Can't rip screeners

[pmjm]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the Screen Actors Guild and have been sent several screeners of movies from the stuidios for awards/voting consideration. I no longer have a DVD or BluRay player connected to any of my TVs, instead I use Plex and Rokus to watch movies at my home.

I need to rip these DVDs to load into my Plex server so I can watch them. I will NOT be sharing them (please don't ask) and genuinely only need to rip them for legitimate usage.

I've tried every method I know to rip these discs and all have resulted in failure. Typically I use AnyDVD (now RedFox) + Handbrake. Handbrake crashes when I try to open some discs, on others it says there is no valid title. MakeMKV fails (Scsi Error - ILLEGAL REQUEST: COPY PROTECTION KEY EXCHANGE FAILURE - AUTHENTICATION FAILURE occurred while reading '/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB' at offset '2048') when opening the discs. DVD Decrypter won't open the discs. DVDFab won't open the discs (with or without Passkey). It seems the studios have really upped their game at DVD copy protection (which I thought was dead in the water by now).

I did grab my old DVD of The Matrix and test-rip it just to make sure there's nothing wrong with my DVD drive, and sure enough it rips correctly.

Just wondering if anyone knows any methods that might work to rip these things.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Oh, also AnyDVD's internal ripping capability also freezes at 0% when I try to use it.

[JVRaines]

Piracy of screeners has become such a huge problem, I'm not surprised that the studios have taken extraordinary measures to protect these discs. As a professional member of the movie community, you should be concerned as well. How about just borrowing a drive to watch them?

[sneaker]

Probably best if you ask on the RedFox Forum. Or simply invest those $ 50 into a player...

[DB83]

Just watch them on your PC

[october262]

With dvdfab click common settings - dvd - pathplayer - Slect disable pathplayer
Restart dvdfab and try the disc again.

[pmjm]

Piracy of screeners has become such a huge problem, I'm not surprised that the studios have taken extraordinary measures to protect these discs. As a professional member of the movie community, you should be concerned as well. How about just borrowing a drive to watch them?

While I am certainly concerned with the effect of piracy on my industry, I will not be contributing to it and simply want to watch properly obtained media in a more convenient fashion. My TVs are inset into the walls and their ports are not easily accessible, plus I like the ability to move from room-to-room, or maybe watch on a mobile device. First world problems, obviously, but my reasons are well within fair use.

Maybe these discs contain the latest technology that has yet to be defeated by ripping software, which I can totally accept as a possibility. But I'm frankly surprised that several replies in this thread in the DVD Ripping Forum are advising me to not rip (and I say that meaning no disrespect whatsoever).

With dvdfab click common settings - dvd - pathplayer - Slect disable pathplayer
Restart dvdfab and try the disc again.

Good thought. Tried this and it had no effect. Thanks though.

[gll99]

Piracy of screeners has become such a huge problem, I'm not surprised that the studios have taken extraordinary measures to protect these discs. As a professional member of the movie community, you should be concerned as well. How about just borrowing a drive to watch them?

While I am certainly concerned with the effect of piracy on my industry, I will not be contributing to it and simply want to watch properly obtained media in a more convenient fashion. My TVs are inset into the walls and their ports are not easily accessible, plus I like the ability to move from room-to-room, or maybe watch on a mobile device. First world problems, obviously, but my reasons are well within fair use.

Maybe these discs contain the latest technology that has yet to be defeated by ripping software, which I can totally accept as a possibility. But I'm frankly surprised that several replies in this thread in the DVD Ripping Forum are advising me to not rip (and I say that meaning no disrespect whatsoever).

With dvdfab click common settings - dvd - pathplayer - Slect disable pathplayer
Restart dvdfab and try the disc again.

Good thought. Tried this and it had no effect. Thanks though.

How are you watching and reviewing these now? Since you don't have a standalone DVD or Blu-ray player connected to your TVs, do computer software players like PowerDVD even recognize these discs? I'd be very surprised.

My take:

1st) Not sure about DVDs but it's not surprising that BD ripping won't work if you have those too. My understanding is that the ripping software owners need to derive the key and make it available via their database. Since these discs have never been made public how could any of the existing software work? Even the final public release disc keys will probably not match these discs. Unless you learn to decipher them yourself none will ever work. That's why I wonder if computer software players will even play these discs.

2nd) Don't be surprised by users suggesting not trying to rip the discs. It's possible that your situation does not fall under fair use. Since you did not purchase the physical media you may not own it. These discs could be considered a services-rendered-fee rental. Aren't these discs not normally returned or supposed to be destroyed? You must have signed an agreement to receive those movie discs from the providers with a no copy and/or distribution clause. This may put you in violation of different laws and agreements with your Association and the content providers that are not covered under fair use. Although your intent is likely "genuine" IMO, the legal grounds may not be as firm as you believe. If so this would put your request in direct conflict with the site rules. We'll have to leave that up to the owner and moderators of this forum to decide.

3rd) If cabling is the big issue, when you inset your televisions there must be at least 1 hdmi cable going from a device such as a cable box that you could use to connect to your PC (if software players work - else a standalone BD player) which you could use to view the material on your TV even it if means adding an inexpensive switch box. If software players work then portability/mobility issues can be overcome with a laptop or similarly equipped device.

4th) If you feel inconvenienced by the format why not go back to the legal owners of the source material and ask that they consider other more up-to-date portable means of providing the videos in future. Possibly there are secure online methods to view the material or other available options that you were not made aware.

5th) Material can be copied as viewed. Due to fair use concerns I'm reluctant to discuss the various options further.

[johns0]

Why not buy a blu-ray player and watch the original disc that way?

[Baldrick]

Yep buy a cheap dvd/bluray player.

And please don't discuss how to rip movies you haven't bought (Read gll99 post about fair use) . Even if you just need to play them on your media player. Closing this thread.