Redfox.bz gone ??

[october262]

The loss of Redfox is a tragedy and a hard blow for the community,

In the era of streaming, with Netflix/Hulu/etc so widely adopted now, I have to wonder how large the community is now. There's not much demand for copying discs anymore, not like the 2000s.

plus disc manufactures like Sony discontinuing burnable media to consumers -
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/sony-stops-producing-blu-ray-and-optical-di...l-unprofitable

[Moody_Blues]

The loss of Redfox is a tragedy and a hard blow for the community,

In the era of streaming, with Netflix/Hulu/etc so widely adopted now, I have to wonder how large the community is now. There's not much demand for copying discs anymore, not like the 2000s.

The community is the guys who are movie enthusiasts that want best picture and best sound. But most - like me - don't burn to disc anymore but play ISOs from hard disk. Streaming is not there (yet).

[Seeker47]

The loss of Redfox is a tragedy and a hard blow for the community,

In the era of streaming, with Netflix/Hulu/etc so widely adopted now, I have to wonder how large the community is now. There's not much demand for copying discs anymore, not like the 2000s.

The community is the guys who are movie enthusiasts that want best picture and best sound. But most - like me - don't burn to disc anymore but play ISOs from hard disk. Streaming is not there (yet).

Streaming is capped at -- what (?) -- 2K ? Plus lordsmurf seemed to be overlooking their streaming products, Anystream and whatever the Fab product was called, for whatever those were worth. But I have to suppose that the folks who populate all the Scene Release sites with very-quick-turnaround posts of most popular movies and shows, at up to 2K res., must be utilizing better means than said programs.

[Seeker47]

(And streaming is capped at Zero, when you have lousy WiFi infrastructure for it, as I do.)

[schlimfi]

I don't know in which directory it should be in and AnyDVD HD my license has expired, thats the problem.

They would have e-mailed you a file like this: AnyDVDHD_Key_LMR-EBT.AnyDVDHD

If you you only bought a 6 months or 1 year subscription and it has expired, then you are doomed, sorry. I would say when you insert your disc with an expired version, AnyDVD is trying to call home, but home does not exist any more, I have a lifetime licence which works off-line and that is why it still works.

Xreveal

Have you tried VLC Media Player with Xreveal running. It works with 4K UHD and the Pioneer drive. However, I have a one-year full software license for Xreveal and that may be the reason.

Yes, i bought a 1 year license for AnyDVD HD, and it has expired on 1st. of July. I am doomed, you're right. But with Xreveal and FindVUK i can play my 4k movie discs with the program PlayerFab. Thats all i want, watch my movies on my pc with an internal 4k drive. Not interested in copy or ripping.

The streaming services are good and have their advantages but also disadvantages. I rarely use them and they don't have all the films I want to watch. In addition, the picture and sound quality is compressed compared to a 4k film disc. There you have totally uncompressed Quality, best possible picture and sound.

[Seeker47]

Glad for anyone who has better and enjoys it, but I'm still content with my old 1080P plasma sets. No interest in upgrading, until and unless they should fail at some point. If and when that happens, most likely repairs won't be a practical, viable option. I'm not sure what (non-streaming) gear -- if any -- might then be able to feed 2K or 4K to the current bigscreen sets, with excellent quality, but if there is such I'm sure it will be quite expensive. Aren't BR-or-better decks pretty much a thing of the past ? No way I'm paying big bucks for something ordered from Japan, that has no dealer or service presence in this country. I'll leave that to the experimentalists with very deep pockets. (The local high-end Home Theater shop I got a lot of my present gear from went belly-up years ago, as did I think most of their competitors.)

[schlimfi]

The people who are completely sufficient to watch DVDs and Blu-rays films or series discs naturally have the advantage of saving money and simply watching them on the PC with an internal drive, without the restrictions of the special 4K copy protection, which you only use with tricks can look at.

There should even be people who have still an HD DVD filmdisc collection at home and use them. This is also possible with tricks to watch them on the PC.

