Comments on: Weekend Project #1

By: Lionel L.

Lionel L. — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:56:35 +0000

I’m pretty sure that fee is not legal. I may have read this wrong but see: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

By: Neal Campbell

Neal Campbell — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:03:24 +0000

Randy - I think those are all sports words/events/teams and since I’d rather peel my skin off bits at a time than see sports, I’m still okay to be without the satellite.

You make a good point, though. Satellite and cable is better suited for providing entertainment for sports fans than the Internet will be for awhile.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:04:52 +0000

Let’s see…

Olympics 2008
Euro Soccer Tournament
UFC

By: Dave Peterson

Dave Peterson — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:04:44 +0000

I’m interested in hearing updates on this project. I’ve dabbled with this a bit (decided that wherever I go in the world, I need to have “Star Wars” in my pocket), but the time commitment to do a major collection is considerable. I’ve got quite a large collection, too, and I know I’d watch things more if they had the more immediate accessibility of being stored on a server rather than in one of the many shelving locations I’ve got around the house. The biggest blocking point to a business doing this at the moment is that (as I’m sure everyone here understands) simply defeating the copy protection on the disc is illegal in the United States. You can be the legal owner of the disc and the only person who will ever watch the movie after it’s been ripped, but the necessary step along the way breaks the law. I suspect discs will do their fade out before that law manages to change in the US. That all said, I could do this and still sleep at night just fine. It’ inarguably illegal , but it doesn’t strike me as morally wrong. The people the studio wishes to see reimbursed for their part in the production were when I bought the disc. What I’m opting for is mainly a different, easier to manage, storage medium. Because this enables widespread distribution of a single paid copy, it’s against the law. Not because of what I will do with the technology, but what others have done with it.

By: Neal Campbell

Neal Campbell — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:49:14 +0000

I will keep my DVDs in storage both to prove ownership and also because of potential format changes in the future. For example, all the DVDs I backed up prior to Apple TV 5.1 surround sound are only in stereo.

Often DVD backups look better than the original, I guess because the re-compression for Apple TV.

@FWGMILLS - Kaleidescape is a business that does just that and they won a legal battle when they were sued (http://www.cepro.com/article/kaleidescape_prevails_in_dvd_ripping_case/). They charge a massive amount of money for the hardware and DVDs on the system have to be purchased legally.

By: Klaus

Klaus — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:33:19 +0000

Thanks for the MetaX tip Neal, looks very valuable. I suppose you still need to keep all the original DVD’s in any event in case you need to ever provide proof of ownership?

So the business model starts to shape up - exchange your original DVD with a digital copy (or permanent stream rights for that title) from someone against a small fee..?!

By: FWGMills

FWGMills — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:22:41 +0000

DVD business idea = never happen.

Remember guys, ripping DVDs is kinda-sorta illegal.

By: FWGMills

FWGMills — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:21:33 +0000

Same here. Ripping DVDs using DVDFab Platinum to my Drobo for viewing on Vista media center. I’m about 20% there as I work on it when I have time. I can push three (2 fast and 1 slow) machines into ripping duty at a time…nice to have the library browsable on the big screen.

By: neal

neal — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:21:33 +0000

Klaus, I use the Apple TV default setting with 5.1 surround sound.

Something I didn’t mention is that I also use an application called MetaX to tag the file and add cover art.

I LOVE the Drobo DVD business idea. Someone should do it!

By: Klaus

Klaus — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:12:53 +0000

Hi Neal,

I am in the same situation and it is indeed a very lengthy project (particularly as I do not have a Mac Pro for the ripping).

I wish there was a service where you could send all your DVDs to and get a Drobo back with everything sorted nicely.

I am adding the movies to iTunes afterwards with summary etc so I can access it via other Mac and Apple TV - works great.

Which settings are you using in Handbreak?