Media Intoxication

[snousle]

Would you believe that just the other day I ripped a CD for the first time? I was pretty impressed - you can set up Windows Media Player to rip disk after disk, just pop it in and it spits it back out in five minutes. With album and track info automagically downloaded. Of course, when you have an import disc with, like, thirty tracks, each one of them by a different composer and artist with foreign names containing lots of annoying diacriticals, it decides to leave you on your own. Still...

I know this is old hat for most of you but being an old-fashioned kind of guy I found it pretty amazing. ;-) I've gone a little nuts ripping our collection.

I'm also very surprised to discover that it is possible to rip DVDs as well. I thought there was some sort of encryption involved. I knew one could get hacker tools to decode them, but this is with regular commercial software (Cyberlink PowerDirector, specifically), and given recent lawsuits and such I thought that was considered illegal.

Also watched a Blu-Ray disc for the first time as well. I browsed the Netflix list of blu-ray movies and most of them were the usual stupid crap - but There Will Be Blood stuck out as an excellent candidate for hi-def pleasure. They should have called it StubbleVision - I swear, you can see every bristle! [Swoon] Great film, absolutely riveting. Sort of like Scent of Green Papaya done as a Western.

All this media exposure has made me feel a little bit dizzy. I'm not quite used to it.

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

*crosses fingers that you were ripping into WM Lossless if you have more than a few CDs*

Sorry... it's the audio geek in me. :)

I don't know what you ripped, but there HAVE been commercial DVDs without copy protection; my copy of Michael Nesmith's Elephant Parts is an example. There's a little blurb on the case that says "No region coding - No copy protection." Thus, any DVD without CSS encryption can be ripped by legal software. I may have missed something, but I think the news that someone was selling a commercial ripper for CSS encrypted DVDs and hadn't been sued into oblivion by the MPAA would have gotten through even all the Obama uproar. ;)

Because you're right - software that rips an encrypted DVD is illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the best of my knowlege.

The interesting thing is how giving something away can make the creators money.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Agh, you are right, I just happened upon a non-protected DVD for my first attempt. (California Bears, if you're curious. For once, it's not a nature film. Or on second thought, maybe it is. ;-)

Any pointers on how I might rip and/or copy protected DVDs to blank disks?

Others cannot be ripped. But that's OK, it's the VHS tapes I really want to be rid of!

[theotherqpc.livejournal.com]

pretty much all porno is non-protected, and most often single layer.

SuperStar Video in the Castro offers $3 rentals on a wide variety of porn DVDs.

just sayin'....

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

That's a two part question.

One, is the ripping. I personally am partial to DVDdecrypter, but there are other tools for the job. One of the nice things about it is that it can remove the "Prohibited User Operations" - you know, like not being able to skip past the FBI warning, or the studio logo, or whatever they thought you just HAD to see before getting to the actual content.

Then, because many such discs are dual layer - that is, the data is (probably intentionally) larger than a typical single-layer DVD-R, the content has to be shrunk. My favorite tool for this is DVD-Shrink - and again, there are others. Generally, they allow you to excise material you have no interest in - say, audio tracks for languages you don't speak, extras you've found banal, whatever. Then if there's still too much, someone discovered a clever, fast way to recompress the MPEG-2 video that results in excellent picture quality, and a number of programs have implemented this. (MPEG encoding math is over my head, frankly. I'm sure the details are out there somewhere if you want them.)

If it's television or other such material that lends itself to this approach, you might want to consider splitting the material between two discs rather than recompressing; many of these tools will help you do that.

Once all this is done - you can burn your copy. Sure, you could use dual-layer DVDs - but they're still a LOT more expensive than two single-layer discs.

Once again - www.VideoHelp.com is your friend in this area. ;)

[h0gwash.livejournal.com]

"There Will Be Blood" struck me as a story of a lonely, miserable atheist.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Oh, quite. Perhaps the most pointed study in self-inflicted misery ever. But that doesn't prevent it from being hot. ;-)

[h0gwash.livejournal.com]

Strange but true. His character is definitely the most passionate character in the movie.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

It makes you want to just go back in time to the old west and blow each one.

I guess it's my age...

[beartech420.livejournal.com]

I've never "ripped" a CD or DVD either. In fact all my music is still on CD and "GASP" cassette tape!
When CD's first came out a coworker gave me a box of his cassettes, many had the scratch and pop sound from Vinyl Albums! I bought a MPG player months ago, it is still sealed in plastic waiting for me to rip my music from the CDs into my mpg player.
BestRegards,
Pete

Re: I guess it's my age...

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

So, just that does the 'tech' in your user name signify?

Re: I guess it's my age...

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Like me, he's more of a producer than a consumer. ;-)

Re: I guess it's my age...

[beartech420.livejournal.com]

I guess it must be steam engines!
;-)

[jstregyr.livejournal.com]

snousle writes: "All this media exposure has made me feel a little bit dizzy. I'm not quite used to it."

"Good... Good. The Force is strong with you. A powerful Media Lord you will become. Tony Berno, you are one with the Order of the Media. Henceforth, you shall be known as... Darth... Snousle."

[westwind-mv.livejournal.com]

I must say I'm completely captivated by the name "Darth Snousle." It sounds like it belongs right next to a plush Cthulhu.

You know, "Who's a terrifying Sith Lord? You are! Yes you are!" followed by funny mouth noises.

DARTH SNOUSLE!

[kevynjacobs.livejournal.com]

WIN!