs. "right to watch" you'd think you already paid for the right to watch it and should get this service for *free*. I guess *if* the streaming service actually stays around it will cover their lifetime streaming costs, etc, for the movie (though I think = $0.50 would cover that, given most people don't end up watching most movies they buy more than once).
Re:For only a small fee I can watch my own movie? (Score:2, Informative)
I'm not protesting it ... but I'm not going there until I have no other choice.
I'm protesting. When I buy something, I want to own it!
Re:Copying-labor fee or License-to-watch fee? (Score:5, Informative)
Ripping software should strip out any Macrovision protection.
Re:For only a small fee I can watch my own movie? (Score:5, Informative)
That's the part you don't understand, it's been true since the dawn of copyright but many people are just ignorant to the fact that you never owned it, what you bought was a license, not the content.
Not according to the law. When you walk into a store and buy a music CD, DVD, or whatever, you buy that specific physical copy, not a license. You can play that copy at home without a license. A license (=permission) is only required to do something which is normally forbidden, and copyright doesn't apply to private performances, only to public performances and the manufacturing of copies.
The copyright lobby would have you believe they have absolute rights to copyrighted content, and can control when and how you use it. That's a lie. Once they sell you a physical copy, the law allows you to do whatever you want with it (excepting performing it publicly or manufacturing copies).