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I have a dvd I want to compress to remove menus and reduce size so I can watch it on my computer(it's a learning video so I would like to watch it many times over but need to save disk space).

The dvd plays fine but when I play the vobs or rip it using DVDfab, ripit4me, etc... they always come out with distorted video and audio. The video has continuous artifacts, almost like the data stream was corrupt, and the audio speeds and slows down.

Anyone know what the copy protection is and how to remove it? I always have the option of using camtasia to rip it but that's not the direction I want to go.

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1 Answer 1

Based on what what little information was provided in the question, here are a few guesses:

That is CSS. You need a descrambling/video-cracking program to remove it. The most popular programs for that are DVDFab and AnyDVD (the free DVDShrink could do it as well, but was discontinued a long time ago, so it won’t handle newer protections).

The distorted video and audio is due to the CSS (Content Scrambling System), so you need to decrypt before you send it through the compressor/transcoder (ie, before you shrink the video). If you open a VOB file in a hex-editor directly, you will see different bytes than if you open the same file after it is decrypted (no surprise). Play the video with and without encryption and you will see magenta blocks, hear screeches, and so on.

If you already tried some programs (DVDFab, RipIt4Me) without success, it is likely because you opened the VOB files (eg VTS_01_0.VOB) directly instead of opening the disc (ie VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO), or at least the VOB’s .IFO (eg VTS_01_0.IFO).

If you use a real-time decrypter, ,ake sure to rip the disc to the hard-drive, and then compress it instead of just sending the decrypted stream to the compressor because they don’t usually handle structural protections.

Decoding CSS is usually not enough. DVDs use all kinds of protections both old and new, so you will need a proper, up-to-date DVD decrypting program.

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Nope, I've tried those directly. RipIt4Me and dvd decrypter do now allow one to open vobs directly as far as I know. dvd decrypter gives me and error saying the disk should not be encrypted but it is and it's "strange". When I continue it then gives me an error when parsing the vobs "Device Authentication Failed: Failed to get AGID". I've tried DVDFab but it doesn't seem to do fix anything(just get the distorted video). Again, the video plays fine in vlc. I've tried ripping with vlc but it doesn't even start. –  Uiy Feb 11 '12 at 4:45
> Again, the video plays fine in vlc. I've tried ripping with vlc but it doesn't even start. “Again”? You never said that. Are you playing the DVD with VLC or the VOB files? –  Synetech Feb 11 '12 at 5:11
I am not doing anything with the vobs. I said the the dvd plays fine(obviously in some player... I'm sure if I used GOM, or any dvdplayer it would work). I've tried the vob but had the same issues... but if your getting confused about the vobs then forget I ever mentioned anything about them. I simply want to rip the dvd but whatever I use has the distortions. DVD decrypter gives the strange errors and doesn't fix the distortions. The point is that the DVD works, the ripping does. I am not trying to rip the vobs... again, forget about them. –  Uiy Feb 11 '12 at 5:18
Well then you should not have said “I play the vobs”. > The point is that the DVD works, the ripping does. I assume that is a typo? –  Synetech Feb 11 '12 at 5:20
Yeah, that’s it. It’s not you at all, it’s everybody else. Good luck with that. –  Synetech Feb 11 '12 at 8:14

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