It is completely unclear to me why Intel and the film industry want to prevent all means to legally watch 4k filmdiscs and series on the PC. Everyone should only use the television with a 4K player. Alternatives are undesirable. That makes no sense at all.

With the argument there would be too few users to look at the film disc on the PC, you don't need to come, that is an excuse.
I am for alternatives where the end user can choose and not for compulsion.
Same problem in the PC Games Industry.

I wouldn't be surprised if the 4K players will disappear from the market in a few years. You can then only use streaming services.
A completely crazy development in my opinion.

[Seeker47]

What I could afford to do if I really wanted to is one thing (and much less of an impediment) vs. what I feel compelled to do or am willing to bother with. So it is with 2K or 4K. I had thought 4K was pretty much the province of digital projection in cinemas these days, but I may not be sufficiently up to date on these things. _Or_ quite possibly an option for those with fancier home theater setups. (Even as I gather that 8K gear has appeared at CES -- the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.) Probably more as a companies' demo and bragging rights sort of thing ?

Watching movies on a PC ? Nah, not for me. But then I'm also totally flummoxed by the predilections of the generation that will watch movies on their cell phones. The PC viewing is of course a real step up from that, but one that still falls way short -- if you care at all about the film experience.

All that said, I would really snap to attention if & when there is ever high-resolution, good-sized good quality, no special glasses required, holographic projection for home use. (Unlikely, within our lifetimes ?) But then, you'd still need the abundant program content to support it.

[TreeTops]

And that too will be encrypted. (holographic images)

[lordsmurf]

In addition, the picture and sound quality is compressed compared to a 4k film disc.

Discs are also compressed delivery formats.

Streaming is capped at -- what (?) -- 2K ? Plus lordsmurf seemed to be overlooking their streaming products, Anystream and whatever the Fab product was called,

Most of that stuff is just stream downloaders, or re-recorders (lose quality).

[schlimfi]

When trying to start Star Trek II from the 4k film disk in the pc drive, Xreveal gives the error message: no decryption file found in keydb.cfg
Other films that I have tested so far worked perfectly.

[NewOldGuy]

I'm probably older than 99% of the people on this forum. I go way back to before Slysoft's beginning. In the early 2000's there was a software product called DVD Decrypter written by Lightning UK who later wrote ImgBurn. It was absolutely free to download and install, didn't require an internet connection, and was frequently updated. I used it a lot and thought it was a beautiful piece of software. Then, sometime in early 2005, the DVD Decrypter site was suddenly taken down and the alternate download sites started removing DVD Decrypter. As far as I know the reason for DVD Decrypter being taken down is still unknown publicly. My conjecture was always that some organization with the authority told Lightening UK to cease and desist or else and to not reveal the reason for doing so. Who or what turned that mystery organization on, if that's the case, I don't know. I realize that my story doesn't solve the Redfox disappearance mystery but it sure seems familiar to me.

[doctorm]

I thought DVD Decrypter's author got hit with criminal charges, but maybe I'm mis-remembering that.

[Moody_Blues]

Don't speculate. Google it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Decrypter

[Moody_Blues]

I'm probably older than 99% of the people on this forum. I go way back to before Slysoft's beginning. In the early 2000's there was a software product called DVD Decrypter written by Lightning UK who later wrote ImgBurn. It was absolutely free to download and install, didn't require an internet connection, and was frequently updated. I used it a lot and thought it was a beautiful piece of software. Then, sometime in early 2005, the DVD Decrypter site was suddenly taken down and the alternate download sites started removing DVD Decrypter. As far as I know the reason for DVD Decrypter being taken down is still unknown publicly. My conjecture was always that some organization with the authority told Lightening UK to cease and desist or else and to not reveal the reason for doing so. Who or what turned that mystery organization on, if that's the case, I don't know. I realize that my story doesn't solve the Redfox disappearance mystery but it sure seems familiar to me.

Redfox had to go for similar reasons but it was another institution that called the authorities.

