My cousin recently gave me a totally unsubstantiated, totally-without-technical-details-of-any-kind rumor that there was a way to rip DVDs without having a DVD burner. I of course scoffed this out of hand, but he got me to thinking… Is it possible? So I cry out from the mountaintops to the Teeming Millions as represented by the thousands on this board:
Ya got any tacos?
Sorry, wrong post, wrong post. You heard any rumors or got any information about ripping DVDs without a DVD ripper?
Yes, it is possible. You can’t make another DVD, of course, but you can save the video on your PC, make a VCS, etc.
It is also probably illegal under the DMCA, but I feel that people should break that law at least once a week.
I think you mean a VCD. Even then most full-length feature films are going to need two CDs to burn the film with any useful quality.
Also, it’s worth noting that, while you don’t need a DVD burner, you do at least need a DVD-ROM drive to read the DVD you want to rip.
Of course, that goes without saying, which means it’s just the type of detail that someone with little-to-no experience in these matters will never hear said, and thus not realize.
Thanks for the headsup everybody… I just didn’t think it was feasible because (if memory serves) when I had a CD-ROM I couldn’t rip CDs. Or maybe my CD-ROM was just really really old. Either way, I just wanted some clarification. Thanks!
Could your CD-ROM drive play audio CDs? If so, then ripping them should have been possible.
In general, “ripping” indicates making a lossy copy, such as compressing an audio CD into MP3 or OGG format, or compressing a DVD into one of various video formats (such as DivX).
So if you can read a CD/DVD/whatever, then you can rip it. With the right software, at least.
Well… would anyone happen to know of any good DVD-ripping software?
Ripping a DVD requires that you break the Content Scrambling System encryption that protects the contents of the DVD. As such, it’s a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to rip DVDs.
Ooh… consider my previous question rescinded in that case.
Would you settle for perfect DVD copies?
Now, now, mods — there are legal and legitimate uses for copying software, so don’t get so jumpy.
Sqube, any method you use to squeeze a DVD to something smaller like a CD is going to lose something. Consider that DVD burner prices are dropping fast, now close to $200, and the blanks are under a $US dollar, so why mess with anything else?
4X DVD burners will copy a full 4.7GB DVD in 15 minutes.
Musicat, that’s a facinating Q but I think you forgot about that whole without a DVD burner thing. Burners are close to $200, and that’s pretty good, but I’m a sophomore in college so $200 for me is damn near like somebody telling you to just go out and buy a new car. I mean… it could happen, but it’d hurt the old bank account for a while.
Alereon,
most DVD rippers do not break the encryption. Instead, they monitor the decryption performed using legal DVD player software. Thus, no ilegal breaking is done.
It might still infringe copyright.
I can dig where you’re coming from. But don’t rush into anything; by the time you’re a Junior, they will be $100! 
This is correct. With my DVDs I often encounter they will not play reliably so I like to make a copy in VCD format which is mouch more reliable. I uses a program called DaVIDeoVCD and it requires that you first “open” the DVD with PowerDVD or similar DVD program and only then it will encode the DVD to VCD. Still, I am only learning and having some problems because I cannot get it to recognise several episodes (separate “movies”) recorded on a single DVD and some other issues. So, right now I have a number of DVDs which I have bought legally but cannot play reliably or at all. For the time being I have decided to not buy DVDs and stick with VCDs if I can.
[nitpick]In general, “ripping” means making a copy, that of which is then usually, but not always, compressed into a lossy format for storage, transport, etc. One can rip to one’s HD without having to compress.[/nitpick]
Dvd to vcd is going to look pretty sucky & blocky & fuzzy sometimes. When you take 4.4 gigs & convert to 700MB what do you expect?
dvd writers are like $99 at tigerdirect.com for +r $129 for duals @ avlogic.com, livewarehouse.com Etc…prices change daily.
Commericial Dvds usually have two kinds of protection: macrovision & digital. Gotta respect those.
VCDs are pretty poor quality. A modest length film takes one CDR.
SVCDs, OTOH, look pretty nice to me. A film takes two or three CDRs.
Both use MPEG-1&2 encoding; better compression results when using MPEG-4/DivX type encodings. A somewhat okay looking film might fit onto 1 CDR, but most DVD players don’t play them. (And not all play SVCDs. Check before you buy.) You can still play them on a computer and watch on your monitor, or route to a TV if you have video out.
DVDR Help has more info.
I find VCS have about the same quality as broadcast TV and I would not call that poor. If you are watching it on a regular TV set you are not going to appreciate all the quality a DVD can give you. What you might miss from a DVD are the choices of subtitles, languages and better sound.
VCD rates average about 9 megabytes per minute (+/- 15%?) so you can get over an hour on one VCD, about 1:15. Longer films have to be split but I don’t find this a major problem.
SVCD take about twice the disk space of a VCD which means a longer movie would take 3 -4 disks.
On the contrary, I would say that most DVD players sold today do play them but, in any case, the solution is just to get one that does. It’s not like they cost more. You can get a good one for under $50.
I get spam telling me that I can copy DVDs to CDs. Just by clicking on this link.
That alone is enough to tell me the whole thing
-is legally dubious
-doesn’t work as advertised
-is a rip-off