Mac The Ripper needs your help!!

the future · Nov 10, 2006

Lately the movie studios have started to use some new, very annoying copy protection schemes on DVDs, and as a result more and more DVDs can't be ripped on a Mac anymore. The only OS X ripping application that's still being actively developed is Mac The Ripper, but it's a one man show, basically, and geezerbuttz, the developer, needs some time off his regular work so he can concentrate on coding a brand new, "patchable" version of MTR so he can quickly and effectively counter the new copy protection schemes the studios regularly come up with. To help him with that, there is a fundraiser going on. I'm sure there are a lot of folks here on Macrumors that have used MTR in the past and could afford to make a donation so we all can continue to back up our DVDs in OS X. By donating a certain amount, you'll also get a link to the latest betas geezerbuttz is releasing.

Read all about the fundraiser here:
http://www.ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3589&sid=9ad590e25c3da401a5deef2d56c9243e

On how to donate:
http://www.ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1437&sid=9ad590e25c3da401a5deef2d56c9243e
(Basically you register to the forum and send geezerbuttz a Private Message and he'll answer with detailed instructions; he has to be super careful to keep the MPAA et al. off his back)

Please help out!

the future · Nov 13, 2006

No reactions at all? Come on, I know tons of you are using this app...

macg4 · Nov 13, 2006

the future said:
No reactions at all? Come on, I know tons of you are using this app...

sounds like a good thing to donate anyway for all us rippers

the future · Nov 16, 2006

Good news! The fundraiser has gone 2/3 of the way to allow the developer to take the necessary time off his regular work to concentrate on Mac The Ripper fulltime until the app works around all the new copy protection schemes:

http://www.ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3589&sid=bda38cb318dcd8db07fb39c6ac310934

So start/keep on donating to ensure there'll be an up-to-date DVD ripper for OS X!

http://www.ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1437&sid=ba131912482e5f808fa94deaa095b511

To put geezerbuttz' tremendous work into perspective, please realise that even commercial products on the PC side like Slysoft's AnyDVD and CloneDVD struggle to keep up with the myriad of new copy protections the movie studios recently started to use. Free PC rippers like DVDShrink and Decrypter have given up already and are no longer actively developed.

Foggy · Nov 16, 2006

Copy protection on DVD's irritates the crap out of me. I buy DVD's and then rip them the same way I rip CD's to mp3 so I can store the lot on my NAS server. Quite nice being able to flick through my movie library from any machine in the house and it also stops my 2 year old daughter trying to clean the disney DVD's by licking them. Have only ever downloaded 1 film, and that is one I own that I couldnt rip before I found AnyDVD. I have had to do the same with some CD's I have bought that I cant rip to mp3 because of the sodding protection but I very rarely listen to CD's so to not be able to convert them makes them worthless. Pee's me off that to listen to my music on my mp3 player or watch a movie via my media centre I have to become a criminal.

Will have a look at MacTheRipper.

Swarmlord · Nov 16, 2006

Foggy said:
Copy protection on DVD's irritates the crap out of me. I buy DVD's and then rip them the same way I rip CD's to mp3 so I can store the lot on my NAS server. Quite nice being able to flick through my movie library from any machine in the house and it also stops my 2 year old daughter trying to clean the disney DVD's by licking them. Have only ever downloaded 1 film, and that is one I own that I couldnt rip before I found AnyDVD. I have had to do the same with some CD's I have bought that I cant rip to mp3 because of the sodding protection but I very rarely listen to CD's so to not be able to convert them makes them worthless. Pee's me off that to listen to my music on my mp3 player or watch a movie via my media centre I have to become a criminal.

Will have a look at MacTheRipper.

I back up my legal DVD's for the same reason you do. I have to take them in my SUV for viewing on trips and they inevitably get scratches on them that eventually make them skip or not play at all. The wear and tear from my kid isn't bad, but if his friends get their paws on the disks, then all bets are off.

Buying movies four and five times because the media is so fragile just isn't an option. I'd rather rip the DVD to a cheap DVD disk and then put it away until the next time I have to make a copy.

the future · Nov 16, 2006

Foggy said:
Copy protection on DVD's irritates the crap out of me. I buy DVD's and then rip them the same way I rip CD's to mp3 so I can store the lot on my NAS server. Quite nice being able to flick through my movie library from any machine in the house and it also stops my 2 year old daughter trying to clean the disney DVD's by licking them.

