Is it illegal to burn your own dvds to hdd?

media center uses a system to copy cds to your hdd and even know the cover art and track names. If I got a hack, is it illegal to use on dvds you legally own. I got over 300 dvds (all legal) and would like to bring them with me in my laptop. I hear battery is bad when using cd/dvd drives constantly. Dont wanna do anything illegal. If it's legal what's a good program that could integrate with win xp media center os interface?

 

This is a little bit of a legal gray area. I'm no lawyer, though I did play one on TV, but I personally would say if you own the DVDs you have every right to use them in any way you want short of copying them for others or sharing them on the internet. Techincally copying them to your drive which circumvents the copy protection system is in violation of the DCMA(Digitial Millennium CopyRight Act). Also the hard drive does consume less power than the optical drive.

 

Decrypting DVDs to transfer them to HDD is technically a violation of the DMCA, but the MPAA would have to be having a really slow day to prosecute you over it...

At 4.5GB per movie (presuming you've shrunk them) you're not going to be carrying many of them with you on the road... perhaps you could transcode down to DivX/MPEG4, which will get them down to around 1GB and still be pretty clean.

 

You can also make images of the discs, backups, I use that for my games as well as DVD's I often watch, so it won't wear down the discs and it loads much faster and has no lag, plus on the road it doesn't use up battery as fast(vs using the Optical Drive).

 

Legalities apart, I'd suggest ripping them followed by transcoding them to DivX/xVid at at least 1200kbps bitrate.
That ways, you can carry at least 20 movies if you have say 20 Gig of free space on yur drive...
If you are happy with minor loss of quality, 700-800kbps bitrates on DivX give a yield of around 700MB per movie (say 2 hours long)

 

As long as it's Your own dvd You are allowed to make backups of it and use it for Your own purpose, but! if the Dvd has a security that You need to hack it's illegal. You are not allowed to break any security measures taken by the company that produced and distribute the dvd

 

Which in the UK is technically illegal for them to do since you are allowed by law to have a backup copy!

 

Lol that law is so strange. I understand that we today can copy music/movies with no loss in quality, and I agree that the producers of either medias will loose or have lost money because of the PC. But to be honest I don't think the majority of people steal/burn/copy more music or films today than for 20 years ago when it was analog.

The younger generations though, will embrace this technology and so the industry have to take measures, but today the problem is void and the industry has gone mad.

It's no wonder the industry experienced huge increase in sales 15 years ago when the CD technology entered the living rooms of the ordinary family. So many of us had to drop the old record / LP / vinyl and go buy our old music as CDs. At the same time the music/film industry pumped the consumers with new music and movies in an increasing amount.

The first part is ofcourse deminishing since most have bought what they wanted by now of their old music and the second part is worse than ever. New music by the minut...It gives the consumer no or less time to comprehend and embrace the new actors, so they are very fast forgotten in the consumers mind.

Yes the young consumer might get an illigal copy from the internet. The older generations just don't know were to look for it, and the artist is so rarely played that they forget about it before they can buy it.

So it's no wonder the industry is loosing money these years. I expect this to change when the industry gives the consumer the proper tools to buy the music they look for. I know it excists but giving the buyer 3 copies (WMA) of the same piece of music for his/her own home is like selling a car were the engine stops working if more than 3 different users has used the car. We buy a good, we own the good. Not partially...

 

basically, if you own the dvd, then yes, you can back it up to your HDD

 

"a legal grey area" is the correct term. Technically copying the movie to your HDD or another dvd FOR PERSONAL USE only isnt illegal. Now if you set it up to be downloaded or make multiple copies and give or sell them to people then you face jail time and the $250,000 fine you see everytime you start a movie.

Copying a dvd to your HDD for backup incase the actaul dvd breaks isnt a crime. If it was the software like dvd shrink would be illegal.

 

No, but circumventing a copy protection mechanism is. Just ask the authors of DVD decrypter or Mac the Ripper. Once the goons realise that in this case shrink == rip/decrypt, then DVD shrink will probably go too.

 

Shrink is already not being supported anymore and has not been for quite some time.

 

um, i don't know much. or anything, actually. about the law.

but if you want to get really GREAT compression size-to-quality ratios then go with the new h.264, or x.264 (same really very little diff btwn the two) codec. as a side bonus, if you happen to have an ipod video, that is the codec it plays videos of, if you use the .mp4 container and set the resolution correctly. good luck!

 

IANAL, but from what I have read elsewhere . . .

Actually, according to the DCMA, you are only allowed to make backups of it in the same media - so yes, you can burn it to another DVD, but no, legally you probably can't rip it to your HD.

