A Brief Discussion on DVD Protection

Before we talk about the DVD protection, I will first introduce you the structure of a DVD. A DVD is made up of 1 to 99 titles and all the titles are distributed in the Video Title Set(VTS). Each title has their chapters, which work with a program. The Program is composed of cells. A number of programs make a Program Chain (PGC). And when a Chapter works with its program, the number of PGC and program were determined at the same time.

A DVD movie disc contains a VIDEO_TS file, where the file related to the movie was found. You can find 3 types of file in VIDEO_TS file, including *.IFO(index file of a DVD), *.BUP(DVD index backup file) and *.VOB(DVD content file).

Now we know what is in the DVD disc, but how to add a protection on it? There are many ways to add protections on a DVD. Content Scramble System(CSS) and ArccOS are two ways widely used by DVD movie publishers.

Content Scramble System(CSS) adds protection in *.VOB file and when playing the DVD movie, a key is needed for decrypting *.VOB file. The key used to decrypt the *.VOB file is DVD disc. So people can not copy the DVD movie to another blank DVD disc by using physical file copy. Unfortunately, in 1999, Jon Lech Johansen and other two guys found a way to decode the CSS. As a result of that now CSS is not a big deal if you want to copy a DVD movie using CSS protection.

Nowadays, ArccOS is more and more popular than CSS. It has the following features:
A. Bad Sector
One of the features of ArccOS is that bad sector was set in the DVD disc. When your player is reading the bad sector, the player will crash right away. To those players which follow the rule of DVD, a command in the DVD disc will tell the player how to avoid bad sector and play the DVD movie correctly.

B. Titles
DVD in this kind of protection has as many as 99 titles. Movie content is divided and stored in each title disorderly. To those players which follow the rule of DVD, a command in the DVD disc will tell the player how to play the DVD movie as the movie actually goes.

So as we can see from above, bad sector and disorderly content become the two key point of decoding this kind of protection. In the market of DVD ripping and copying software, there are many software that can only kill the first kind of protection (CSS), so they can not rip or copy many DVD movies released recently. Because they are protected by ArccOS. Some of them can decode the ArccOS but not perfectly. The output video has one problem or another. Most of them can not provide a perfect solution for ripping DVD movies.

How to Remove DVD Protection?

The software that supports both solutions and allows you to select which one to use is Aiseesoft DVD Ripper. It provides you two ways to rip DVD to video freely. When you load your DVD to it. It will pop up a window to ask you which mode you want to use. Find more info here: http://www.aiseesoft.com/dvd-ripper.html

How to Rip DVD?

Step 1: Import DVD

Place the DVD into your DVD drive and click the "Load DVD" button to load DVD.

Tips: This DVD Ripper can load three DVD source, you can load your DVD from DVD drive, DVD folder in your PC and also IFO file.

Step 2: Video settings

Select the output video format you want from the "Profile" drop-down list.



Tips:

* 1: You can also select Audio Track and Subtitle from their respectively drop-down list.
* 2: If you like the current image of the video you can use the "Snapshot" opinion. Just click the "Snapshot" button the image will be saved and you can click the "File" next to "Snapshot" button to open your picture. You can select the destination of the picture by clicking the "Preference" button. As default the captured image will be saved at: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Aiseesoft Studio\Snapshot
* 3: If you want to merge the selected contents into one file you can check the "merge into one file" option. As default the merged file is named after the first selected file (either a title or a chapter)
* 4: You can click the "Settings" button to set your video parameters.



In the Video Settings, you can select Encoder, Frame Rate, Resolution and Bitrate for your movie.

In the Audio Settings, you can select Encoder, Channels, Bitrate and Sample Rate for your movie.

when you choose the specific settings, the lower window will show the "help" to explain the meanings of each setting.

Step 3: Start conversion

Click the "Start" button to start your conversion and in a short while it will be finished.

Step 4: Click "Open" button to open your output destination file.