# Is there an easy, free way to convert a DVD to .avi **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278 "2012-12-07T05:58:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/1 "2012-12-07T05:58:55Z")
If you own some DVDs that you want to back up and put on a portable device is there a freeware software that can do that? Would there be legal issues with converting a DVD you own into an .avi file for personal use? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/2 "2012-12-07T06:05:52Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Would there be legal issues with converting a DVD you own into an .avi file for personal use? In the USA you cannot legally copy a [DRM-protected](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management) DVD, if the copyright owner has not provided to users the ability to do so. It does not matter whether you own the DVD or not. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/3 "2012-12-07T06:41:47Z")
Damn ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/4 "2012-12-07T07:18:07Z")
I can’t address the issues of cracking copy protection, but there are several well regarded utilities that can decode some DVD’s–Slysoft AnyDVD comes to mind. But let’s assume that you have a DRM free disk, disk image or equivalent. By far the easiest way to convert the whole thing to a single avi file is with [Freemake video converter](http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/). Just drag the Video\_TS directory to the Freemake windo or open it from the file selection menu. Then select the destination file type and press go. That’s it. You’re done. Just wait. ---
**Author:** ![bot3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@bot3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bot3)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/5 "2012-12-07T11:18:40Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > In the USA you cannot legally copy a [DRM-protected](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management) DVD, if the copyright owner has not provided to users the ability to do so. It does not matter whether you own the DVD or not. I don’t believe that is true. For personal use you can copy anything you want. The key word is personal use. A back-up copy of programs are legal. This is a gray area in the copyright laws. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/6 "2012-12-07T12:02:58Z")
> [@bot3](#): > > I don’t believe that is true. For personal use you can copy anything you want. The key word is personal use. A back-up copy of programs are legal. This is a gray area in the copyright laws. It’s quite true, and in fact that provision of the DMCA has been successfully used in court. See [RealNetworks v. DVD Copy Control Assocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealNetworks,_Inc._v._DVD_Copy_Control_Association,_Inc.). Whether those laws _make any sense_ is certainly debatable, to say the least, but there it is. Legally, you can’t bypass encryption in order to make a copy. It’s only legal if the DVD is unencrypted. ETA: **Wesley Clark** , a good, free tool to rip (unencrypted) DVDs is [HandBrake](http://handbrake.fr/). ---
**Author:** ![emoticorpse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@emoticorpse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emoticorpse)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/7 "2012-12-07T12:28:05Z")
This is from Wikipidia [Ripping - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripping) > [@](#): > > Legality > > When the material being ripped is not in the public domain, and the person making the rip does not have the copyright owner’s permission, then such ripping may be regarded as copyright infringement. However, some countries either explicitly allow it in certain circumstances, or at least don’t forbid it. **Some countries also have fair use-type laws which allow unauthorized copies to be made under certain conditions**. As mentioned above, circumventing copy protection mechanisms, such as the encryption used on most commercial DVDs, may also be illegal in many countries. > [@](#): > > United States > U.S. copyright law (Title 17 of the United States Code) **generally** says that making a copy of an original work, if conducted without the consent of the copyright owner, is infringement. **The law makes no explicit grant or denial of a right to make a “personal use”** copy of another’s copyrighted content on one’s own digital media and devices. For example, space shifting, by making a copy of a personally-owned audio CD for transfer to an MP3 player for that person’s personal use, is not explicitly allowed or forbidden. If it makes no explicit denial and you can’t really say it’s illegal can you? I mean it would HAVE to be argued before the court in order to decide what the circumstances are/were? ---
**Author:** ![bot3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@bot3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bot3)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/8 "2012-12-07T13:05:45Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > It’s quite true, and in fact that provision of the DMCA has been successfully used in court. See [RealNetworks v. DVD Copy Control Assocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealNetworks,_Inc._v._DVD_Copy_Control_Association,_Inc.). Whether those laws _make any sense_ is certainly debatable, to say the least, but there it is. Legally, you can’t bypass encryption in order to make a copy. It’s only legal if the DVD is unencrypted. > > ETA: **Wesley Clark** , a good, free tool to rip (unencrypted) DVDs is [HandBrake](http://handbrake.fr/). Interesting! Not to hi-jack this thread, but here’s an interesting scenario. Several years ago I bought (legally) MS win 7. However, when initially installing it I found a crack that allowed me to bypass the registration. At the time I was unsure as to how I wanted to use Win 7, I wanted to test several installs until I was satisfied with the set up. I have since installed and registered the purchased version. Did I infringe on copyright laws? