I have an iMac, iPad and DVD movies. I’d like to move some of my movies from DVDs to iPad, so I can watch them on the iPad. I’ve tinkered around. Haven’t figured it out. Does anyone know how to do that?
You need a third-party tool like Handbrake to do something like that. I am not clear on the nuances of the legal arguments here, but no doubt the studios very much do not want people to rip their DVDs, so there’s no in-built tools in iTunes that would take care of the rip.
Handbrake.
Be aware that in the US, this is deliberately breaking copy protection, and therefore a DMCA violation (and thus illegal) if the movies are copy protected (i.e. commercial). If they’re just your home movies, you’re home free, and if you’re outside the US, your local idiotic copyright law may apply.
I don’t want to break the law. All I want to do is watch my DVDs on my iPad, just like I can watch them on my iMac, PC, TV, portable DVD player, etc. I’ve paid for the movies. I’m not trying to disseminate them. What’s the problem?
The problem is that people with more money and/or legislative power than you have explicitly made the breaking of the CSS copy protection on commercial disks illegal via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Since there’s no way to convert the format without bypassing CSS, the (intended by the lobbyists) effect of this law is that to be legally compliant, you have to buy the movie again in digital form (a lot of DVD/Blue Ray disks now come with a “digital copy” for this very reason). Also, to be clear, they’d point out that you have NOT paid for the movies – you’ve non-exclusively licensed the right to watch them in a particular medium. Nothing in our copyright law provides for the right of transfer of format (for Video, the Audio Home Recording Act does explicitly allow it for some types of audio).
ETA: Note that downloading/posessing Handbrake itself is not illegal; the software has substantial non-infringing uses.
Then you might want to petition your congressional representatives to change it.
The problem is because iPads can’t read DVDs directly since they don’t have a DVD drive you have to create a file containing an “image” of the disc. To do this you have to utilize apps which decrypt the DVD’s copy protection so just the creation of this disc image is considered quasi-illegal.
Bottom line is this: If you own the original disc (didn’t borrow it) and you don’t sell or give away a copy of the image file then you’re doing nothing wrong by just converting it to a form that’s readable on another device.
Don’t sweat it. Even Apple itself, for all its “freedom to create” bullshit, is just a giant greedy corporation. Rather than allow you to be able to watch your already bought DVD on their latest device they want you to iBuy another iCopy on their iTunes iStore for some more iMoney. Download the free program Handbrake (just Google it). It will do what you need to do.
Regardless of whether or not Apple is a giant greedy corporation, it’s just as much a violation of the DMCA for them to decrypt a DVD as it is for you and me. What would you have them do? Shoehorn a DVD player into the iPad?
No, I expect them to make future iterations of the iPad with a USB port so I can plug a disk drive (and any number of other types of supplemental or flash drive) into it. Call me a dreamer.
Oh for the love of Og. I actually linked a summary of the ACTUAL LAW. It’s not quasi-anything; it’s flat-out illegal.
Is it done all the time anyway? Sure. Is it a stupid, possibly immoral law? Sure. Is it anti-consumer and pro-large-business? Sure again. But there’s not the slightest doubt about it’s legality.
While I would oppose such a decision were I in the position to do so, I still wish you good luck in your quest. Although I advise you not to hold your breath.
That’s okay, I’m cool with Samsung or Lenovo doing it instead. Competition usually inspires people to do things they’d otherwise rather not.
I suspect the answer is obvious, but why oppose having a usb port on an iPad?
I’ve been thinking of letting my old iMac, which is really aging, and getting the New iPad (with 4g will be released soon) to use instead.
What’s bad about having a usb port?
Peace,
mangeorge
As I understand Apple’s rationale, it’s similar to why they won’t have Flash - it aids instability and there’s no real need for it.
To support USB they’d then have to support the countless USB devices that might happen to get plugged into that port, and in particular provide the drivers - few of which they write, but if things go wrong they get blamed.
iPads are designed to be portable content providers, not laptops-lite.
Hmm, I have plenty of movies on my ipad and I don’t remember having to do anything too complicated or download any DRM-breaking software to do it. A quick glance at iTunes reveals a “create ipad or apple tv version” option under the advanced menu. If I select any of the videos or movies that are currently in my iTunes library, this option becomes available.
So it seems like iTunes isn’t bending over backwards to prevent you from doing it.
Yes, that law makes it explicitly illegal to break a digital lock on information for a purpose which is otherwise legal–fair usage, such as using a segment of a movie in a classroom, for example. I feel this is an error.
Does this work for DVDs?
Format-shifting unprotected (non-DRMed) files does not break the law because it doesn’t circumvent the DMCA.
Ripping DVDs, however, does.
It is most definitely not an “error”, at least not in the mistake sense. It was an inevitable, deliberate result of media bribery in our government. If they had their way completely, Fair Use as a doctrine wouldn’t exist either.
I’m just grateful and surprised that the Powers That Be even let us watch a DVD more than once without paying each time.
If you make an exact image of the disk on your iMac (Disk Utility > select drive > new image), including the copyright protection, that’s not breaking the CSS, so it’s legal (I heard). You can actually mount this image and play it using DVD Player.
As to using it on your iPad, I don’t think there’s an app for that. It’s so much easier for people to just break CSS.