Beating copy protection?

[Jeikobu]

A lot of newer DVD releases, particularly Disney, have some very difficult copy protection on them, which makes the DVD appear way oversized. I have MacTheRipper and it even says the disc is oversized when it tries to scan it. It recommends I use the option "rip and rebuild", but the title list doesn't make sense to me. On the disc I tried to copy, the top and bottom items are supposedly over 4000 GB each. There are a couple very small files early in the list, and I believe the rest is about 10 items all at exactly 3.81 GB each. How to I take advantage of this option and beat the protection to make a copy of my movie?

First, let me note I am absolutely not attempting to copy to sell illegally. That is something I'm totally opposed to. This is only for making a copy for my own personal use. Still, I can totally see how posting this in the open would be bad, especially if people with ill intentions found this thread and used whatever help I might receive for their own inappropriate gain. So, I'd prefer answers be PMed to me instead. Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

[Baldrick]

Have you tried any other mac ripper like ripit, mac dvdripper pro? Or use the free MakeMKV beta , you can convert the mkv to mp4 with handbrake.

[leghorn]

The protections Disney use are really sick. Anyway, I managed to beat the Disney Beauty and the Beast protection scheme with the latest DVDFab - on a WinXP system. Maybe you can get that to work on your Mac with an emulator...

[jman98]

Since MacTheRipper is freeware I truly don't know if it is updated often enough to defeat the ever changing copy protection that Disney, Sony, etc. use. I can tell you that on the Windows side of things that only commercial decryption programs like AnyDVD and DVDFab (the pay version, not the free one) get regular updates. All the freeware ripping programs under Windows gave up on trying to keep up with the newer copy protection methods a long time ago.

[Case]

Since MacTheRipper is freeware I truly don't know if it is updated often enough to defeat the ever changing copy protection that Disney, Sony, etc. use.

The old freeware version of MTR 2.6.6 hasn't been updated since March 2005. Updates after that (v3.x and v4.x) were/are not freeware but donationware.

[rumplestiltskin]

If you don't need to end up with a DVD, why not give Handbrake a try? You'll also need to install VLC to let Handbrake access VLC's decryption library.

[Jeikobu]

I don't have access to Windows, only Mac. I also don't know that I'd have the money for an emulator, especially when even after that I'd probably have to buy WinXP and the given DVD ripping program.

Also, I'm looking to only rip the full disc, not convert it. I want to make an exact duplicate for myself.

Have you tried any other mac ripper like ripit, mac dvdripper pro? Or use the free MakeMKV beta , you can convert the mkv to mp4 with handbrake.

Aren't RipIt and Mac DVDRipper Pro only for OS X 10.5 and up? I want to get 10.5 eventually but I only have 10.4 at the moment. Only my brother has 10.5 and I don't want to buy the program for his computer when I'll need it again myself later (don't want to buy it twice of course).

[edDV]

The choice to go Mac implies surrender to "The Way". Settle, improve, good things.

[Ai Haibara]

I think there's also DVD2OneX and DVD Remaster Pro - both of those are listed on MacUpdate as requiring 10.4 or newer.

I've ripped a couple of discs using Fairmount (which also requires VLC to be installed, as it uses VLC's components to do the ripping). Fairmount (which is only distributed in the DVD Remaster DMG) is listed as being for 10.4 and newer. http://www.metakine.com/products/fairmount/

[Jeikobu]

Do you know if any of those can beat Disney-level protection?

[Ai Haibara]

Unfortunately, no, I don't know. You'd think that ideally, the payware would be able to, though. Both were updated in October, so they may be able to handle more recent protections.

For Fairmount, if you try it - if and when it mounts the DVD as a 'fake disc image' on the desktop do a Get Info on the mounted 'image.' If it's substantially over 8GB in size, then it probably does have issues with the Disney discs.

[terryj]

Since MacTheRipper is freeware I truly don't know if it is updated often enough to defeat the ever changing copy protection that Disney, Sony, etc. use.

The old freeware version of MTR 2.6.6 hasn't been updated since March 2005. Updates after that (v3.x and v4.x) were/are not freeware but donationware.

Mtr v. 4.1.5.4 currently eats Disney's "sick" copy protection scheme for lunch.
Well worth the $20 upgrade, IMHO.