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/9 "2012-12-07T18:57:47Z")
> [@bot3](#): > > Interesting! > > Not to hi-jack this thread, but here’s an interesting scenario. Several years ago I bought (legally) MS win 7. However, when initially installing it I found a crack that allowed me to bypass the registration. At the time I was unsure as to how I wanted to use Win 7, I wanted to test several installs until I was satisfied with the set up. I have since installed and registered the purchased version. Did I infringe on copyright laws? If a tree falls in the forest, but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Basically - does it matter? You owned a license, you were running the software. You may have been (very likely!) violating a condition of the 78 pages of license agreement that everyone clicks through without reading, but the essense was you were running a copy and you had a license. MS probably wouldn’t sue because (a) why bother, what damages? and (b) in case they lose and it sets a precedent that the license terms can be ignored in some circumstances. They obviously don’t want you bypassing the licensing because that leaves you free to continue and install on too many devies or resell while continuing to sue - i.e. future violations. I’m not sure that using software outside the terms of the license constitutes copyright infringement. Copyright infringement means making a _copy_ without the right. You bought the disc, you have the right. If you only run the software on one machine, you have not made multiple copies. Altering the content does not constitute infrigement. (It just makes it easier to do so in future). I kind of wonder if DRM can be considered DRM when bypassing it (or rather reading a disc which is encoded with it) is common knowledge. For DVD’s it’s essentially become just a form of encoding like MPG or DIVX. (although DVD Fab for example, is constantly coming out with updates to address additional DRM tricks from the more paranoid studios - which _would_ be considered DRM since they are additional secret manipulations designed to prevent copying.) Basically, I found a process that encodes - used DVDFab (free or demo modes) to copy the DVD files to disc; uses DVD Decrypter to convert the 1GB VOB files of the main feature into a single video file; then use Videora or Handbrake to convert that video file to something the iPad or iPhone can play. Videora had the process on their web site. AFAIK DVDFab has not been prohibited from selling their DVD/Blu-Ray Backup software in the USA, which says something about its legality I assume. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/10 "2012-12-07T21:07:25Z")
> [@emoticorpse](#): > > If it makes no explicit denial and you can’t really say it’s illegal can you? I mean it would HAVE to be argued before the court in order to decide what the circumstances are/were? Yes… assuming anyone wanted to take it to court with all of the expenses and time consumed by that process. The defendant would be arguing something like “Your licensing terms are unenforceable. The law, by saying nothing, gives me the right to make private copies.” The plaintiff’s argument would be “You accepted the terms of the license by opening the package and the law, by saying nothing, supports the terms of the contract.” Meanwhile the judges would be scratching their heads saying “DVDs? Are those the 78 rpm or the 45 rpm records?” 🙂 (OK, yes, huge exaggeration. My point is that the courts are often a little behind the curve when it comes to understanding technology.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/11 "2012-12-07T21:30:44Z")
Note that there are two separate legal issues in copying DVDs: 1. Doing a byte-by-byte copy _without_ decoding the CSS encryption. E.g., as done for personal backup purposes. As mentioned, copying something on media that you own for backup is a gray area. There hasn’t been a definitive court test in the US on this. And since there is some chance the content owners would lose, I think they prefer that no court test is made and so they can continue to assert-without-proof that this is wrong. 2. Breaking the CSS encryption in order to have a play-anywhere copy. This is not at all gray. It’s against the DMCA in the US (which is the US version of an international WIPO treaty). (Note: there are a handful of exemptions for libraries and such which presumably don’t apply to the OP.) There are court rulings on this which decided in favor of the content owners. (E.g., the previously mention RealNetworks case.) Suggesting that the OP’s action might be covered by the first case when it clearly is in the realm of the second, isn’t all that helpful. But it is indeed the case that for individual use, the DVD copying and converting genie is long out of the bottle and no company seems to want to get involved in any legal hassles about this. As for the OP, the people at [ViDEOHelp](http://www.videohelp.com/) have a lot of info about what you may or may not want to do and if you do want to do something, what software is available. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-easy-free-way-to-convert-a-dvd-to-avi/643278/13 "2013-08-02T11:04:00Z")
I’m not sure why you want to end up with an AVI file. There are formats that are much more compact with negligible data loss. My choice would be MP4 or MPG, although I don’t know of a safe, free, one-stage ripper/converter – I use video editors.