Region-free ripping

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koffiejunkie

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Hi guys,

For the first time since I got my Mac, I have a need to rip a DVD that's in a different region code. If you have to know why, I bought Casino Royale in the US, only to find out that my DVD player back home is region locked.

I pulled the VOBs with MacTheRipper, and then tried to encode with Handbrake, but Handbrake hung (not as in stop responding, just as in sit there and apparently do nothing) while indexing the files.

Any pointers?
 
Crossover for Mac - DVDFab 5
Mactheripper is outdated I'm sorry to say.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Hi guys,

For the first time since I got my Mac, I have a need to rip a DVD that's in a different region code. If you have to know why, I bought Casino Royale in the US, only to find out that my DVD player back home is region locked.

I pulled the VOBs with MacTheRipper, and then tried to encode with Handbrake, but Handbrake hung (not as in stop responding, just as in sit there and apparently do nothing) while indexing the files.

Any pointers?
Click to expand...
VLC. :)
 
Well, as it turned out, this particular DVD seems to have some sort of weird/sneaky copy protection, that spoiling my fun. I ended up booting up linux in a VM and tried my tried&tested tools, which gave me some interesting output - it literally looks like the disc is damaged.

So far, I've been trying just to lift and decrypt the VOBs, so that I don't have to read off the DVD for both passes of the encoding. But with no other option, I tried Handbrake, and looking at the preview, it was not able to decode it either. I'm not sure if this is happening at the hardware level or if the OS is honouring the copy protection. When I have time (probably the weekend) I'll pull out the old linux laptop and see what happens. Vobcopy has never failed me.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Well, as it turned out, this particular DVD seems to have some sort of weird/sneaky copy protection, that spoiling my fun. I ended up booting up linux in a VM and tried my tried&tested tools, which gave me some interesting output - it literally looks like the disc is damaged.

So far, I've been trying just to lift and decrypt the VOBs, so that I don't have to read off the DVD for both passes of the encoding. But with no other option, I tried Handbrake, and looking at the preview, it was not able to decode it either. I'm not sure if this is happening at the hardware level or if the OS is honouring the copy protection. When I have time (probably the weekend) I'll pull out the old linux laptop and see what happens. Vobcopy has never failed me.
Click to expand...

There are some newer ways of copy protecting DVDs. One is the Arccos method. You will need to buy AnyDVDHD or DVDRegionFree to rip these newer disks. Sadly these pieces of software work under Windows.
 
PeterCH said:
There are some newer ways of copy protecting DVDs. One is the Arccos method. You will need to buy AnyDVDHD or DVDRegionFree to rip these newer disks. Sadly these pieces of software work under Windows.
Click to expand...

I read the MacTheRipper docs. It says that it will detect the ARccOS protection automatically and activate the work-around. I tried enabling it directly too - made no difference. I mean, MTR rips the DVD, right. But I can't do anything with the VOBs. I noticed when Handbrake tries to open the files, its log shows read errors all over the place. When I point Handbrake to the disc directly, it gives a scrambled image.

Oh well, will try the old faithful over the weekend.
 
koffiejunkie said:
I read the MacTheRipper docs. It says that it will detect the ARccOS protection automatically and activate the work-around. I tried enabling it directly too - made no difference. I mean, MTR rips the DVD, right. But I can't do anything with the VOBs. I noticed when Handbrake tries to open the files, its log shows read errors all over the place. When I point Handbrake to the disc directly, it gives a scrambled image.

Oh well, will try the old faithful over the weekend.
Click to expand...

Arccos is just one method. Hop over to the slysoft forums and see how often they release updates to work with newer disks, especially from SONY.
I don't think MTR has such a large team of developers working for it though.
 
PeterCH said:
Arccos is just one method. Hop over to the slysoft forums and see how often they release updates to work with newer disks, especially from SONY.
I don't think MTR has such a large team of developers working for it though.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. But to be serious, I'd rather drop £20 on a cheapy region-free DVD player, than use Windows.
 
koffiejunkie said:
I'm with you. But to be serious, I'd rather drop £20 on a cheapy region-free DVD player, than use Windows.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry I thought you wanted to format-shift :). You know encode your DVD as a QuickTime file and play it back on your Mac or iPod.
 
PeterCH said:
I'm sorry I thought you wanted to format-shift :). You know encode your DVD as a QuickTime file and play it back on your Mac or iPod.
Click to expand...

Format shift would be ideal, but in the end it's going to be played back on the MacBook hooked up to the big TV in the living room anyway, so it comes down to the same.

Somehow, the though watching Casino Royale on my iPod doesn't excite me too much :D
 
koffiejunkie said:
Format shift would be ideal, but in the end it's going to be played back on the MacBook hooked up to the big TV in the living room anyway, so it comes down to the same.

Somehow, the though watching Casino Royale on my iPod doesn't excite me too much :D
Click to expand...

LOL, dual boot XP then and rip with AnyDVD. Free 30 day trial available.
 
Macbook pro's have a device level protection using VLC will not circumvent the protection neither will DVDFab, the only way is to RPC1 the dvd rom which could ultimately make it a brick. I have been working on a firmware revision for my dvdrom as RPC1.org does not have anything for it. When its done i hope to achieve a dvd free rom. Or a nice slit in my mac.
 
semaphore said:
Macbook pro's have a device level protection using VLC will not circumvent the protection neither will DVDFab, the only way is to RPC1 the dvd rom which could ultimately make it a brick. I have been working on a firmware revision for my dvdrom as RPC1.org does not have anything for it. When its done i hope to achieve a dvd free rom. Or a nice slit in my mac.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, only PANASONIC has special hardware region protection which prevents region changing in software or even emulation. AnyDVD work via
using an alternative read method (read as data DVD-ROM and not DVD-Video) to get the data off the DVD and it works without flashing the DVD drive firmware. The only drives this does not work
are Panasonic (MATSUSH-ITA drives). They simply won't allow access to
DVDs from other regions. Therefore my Toughbook can only view Region 1 DVDs :(.
Still I can smash any other laptop out there, Sony, Apple, Alienware etc with this
laptop and work on it afterwards as though nothing has happened :-).

I think Mac drives will work with AnyDVD. Have a look on Slysoft.com
 
Last edited:
koffiejunkie said:
Again:



It's a matter of principal :)
Click to expand...

Matter of principle? In what way? You won't boot Windows or run
VMWARE and Windows that way? I don't understand. Ripping your DVDs
allows you to make back-ups. Isn't that good?

Anyway to each their own I guess, but I'd rather rip the DVDs to make backups of them :).
 
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