Also, time to get off 10.4. You want to handle new things, but run a 5year old operating system?
It's like wondering why an 85 Buick Regal knocks and pings on e-15 gas.

[El Heggunte]

Also, time to get off 10.4. You want to handle new things, but run a 5year old operating system?
It's like wondering why an 85 Buick Regal knocks and pings on e-15 gas.

Except that the available commercial operating systems cannot be compared to automobiles
Actually, they are more of "traffic-jam managers"

[luigi2000]

I defeat the Disney discs by decrypting followed by use of the great (old) tools VobBlanker and VOB2MPG. Take that House of Mouse. Exact duplicates may be impossible; but who wants all the extra crap on a Disney disc anyway? If you are determined to remain Mac limited then find a friend with a PC.

[wakawakawaka]

New user here. I use a player such as VLC to display the real title of the main movie, to pick it out of the 99 other titles. Then I use either VLC or MPlayer to copy the main movie to an uncompressed MPEG file with either of the following commands. From there you can do what you want with it.

MPlayer Command
mplayer dvd://$title -dvd-device $drive -dumpstream -dumpfile /$directory/$name.mpg

VLC Command
vlc -vv -I rc $drive@$title --sout "#standard{access=file,mux=ps,dst=/$directory/$name.mpg"


replace $title with the title found by playing the DVD
replace $directory with the location you want the file
replace $name with the name you want for the mpeg file
replace $drive with the name of the DVD drive (/dev/sr0 for Linux)

This still works on the newest copy protection.

[stniuk]

Mac dvd ripper pro is quite good on the Disney disks.
http://www.macdvdripperpro.com/

[Ai Haibara]

The OP can't use that because he's using 10.4, though.

[andrewjameshoward]

I use RipIt4Me (using DVDDecrypter) to rip, PCGEdit to remove trailers etc, followed by VobBlanker, then DVDShrink. On the Diosney bogus big discs, the VTS's just repeat. You could run through the disc with DVDDecrypter, aborting each file, noting the sector numbers and you will see that the sector numbers repeat. You can use Ripit4me - just decrypt one set of the large VOBs, then abort. Make multiple copies and rename them VTS6, VTS7 etc. Then run RipIt4Me again, selecting only a few files to decrypt. When it pauses, copy the other files into the working directory so RipIt4Me will think it has ripped the whole 50GB disc. Skip the next cleanup step but do do the cleanup VOBs step. Then load your 50GB ripped DVD into PCGEdit. In trace mode, you will be able to see which is the real DVD and which are the bogus VTS's. You can blank all these in VobBlanker and end up with a normal sized DVD.

So for years, I've never needed to go beyond the freeware solutions to make backups of my legally acquired Disney DVDs to watch on my PC. HOWEVER, just recently I have had a couple of discs which are more tricky. Pirates of the Caribbean 4 has VTS's which crash both PCGEdit and VobBlanker. Solution - a mockstrip with IfoEdit sorts out the PCGEdit crashing VTS's and the VobBlanker crashing VTS can be removed with PCGEdit. Cars 2 I had similar problems with and was unable to overcome them. Well done Disney - you finally made it hard!

[Ai Haibara]

I'm not sure the OP is looking for a solution that'll require him to use Windows, Crossover/Wine or Parallels, though. :P

[andrewjameshoward]

Indeed you're right, original query is from a mac user, though as you say, wine could take them into a windows environment. The issue does seem to transcend operating system - mac and windows users alike get stuck. Also, I came across this thread by a google query - other windows users may do the same and be interested in my experiences.

On which note, an update. With Cars 2, I eventually got something which opened in both pcgedit and vobblanker. The stumbling block was dvdshrink. After resorting to payware, I got myself a working 4.3GB sized DVD structure on my PC using Clonedvd. This plays perfectly eg in wmp or mplayer classic HD. Just for curiosity's sake, I mounted it as an ISO with daemon tools, pretended it was real dvd, ran it through a ripping sequence (ripit4me, pcgedit etc.). Now it worked with no problem, but still got stuck at DVDShrink which said that it gave it an abnormal runtime termination. So I could make a sinlgle layer DVD copy if I wanted, but I can't use freeware dvdshrink. I just have an intellectual curiosity as to what the glitch in this dvd structure is and whether freeware tools could fix it. For example, Ifoedit - there's no proper documentation for it anywhere I can find. I just suspect, if I knew how to use it to its full potential, it could eradicate the glitch.

