Recommended DVD ripper?

[RyanH]

Does anyone have any recommendations on quality DVD ripping software? I've been using Handbrake and it works very well on some movies and not at all on others...I guess they are copy-protected. Primarily I just want to copy the movie to my hard drive and keep it in a WMV or AVI (or other recommended) format; I have no desire to clone DVDs to another disc. I've looked at several programs online to buy but they all in one way or another seem a little shady and too "cartoonish."

[usarose]

Originally Posted by RyanH

Does anyone have any recommendations on quality DVD ripping software? I've been using Handbrake and it works very well on some movies and not at all on others...I guess they are copy-protected. Primarily I just want to copy the movie to my hard drive and keep it in a WMV or AVI (or other recommended) format; I have no desire to clone DVDs to another disc. I've looked at several programs online to buy but they all in one way or another seem a little shady and too "cartoonish."

Ryan
Try Cucusoft
http://support.cucusoft.com
I use it for converting anything like DVD to IPOD etc
Cost $39 but nothing good is free...
Rob

[Ethan]

www.arcdvdcopy.com

[Integrity.PSI]

Originally Posted by RyanH

Does anyone have any recommendations on quality DVD ripping software? I've been using Handbrake and it works very well on some movies and not at all on others...I guess they are copy-protected. Primarily I just want to copy the movie to my hard drive and keep it in a WMV or AVI (or other recommended) format; I have no desire to clone DVDs to another disc. I've looked at several programs online to buy but they all in one way or another seem a little shady and too "cartoonish."

I use a great one that works well. I downloaded it free. dvd decrypter.
clonedvd2 is great for burning ripped files.

[JohnW]

Originally Posted by RyanH

Does anyone have any recommendations on quality DVD ripping software? I've been using Handbrake and it works very well on some movies and not at all on others...I guess they are copy-protected. Primarily I just want to copy the movie to my hard drive and keep it in a WMV or AVI (or other recommended) format; I have no desire to clone DVDs to another disc. I've looked at several programs online to buy but they all in one way or another seem a little shady and too "cartoonish."

I'm a little late on the reply Ryan, sorry. I would recommend DVD Shrink. DVD Shrink: Shrink your DVDs to fit DVDR! Works well. For CP discs try dvd decrypter. (You'll have to find the link for this). Both are free.

[RyanH]

I found one that works pretty well...Magic DVD ripper. This converts a DVD to an AVI or MPG format that can be run from a hard drive, flash drive, used on PDAs, smart phones, etc. It won't compress it to another DVD, but that's not really the intent. And for $35, it's a bargain. It even handled the encryped disks I threw at it. I own the things already, so why shouldn't I be able to view it on any media I choose, right?

[RPetry]

Ryan,

It even handled the encryped disks I threw at it. I own the things already, so why shouldn't I be able to view it on any media I choose, right?

DVD's, CD's etc. may be similar to software. You may own the media but not the content.

What is really scary is the unholy alliance of Micro$oft - Hollywood and the encryption now in the new Windows Vista. You may want to hold off buying any new graphics hardware if planning on viewing any High Definition content.

If you think corporate proprietary software, entertainment, and hardware giants have a stranglehold on the consumer now, take a frightening peek at the future...

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

"It's always darkest just before the lights go out."
-- Alex Clark

[JohnW]

Originally Posted by RPetry

Ryan,

DVD's, CD's etc. may be similar to software. You may own the media but not the content.

What is really scary is the unholy alliance of Micro$oft - Hollywood and the encryption now in the new Windows Vista. You may want to hold off buying any new graphics hardware if planning on viewing any High Definition content.

If you think corporate proprietary software, entertainment, and hardware giants have a stranglehold on the consumer now, take a frightening peek at the future...

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

Great Post!!! I listen to the 'Security Now' Podcast that features Steve Gibson of Gibson Research and Leo Leporte and they just had 2 podcasts back to back about all of the new DRM in Vista as well as all of the DRM in the Hi Def and Blu Ray stuff. I don't plan on moving to vista anytime soon. I feel bad for the consumers who don't know anything about computers and buy a new one in the coming months. They will be stuck with Vista.

[RPetry]

John,

I feel bad for the consumers who don't know anything about computers and buy a new one in the coming months. They will be stuck with Vista.

This may sound harsh, but I say let 'em keep on suffering. Most have been under the thumb of MS for years in blissful ignorance. Security breaches, blue screens, costly bad upgrades, poor design, closed proprietary standards, U.S. and European government lawsuits, monopolistic trade practices and so much more has been the stock in trade of MS over the past 15 yrs. If the masses have not figured it out by now, let the sheep be led to the slaughter.

Maybe once John Q. Public wastes a 1 or 2K or so on hardware that does not perform, the lessons of the past will finally hit home. Doubt it though.

What ticks me off is the many who threw off the yoke years ago will now have to pay what amounts to a private standards tax on any new hardware purchased.

It's spelled Linux, but it's pronounced `Not Windows'
It's spelled Windows, but it's pronounced `Aieeeeeeee!'
-- Shannon Hendrix

[RPetry]

More on Vista's DRM "features". Bold highlighting is my edit. Buyer beware. The following is from:
Woody’s no-bull news, tips and help for Windows and Office.

******************************

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Peter Gutmann, a security researcher at the University of Auckland (NZ), published a fascinating, eminently readable, scholarly paper called "A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection."

Alongside the all-or-nothing approach of disabling output, Vista requires that any interface that provides high-quality output degrade the signal quality that passes through it if premium content is present. This is done through a "constrictor" that downgrades the signal to a much lower-quality one, then up- scales it again back to the original spec, but with a significant loss in quality. So if you're using an expensive new LCD display fed from a high- quality DVI signal on your video card and there's protected content present, the picture you're going to see will be, as the spec puts it, "slightly fuzzy"... The same deliberate degrading of playback quality applies to audio, with the audio being downgraded to sound (from the spec) "fuzzy with less detail"... Amusingly, the Vista content protection docs say that it'll be left to graphics chip manufacturers to differentiate their product based on (deliberately degraded) video quality. This seems a bit like breaking the legs of Olympic athletes and then rating them based on how fast they can hobble on crutches.

You get the drift. I LOVE this guy.

Over the weekend, Nick White posted a rebuttal (well, sorta) on the Windows Vista Team blog. An excerpt:

Image quality constraints are only active when required by the policy associated with the content being played, and then only apply to that specific content -- not to any other content on the user's desktop. As a practical matter, image constraint will typically result in content being played at no worse than standard definition television resolution. In the case of HD optical media formats such as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, the constraint requirement is 520K pixels per frame (i.e., roughly 960x540), which is still higher than the native resolution of content distributed in the DVD-Video format. We feel that this is still yields a great user experience, even when using a high definition screen.

In other words, if you play a high definition DVD with Vista Media Player, you get pretty close to standard DVD output. If you've invested a lot of money in S/PDIF audio equipment, and you hook it up to your Vista PC, you won't be able to hear high quality audio through your S/PDIF system. Quoth Dr. Gutmann: Say you've just bought Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon", released as a Super Audio CD (SACD) in its 30th anniversary edition in 2003, and you want to play it under Vista. Since the S/PDIF link to your amplifier/speakers is regarded as insecure for playing the SA content, Vista disables it, and you end up hearing a performance by Marcel Marceau instead of Pink Floyd.

What a mess. P.T. Barnum would've been proud.