[Seeker47]

IDK if DVD Decrypter still retains any functional value, but I'm guessing I must have copies of it somewhere, likely on older computers that are bootable but no longer in active service. Can't recall the extent to which I may have used it back then, but I probably did. Probably of the same software generation as RipItForMe, which I definitely used at one time.

We have some better or more capable tools available to us nowadays, from the likes of Digiarty (WinX), Wonderfox, and MakeMKV -- although only the latter provides a Free program option.

[doctorm]

IIRC, the problem I've found with MakeMKV is it doesn't remove region coding.

[Seeker47]

IIRC, the problem I've found with MakeMKV is it doesn't remove region coding.

And there's no other way to remove that ?
I had thought that once you've turned it into a video file, it's Game Over for anything that might want to get in your way for playing it. I play all kinds of stuff that way -- PAL, you name it. Of course, one possibly intervening factor is that I most often play through a USB port on my Oppo BR deck, which I'm pretty sure is Region Free. Not sure whether this would be any different, doing this via the Nvidia Shield, which is typically running VLC -- although there are a couple other software players available for it.

[Lostion]

If its in .mkv (remuxed) there is no region code.

[doctorm]

If its in .mkv (remuxed) there is no region code.

But there is if it makes a backup copy of the disc... like DVD Decrypter.
Although I did once make a backup copy of a DVD with MakeMKV, mounted it as an .iso and then re-ripped it with Decrypter to get rid of the region code. Not ideal, but successful.

[steptoe]

IDK if DVD Decrypter still retains any functional value, but I'm guessing I must have copies of it somewhere, likely on older computers that are bootable but no longer in active service. Can't recall the extent to which I may have used it back then, but I probably did. Probably of the same software generation as RipItForMe, which I definitely used at one time.

We have some better or more capable tools available to us nowadays, from the likes of Digiarty (WinX), Wonderfox, and MakeMKV -- although only the latter provides a Free program option.

I used DVD Decrypter myself until it was suddenly blocked and banned from everywhere. His method of removing copy protection was too good so they went after him with a cease and desist or face HUGE fines with immediate effect. You were still able to use DVD Decrypter with AnyDVD removing the protection but DVD Decrypter doing the ripping as it was more accurate. SlySoft then were targeted so moved their servers to a more friendly country but eventually that went and they gave up. DVD Decrypter is still available to download from various legal sites as it cannot handle modern protection methods and IMGBurn is basically DVD Decrypter but with decryption removed. I still use IMGBURN to burn DVDs, but not very often anymore





Nintendo have imposed MASSIVE fines in MILLIONS of dollars for Nintendo emulation with their logic that if you download a ripped game 100,000 times then the author of the emulator is personally libel for loss of revenue of the 100,000 copies as they would have bought that game rather than download the rip and play it via an emulator. Yeah really ....

[Lostion]

If its in .mkv (remuxed) there is no region code.

But there is if it makes a backup copy of the disc... like DVD Decrypter.
Although I did once make a backup copy of a DVD with MakeMKV, mounted it as an .iso and then re-ripped it with Decrypter to get rid of the region code. Not ideal, but successful.

First time in my life that i hear that but you are right:

https://www.reddit.com/r/makemkv/comments/tz1qaf/removing_region_code/

Never had any issues with regional codes when i used MakeMKV thats why i'am so surprised.

[Seeker47]

I haven't used MakeMKV to make a backup copy of the disc, only to transform contents into .MKV format -- so that is likely a contributor to my general lack of issues with it.

What pre-capitulation version of DVD Decrypter should I be looking for on old HDD storage -- that was still fully capable, at least for its time ? But limited residual value I suppose, if modern protection methods have passed it by ? However, as noted, there is still MakeMKV, and possibly BDtoAVCHD. Those respective rippers from Digiarty / WinX and Wonderfox I think (?) could also deal with removing the protections, for backup. (May have been for DVD only ? For BR there is still DVDFab.) To what extent those rippers kept up-to-date I don't know.