Swarmlord said:
I back up my legal DVD's for the same reason you do. I have to take them in my SUV for viewing on trips and they inevitably get scratches on them that eventually make them skip or not play at all. The wear and tear from my kid isn't bad, but if his friends get their paws on the disks, then all bets are off.

Buying movies four and five times because the media is so fragile just isn't an option. I'd rather rip the DVD to a cheap DVD disk and then put it away until the next time I have to make a copy.

Interestingly, the movie studios are in the process of aknowledging there are relevant uses for movies other than putting the original disc in a player and pressing 'play' – but only for HD discs. Blu-ray and HD-DVD will allow "managed copys" of the original discs for home servers and mobile devices. Problem 1: they'll probably charge you extra for these copys you make of your own disc. Problem 2: DVDs are left out in the cold, still no "legal" (according to the MPAA's definition) copys possible whatsoever. Original disc damaged – buy another one. No thanks.

mileslong · Nov 16, 2006

ive purchased MTR but i will donate again, its one of the best programs out there for the mac...

keithbennis · Nov 16, 2006

I already donated $25 to them and received MacTheRipper 3.0 Beta...... and it still doesn't bypass. I hope he develops something though!

Donate people!

the future · Nov 17, 2006

keithbennis said:
I already donated $25 to them and received MacTheRipper 3.0 Beta...... and it still doesn't bypass. I hope he develops something though!

Donate people!

The current beta of 3.0 is R13e, which still has issues. That's exactly why the fundraiser has been started, because geezerbuttz needs more time to tackle all of the new copy protection schemes. But fear not, progress is being made, as R14 sounds very promising (ripping DaVinci Code without any problems):
http://www.ripdifferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3756&sid=66b8b04dfe86c398d10244a24a54540f

Bern · Nov 18, 2006

Okay, I'll play devil's advocate here. Has anyone tried Fast DVD Copy ? Yes, I realise it's a pay for product and MTR is free, but I suppose it's the fact that he sells it allows him to develop it.

Diatribe · Nov 19, 2006

Bern said:
Okay, I'll play devil's advocate here. Has anyone tried Fast DVD Copy ? Yes, I realise it's a pay for product and MTR is free, but I suppose it's the fact that he sells it allows him to develop it.

Fast DVD copy is a nice concept if it would work... It has even more problems with newer copy protections than MTR and has other problems on top of that. Just read the Versiontracker comments to see what I mean.

I agree, all people using this app regularly should donate again.

backsidetailsli · Nov 19, 2006

oh man ive already come across some of these protected dvds
i really hope it wont be too hard to figure that patch

simontarr · Nov 19, 2006

Handbrake has been able to rip EVERYTHING I've thrown at it so far.

brianus · Nov 19, 2006

Wait, how can DVDs get "new" copy protection? Wouldn't that make them unplayable on older DVD players/drives?

redAPPLE · Nov 19, 2006

i admit i use mtr sometimes (ripping my dvds for trips). i would probably get flamed for this, but, i would love to help but not financially, because it is not possible at the moment.

if there is another way to help out, (testing maybe?) i would love to know how.

NATO · Nov 19, 2006

I don't really know enough about it to know if this wouldn't work, but would it be an option to Open Source MacTheRipper to allow faster community development?

the future · Nov 20, 2006

brianus said:
Wait, how can DVDs get "new" copy protection? Wouldn't that make them unplayable on older DVD players/drives?

Amazing, isn't it? I don't have enough technical knowledge to understand how they did it, but it's a well documented fact... just read the threads in the Mac The Ripper forums (or those of any other DVD ripper on any platform). Obviously the movie studies invested a lot of money and manpower to come up with these new tricks...

simontarr said:
Handbrake has been able to rip EVERYTHING I've thrown at it so far.

Even if Handbrake would work with all the new discs (which I sincerely doubt), that app always re-encodes the original MPEG2 stream from the DVD to MPEG4 (Avi or h.264) which results in a loss of picture quality, plus the output can't be directly burned to a blank DVD as it would have to be re-encoded again to MPEG2 to be playable on a regular DVD player (with another loss of picture quality).

mufflon · Nov 20, 2006

the future said:
Amazing, isn't it? I don't have enough technical knowledge to understand how they did it, but it's a well documented fact... just read the threads in the Mac The Ripper forums (or those of any other DVD ripper on any platform). Obviously the movie studies invested a lot of money and manpower to come up with these new tricks...