That said, this would be in the same category as making a cassette tape of a vinyl LP that you legally purchased - Also technically illegal, but with the number of people selling bootleg copies at flea markets or posting full software on BitTorrent, the chance of them coming after you is very slim.

Also - Not to hijack the thread, but I notice a lot of computers now only allow you to burn a restore disk ONE TIME. Is there anything that prevents me from making additional copies of the restore disk once I burn it (using Nero or Alcohol or BlindWrite, if required). And if nothing prevents that, then what is the logic behind the ONE TIME ONLY restriction?

 

Nothing prevents You, and since You bought the laptop with that restore disk it's tecnically Yours to do with it whatever You want. If a limit is set then You break the law, but who will notice as long as You keep it for Yourself? More importantly, more and more manufactures (say ACER) has a securitycheck, so that the restore disk is not able to function on other branded (say DELL) laptops/desktops.

 

Thanks SomethingLame - That was helpful, I wasn't looking to install on a different machine, just like redundant backups in case one doesn't work years from now.

 

Is this legal?
http://www.aoamedia.com/dvd_ripper.htm

 

Sure, but using it may not be

Similar to the way I can't own a fully-auto M16 rifle, but I can legally buy a semi-auto M16 rifle and the kit to convert it to full auto and the instructions on how to do so (sometimes even on the same purchase).

Or I can buy the staight-thru pipe from JC Whitney that is exactly the same dimensions and flanges as my factory catalytic converter "for test purposes only!"

(Examples might not make sense outside the USA).

 

Probably, but that seems awfully expensive. DVD Decrypter and Fab Decrypter are both free.

 

What I dont understand is certain cds say dont copy and it says right on them they hav copy protection, yet win media center edition seems having no problem wanting to copy it.

 

How do you do a transcode? I've got some personal cds and dvds that i'd like to save on my external hdd, but not at 3+ GB each.

 

Taking a guess here, but if it says don't copy than it is illegal (if they can enforce that) to copy it, and it is easier to type "Copy protected" on the disk and hope that deters people than to really put some protection in place.

Similar to it being a cheaper (and maybe more effective) deterrent for me to just put a sign by my front door saying "Protected by state-of-the-art Brand-Z security system and overprotective veteran with PTSD and large cache of automatic weapons", than to actually invest in acquiring and installing the above. Ever see cars with "LoJack" stickers but no LoJack installed?

 

DVD Back-up for Dummies. namely me. Can someone help with steps 3 & 4?

thanking in advance, I am not a pirate, one BU for DVDs I BOUGHT.
BTW- our kids NEVER broke one VHS tape in 10 years, DVDs? 4 scratched already and freeze at different points when playing, urgghhh!

1) I just downloaded DVD Shrink
2) I will install it.

here's where I'm lost, (yes already)

3) I think I run the DVD Shrink software to copy the files from the DVD to my HD. Which shrinking option I don't know

4) I would like to reduce the size further, (to 1 Gig) so I use ??what?? transcoder ?

5) I now have a 1 G movie backup on my HD, so when my son ruins the $18 "King Kong" DVD I bought him last month, we are not SOL ?

I appreciate any help, thank you!

 

what program would alow me to copy dvds to my hdd in divx form...

 

Download the tools on this site and follow the instructions for each. The setup/configuration doesn't take long, but the encoding process takes time, figure about 5 hours to encode a 2 hour movie on a decent system (dual core CPU, 2 GB RAM) if you want a movie of decent size and quality.

 

Incredible !

I'll worry about the other steps, diff formats, settings, etc to burn to a DVD-R later, but ....

I ran DVD Shrink (default setting) on a DVD movie, one click on 'Backup' and 24 minutes later, I'm watching the movie off the HD with WMP, clear as can be, all functions working, Menu-Sub-Titles off, Full Screen, great sound, (SB Audigy on 'Auditorium' setting over the stereo)

Thanks again!

 

This is most deffinitely a violation of the DMCA. While I do not agree with the DMCA, it does clearly state that circumventing copy protection is prohibited, as I understand it. There is no legal way to copy a copy protected DVD.

As for copy protected CD's, that are not technically CD's. Phillips will not allow companies to call it a CD since it does not fit the standard by having copy protection.

 

I understand cashmonee, I deleted the files off my HD and uninstalled DVD Shrink as well. If it's illegal, then I don't want any part of it!

 

Well I didn't say you should do that! LOL! No one is going to come after you for soing this, but people should know what they are doing is technically illegal. Do I think it should be illegal? No. And like I said no one is going to come after you. In fact, I believe in the near future the pendulum will swing back in favor of consumers and we will have our fair use back.