Before I begin, I would like to state that this IS a legal thread, and is not encouraging dvd piracy. The consumer HAS the right to legally make as many "back up copies" of a DVD that they legally own (ie, one they bought) and thus is not breaking the law. And thus, DVD Ripping software is a legal PC tool, provided the obtainment of such software was gained legally (ie. freeware download, or purchased software)

Anyway, with that out of the way.....

For a good while now I have used a programme called DVD Shrink, which is a very good programme that allows the user to load a DVD into it and rip the content to DVD compatible files. The files remain the true size to the original DVD, and the best thing about DVD Shrink is it's ability to compress the files to fit a 4.7gb DVD-R disc (or 8.5gb DL DVD-R) I have never had a failed disc so far using DVD Shrink, that is untill this weekend....

From the beginning of 2006, Sony Pictures and Columbia/Tristar, along with most Dreamworks, Miramax, Caravan, and a few others, have begun encoding new DVD's with a new form of copy protection called "ARccOS"m which is also used in DVD-based and memory stick based games. DVD Shrink (nor DVD Decrypter) are able to crack this encryption, and cannot successfully rip to the HDD. ARccOS also prevents 1:1 copying, even when the original disc is of a filesize small enough to fit on a blank DVD (ie, if it is less that 8.5gb, of which a lot of original DVD's are anyway)

Sooooo.... I went on a few sites and read up on it, but got very confused! I downloaded legal issues of DVD Decrypter, and the PSL2 plugin patch that is needed to allow DVDD to successfully rip an ARccOS encoded disc (along with this two other programmes come in the download - PGC Edit and FixVTS, which are also needed)

On a popular forum devoted to digital video, I found a good "How to guide" (see here : http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=56831 ) but upon embarking on the lenghty process involved with this, the resulting rip was still unsuccessful. The inital rip and secondary rip was successfull, and the files were able to be put into DVD Shrink to be compressed. When the compression was finished tho, DVD Shrink popped up a warking that something wasn't right. I used Nero 6 (as I always do) to burn the files to a DVD as a DVD video, and again got a warning that there was a problem. The result was a DVD that didn't play, and when you stick it in a PC, it was basically a data disc.

After trying Nero's "Recoder" which converts DVD files to "Nero Digital" (MPEG4) and then using WinAVI to convert back to DVD filetype (VOB and VTS), Nero accepted the files and began the burn. The result was a perfect playing DVD, with crystal clear picture. Sadly tho - there was no audio track!!! I tried again (did the Recorder and WinAVI) with a second set of files from the same disc) but again I got a DVD with no audio

So..... What do you people use and has anyone here got past the ARccOS encryption, as this is baffling me now as I cannot get it to work.....

In case anyone is wondering, the DVD I was trying to rip from and burn was "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". I have tried with another Dreamworks DVD, which also have the logo on it, but it obviously wasn't ARccOS encrypted as DVD Shrink handled it perfectly....