03-12-2009, 06:05 PM
The "my kid ruined the DVD!" (wink wink) excuse has done WONDERS for those of us who like "backing up" our (purchased, of course!) DVDs. If not for that excuse, our legal standing would be more hazardous than it already is.
In order to keep this excuse valid--since in real life, it only accounts for a tiny fraction of disc-copying needs, I took the liberty of starting a DVD-destroying ring at some local Jr. High Schools. I pay them a modest sum, and throw in some candy and magazines, and they dutifully mess up some of the DVDs in their parents movie library. If we can get a few more terror cells going in other big cities, with kids messing up their parents DVDs, it'll help our cause, and keep that gray area for copying safe, at least for a while longer. Do your part! Start a DVD-scratching ring in your own community! Good for the teen economy, too, it'll employ more of our nation's boys and girls, and help build leadership skills.
Re: your question. There's a third option you didn't mention. Unless you plan to take the content on the protected disc, copy it, and burn it to a blank disc, Handbrake has done a very good job of keeping up with protection schemes. It's not perfect, but it has arguably the best success rate of any free application. Handbrake is great.
Plus, it's one of the best designed interfaces, with lots of destination targets (choices of appliances on which to play the resulting transfered video, iPod, Apple TV, XBox, PS, etc.) to choose from.
In order to keep this excuse valid--since in real life, it only accounts for a tiny fraction of disc-copying needs, I took the liberty of starting a DVD-destroying ring at some local Jr. High Schools. I pay them a modest sum, and throw in some candy and magazines, and they dutifully mess up some of the DVDs in their parents movie library. If we can get a few more terror cells going in other big cities, with kids messing up their parents DVDs, it'll help our cause, and keep that gray area for copying safe, at least for a while longer. Do your part! Start a DVD-scratching ring in your own community! Good for the teen economy, too, it'll employ more of our nation's boys and girls, and help build leadership skills.
Re: your question. There's a third option you didn't mention. Unless you plan to take the content on the protected disc, copy it, and burn it to a blank disc, Handbrake has done a very good job of keeping up with protection schemes. It's not perfect, but it has arguably the best success rate of any free application. Handbrake is great.
Plus, it's one of the best designed interfaces, with lots of destination targets (choices of appliances on which to play the resulting transfered video, iPod, Apple TV, XBox, PS, etc.) to choose from.