Legal music/movie downloads & copying DVD's

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cjmack

162 posts

Master Geek

#57055 1-Feb-2010 18:43

Hi,
First off, I am looking for a legal way to purchase and download movies and music online. I trialled Graboid, and it worked great for 3 of the 4 files I downloaded, but the large file got to about 80% and then failed for no apparent reason, and no way to resume. All it did was waste my data cap.

Anyone used an online service, or know of a decent one?

Also, I want to copy my DVD's, so as I can lock the originals away somewhere, and just have the copies out in the lounge. That way, if they do get nicked, no big deal. Is there some software to copy them in full quality? I have a seperate DVD-ROM and DVD-RW drive in my PC, and enough spare HDD space to rip it to the drive.

Alternatively, what software would I use to rip the DVD's to movie files on to my HDD, with a manageable file size?

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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#295247 1-Feb-2010 18:56

From what I've seen of Graboid (and just visited for the first time because of your post), it doesn't seem "legal" at all.

Want legal videos? Try The Auteurs, which lists some public domain movies. Or try Apple iTunes Store for legal downloads. Or TVNZ on Demand for recaps of TV episodes.

As for DVD backups - those are still illegal in New Zealand. You can make copies of your music CDs for personal use, but not videos. For some strange reason our MPs think bits are different if they represent video.

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cjmack

162 posts

Master Geek

#295253 1-Feb-2010 19:15

Yeah I had my suspicions about Graboid. The fact that all the files are from external sources, and some movies have multiple entries kind of gave it away.

Zippity

683 posts

Ultimate Geek

#295259 1-Feb-2010 19:56

Try Limewire for downloading your music. It must be legal - you have to pay to use it

robjg63

3839 posts

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#295260 1-Feb-2010 19:58

Assuming the DVDs involved were say the DVD disks that you had just recorded on your video camera - you know - the ones that you can pop into a normal DVD player and play - and therefore your own movies, you could use dvd decrypter (http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk.../)

Dont know if its ok on Vista/Win 7 - but works fine on XP
This lets you copy the DVD contents to HDD.

Then see DVD shrink (http://www.dvdshrink.org.../) if you need to shrink the contents or leave bits out.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

buzzy

217 posts

Master Geek

#295377 2-Feb-2010 13:48

As Mauricio says, duplicating copyrighted video is currently not allowed under NZ law without express permission of the copyright holder. I believe most studios have said they don't intend to prosecute people who duplicate their videos for non-commercial use (e.g. backups, putting a copy on your iPod, etc) but they could change that stance at any time.

That said, if you wanted to duplicate a DVD that contained a non-copyrighted video (or wanted to do this in a country where duplication for personal use was legal) you could use "DVDFab HD Decrypter" (Google it). The basic functionality is free - decrypting a DVD and dumping it to a hard disk. Advanced features like resizing/transcoding and Blu-Ray ripping are a paid-for option. DVDFab is updated more frequently than DVD Decrypter so it copes with newer copy protection methods that have been introduced in more recent commercial DVD releases.

Handbrake (again, Google it) is a free utility for transcoding video. It's designed to transcode into the H.264 standard, which is a lot newer and better than MPEG2. It also understands the DVD structure so it can transcode specific titles or episodes. You can usually take a full DVD movie and reduce it to around 1Gb with little loss of quality.

Again, I'm obliged to mention there's possible legal implications of backing up copyrighted video for your own private, personal use.

Zippity

683 posts

Ultimate Geek

#295387 2-Feb-2010 14:13

Alternatively, a couple of great "paid for" programmes that will do the trick for you are:

1ClickCopyPro and DVDFab6

cyberbrains

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#298446 12-Feb-2010 17:36

Yep I would suggest itunes as is safe! DON'T use LimeWire although its a paying site its still illegal people are getting fined using that site.