[pixel zombie]

I was able to use RipIt on Cars2 without so much as a hiccup. It is well worth the effort to upgrade past 10.4, not only is your computer faster and more stable but you can use the latest apps as well. I am currently running 10.6.8

[andrewjameshoward]

This is a Mac thread I know and I keep talking about my Windows experience. Editing out various VTS's, I got PGCEdit and VobBlanker to accept Cars 2 but still had a set of DVD files which made DVDShrink crash - something about a runtime error. Through another forum (DVDShrink.org) I happened upon DVDFab HD Decrypter. This is FREEWARE, permanently freeware. There are additional functions you have to pay for. But using the free functionality I was able to produce a set of DVD files which DVDShrink would accept. And it was much quicker than the way I had been doing it before.

I note that DVDFab HD Decrypter is available for Mac too. I haven't tried it on a Mac, but based on my Windows experience it's well worth a look.

[ChrisCosta]

I've tried DVDFab HD Decrypter after MacTheRipper got stupid with the convoluted "mandatory donation" and registration system. It's worked pretty good so far on some recent DVD's. It rips the full disk or just the main feature, from there you can drop it into other apps, like Handbrake, ffmpegX, D-Vision, etc to make digital copies. As other people have mentioned, upgrading to at least OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) would open up a whole bunch of possibilities for handling ripping/converting.

[Ai Haibara]

I've tried DVDFab HD Decrypter after MacTheRipper got stupid with the convoluted "mandatory donation" and registration system. It's worked pretty good so far on some recent DVD's. It rips the full disk or just the main feature, from there you can drop it into other apps, like Handbrake, ffmpegX, D-Vision, etc to make digital copies. As other people have mentioned, upgrading to at least OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) would open up a whole bunch of possibilities for handling ripping/converting.

Is that the Mac version of DVDFab andrewjameshoward mentioned, above? This is what I found on the DVDFab site: http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd_ripper-for-mac.htm; I was wondering if it's mostly like the Windows version, in which you can use the base ripper for free (though it may not be as up-to-date as the paid version). I rarely do any DVD ripping, so I'm unsure if I should buy any of the rippers, just yet. (Besides, looking in the package reveals that it installs one or more .kexts, and I'll admit I'm a little wary about those at the moment. )

Edit: Jeikobu has a G4... can those be upgraded to Snow Leopard? I've forgotten. I thought I remembered reading that they couldn't.
Edit #2: Yeah, looks like they can't. Snow Leopard requires an Intel system, so the G4 may only be able to update to 10.5.8 (Leopard).

[r0lZ]

I want to make an exact duplicate for myself.

If you don't want to change anything, then you should try to copy the DVD to an ISO, and burn the ISO. It's usually easier for the copier program, as it doesn't need to "understand" the protection. However, the current protections are based also on unreadable sectors, so you need a ripper that can handle them. Since I'm not a Mac user, I can't help on that point.

[andrewjameshoward]

Mmmm, another issue is that the disc "spoofs" a much bigger disc size. So a dual layer DVD looks like a 60GB disc. Without removing this spoof, you can extract the files (of course you have to overcome other issues such as the unreadable sectors as well) and even produce a 60GB ISO. You can remove all the redundant material (basicly just repeated copies of the same disc sectors) with tools such as pcgedit/vobblanker (sorry, don't know what the best mac tools are). But DVDFab does this all automatically.

I am wary of what else might be in a product like this and maybe it's best to use a sandbox system.

[r0lZ]

If you extract the files and then create a new ISO, then you're right: the ISO will be too big. But if you do a 1:1 copy of the DVD directly to the ISO, it should have the size of the original DVD, as nothing is changed in its structure. The dummy files are still referenced, but they do not consume extra space. The price to pay is that you cannot modify the ISO in any way.

[andrewjameshoward]

So is there a freeware ripper which makes 1 to 1 copies, leaving everything else unchanged, except that it removes the unreadable sectors, macrovision protection and css?