Even if Handbrake would work with all the new discs (which I sincerely doubt), that app always re-encodes the original MPEG2 stream from the DVD to MPEG4 (Avi or h.264) which results in a loss of picture quality, plus the output can't be directly burned to a blank DVD as it would have to be re-encoded again to MPEG2 to be playable on a regular DVD player (with another loss of picture quality).

my needs are lower than "perferct rip" myself - as long as I'm able to watch it on my ipod I'm satisfied

the Western zoo · Nov 20, 2006

I don't know it personally but I saw something on macupsdate called DVDRemaster which is supposed to be able to copy DVD onto single layer DVD's or what ever other size you chose....?

the future · Nov 20, 2006

the Western zoo said:
I don't know it personally but I saw something on macupsdate called DVDRemaster which is supposed to be able to copy DVD onto single layer DVD's or what ever other size you chose....?

DVDRemaster (like DVD2One) is a compression tool, not a ripper, and does not work with copy-protected DVDs. You need a ripper first (to get rid of the copy protection), then you can use a compression tool to make the movie fit on a single layer DVD. Metakine (the developers of DVDRemaster) do offer a tool called Fairmount which is supposed to get rid of the copy protection, but it works with far less discs than Mac The Ripper and definitely not with those new, "unrippable" discs we're talking about here.

Trust me, right now Mac The Ripper is our best (only) shot...

the Western zoo · Nov 20, 2006

the future said:
DVDRemaster (like DVD2One) is a compression tool, not a ripper, and does not work with copy-protected DVDs. You need a ripper first (to get rid of the copy protection), then you can use a compression tool to make the movie fit on a single layer DVD. Metakine (the developers of DVDRemaster) do offer a tool called Fairmount which is supposed to get rid of the copy protection, but it works with far less discs than Mac The Ripper and definitely not with those new, "unrippable" discs we're talking about here.

Trust me, right now Mac The Ripper is our best (only) shot...

okay... really don't know much about this... I used the trial verison of fastdvdcopy to copy a dvd of mine which was dying fom scratches - luckily the source was 1 layer as well so I didn't loose any qualiti...
but can mac the ripper rip dvds on to your hdd with subtitles and soundtracks and all? and then afterwards could you burn it to a dvd?

edit: not that I want to use it for DVD copying, but I would be nice to know when the next of my dvds is handing in it's resignation...

the future · Nov 21, 2006

the Western zoo said:
okay... really don't know much about this... I used the trial verison of fastdvdcopy to copy a dvd of mine which was dying fom scratches - luckily the source was 1 layer as well so I didn't loose any qualiti...
but can mac the ripper rip dvds on to your hdd with subtitles and soundtracks and all? and then afterwards could you burn it to a dvd?

edit: not that I want to use it for DVD copying, but I would be nice to know when the next of my dvds is handing in it's resignation...

Mac The Ripper basically copies the DVD content to your hdd and gets rid of the copy protection while doing so. You can either copy the complete disc (movie, extras, menus, all soundtracks and subtitles) or just the main feature.

Most of the time the original DVD will be a DVD-9 with two layers, so to keep everything in the original quality you'll need a dual/double layer blank DVD (and a burner that supports burning dual/double layer discs; all of the recent ones do).

If you want to use cheaper single layer DVDs, you need to compress Mac The Ripper's output with a compression app like DVD2one or DVDRemaster. Toast 7 can compress as well. The quality will generally still be good, but it depends on how much they need to compress. Obviously there will be more loss of quality in going from 7 GB to 4.3 GB than from 5 GB to 4.3 GB.

Fast DVD Copy is a bit different as it's a ripper and a compression tool put into one app, but as has been mentioned has even more problems with the new copy protection schemes than Mac The Ripper and seems less actively developed, even though it's very expensive.

SpookTheHamster · Nov 21, 2006

I'll definitely donate when I've got some spare cash.

One thing I've noticed about MTR is that it often claims a disc is bad, when the ripped file works absolutely fine.

Diatribe · Nov 21, 2006

SpookTheHamster said:
I'll definitely donate when I've got some spare cash.

One thing I've noticed about MTR is that it often claims a disc is bad, when the ripped file works absolutely fine.

It just says that it has bad sectors but MTR is taking care of them. It just says that so that in case it doesn't work you know why. Although I never had a bad rip because of bad sectors.

Mac The Ripper needs your help!!

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