David Marcucci's Doorstep

This weekend I popped a DVD into my computer to watch and realized I had no DVD decoder! So rather than just search for DVD player software I decide to search for the full boat. DVD playback, copy, record, and convert (oh and removing copy protection is a bonus too). I had an extra challenge, since my home machine is 64 bit windows I had to get something that would run there too. (BTW, the infrequent issue of software not running on Vista 64 bit is FAR OUTWEIGHED by the HUGE increase in stability and performance of Vista64 vs. Vista32.)

People may not know this but when you load windows (unless you have certain versions, like Media Center) you can’t just watch a DVD. This is insane, but true. You actually have to buy a decoder to “read” the data on a DVD. This is because DVD data is encrypted with a crappy (for 2008) encryption algorithm that, if you want to stay legal, need to be licensed by the movie companies (kind of). Typically when you order a PC it comes with this pre-installed so you are good to go, however, if you are like me and reinstall your OS (I like to know everything on my system was put there by me) then you need to reload the decrypting software. The problem is this is usually on some disk that in sealed in the package with the manual, which I don’t open.

So I decided to go find an alternative. I got feedback from people who already had software like this, I looked on internet forums, and I searched Google. I came up with DVDFab. It runs on all flavors of windows, has a small install footprint, and it did everything I wanted it to do. It cost money (boo) but it lets you try before you buy. It will copy DVDs and while it does it the program removes all the copy protection. It also does a nice job of compressing the video so a 2 hour movie will fit on a single layer DVD. (DVD movies are double layer and can fit over 8GB of data, single layer caps out at 4.7GB. A 2 hour movie is like 6GB so you have to lose 15% of the quality.) DVDFab will also just pick out the parts of a DVD you want, no previews, no extra features, no Spanish audio track or subtitles, and it even drops those government warning messages that you can’t skip through.

DVDFab is also able to convert the movie to other formats, like DiVX (for PC playback), MPEG-4 (for iPods and PSPs), and WMV (for windows and X-Box). This was a plus since I have an iPod Touch and would like to put some content on there. This is also nice since DiVX and WMV are great for streaming to other PCs inside my house or to my media center device. Also, if you want to take a movie along with you on a usb device let’s say, you are not going to want the DVD format which is GB of data when you can get the moving in 1GB or less. One more note, spinning my DVD drive on my laptop spends a lot of battery power while reading from my disk spends less, but reading from a USB or SD card spends the least since it has no moving parts and friction is a huge waste of energy.

I should note that DVDFab is questionable legal. What this means is, while you have the right to make a copy of copy written material you own the rights to (fair use) you (maybe) do not have the right to remove the copy protection from DVD data. You see, the crazy courts in CA say you can’t while the federal and most other states haven’t said anything. So don’t be giving away copies of your DVDs. Check out the wiki pages below if you want to know more and the DVDFab website had legal disclaimers too. If you are international, sorry I don’t know every countries laws, but I do know you don’t want to go into Germany with this software (or make sure they don’t know you have it!) as they filed criminal charges against a news paper for LINKING to the DVDFab web site, and that paper has lost 2 appeals so far!

Overall, I like the software and they have different versions with different prices for what you need to do. The full boat platinum edition with the option to convert to other formats added is $70 ($50 platinum + $20 mobile option), while there is actually a free version to just do a DVD copy to hard disk or dual layer disk. The only problem I found is there is no interface to create a menu if you pick multiple items to “merge” onto one DVD. I guess if I really need to do this I can edit the content using other software and then burn it back. I give it a thumbs up.

Links:

1. http://www.dvdfab.com
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Scramble_System
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Copy_Control_Association
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use