Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ripping a DVD, a federal crime in 1999, requires $22 and free software in 2026

ringmast4r.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–46 of 46 posts

Re: Ripping a DVD, a federal crime in 1999, requires $22 and free software in 2026

#41

Post by Telaneo »

foresto wrote: post #40
Telaneo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rip UHD blu-rays.

That much is obvious. Just in case you didn't mean to be snarky, I was asking what the custom firmware brings to the device that allows using it to rip blu-ray discs that could not be ripped using the stock firmware.

It's not that the custom firmware brings anything to the device. It just gets rid of the DRM.

Blu-ray is DRMed, so the stock firmware is capable of telling you 'no'. You don't always get direct access to the bits on the disc with the stock firmware (you can write your own discs that aren't protected, but store-bought ROM-discs are (always?) encrypted. The flashed firmware gives you direct access to the bits on the disc no matter what (region codes don't matter, the encryption doesn't matter, since your custom firmware will happily decode the disc and just hand you the files on it).

Re: Ripping a DVD, a federal crime in 1999, requires $22 and free software in 2026

#42

Post by foresto »

Telaneo wrote: post #41
foresto wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That much is obvious. Just in case you didn't mean to be snarky, I was asking what the custom firmware brings to the device that allows using it to rip blu-ray discs that could not be ripped using the stock firmware.

It's not that the custom firmware brings anything to the device. It just gets rid of the DRM. Blu-ray is DRMed, so the stock firmware is capable of telling you 'no'. You don't always get direct access to the bits on the disc with the stock firmware (you can write your own discs that aren't protected, but store-bought ROM-discs are (always?) encrypted. The flashed firmware gives you direct access to the bits on the di…

I see. I expect DRM-encumbered discs to contain encrypted data, but I think this is the first I've heard of an optical drive withholding the encrypted bits from an application.

(And region codes aren't what I think of today as DRM. They've never been much more than silly speed bumps, so I wouldn't expect them to be at the heart of what's going on here.)

Re: Ripping a DVD, a federal crime in 1999, requires $22 and free software in 2026

#43

Post by Telaneo »

foresto wrote: post #42
Telaneo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that the custom firmware brings anything to the device. It just gets rid of the DRM. Blu-ray is DRMed, so the stock firmware is capable of telling you 'no'. You don't always get direct access to the bits on the disc with the stock firmware (you can write your own discs that aren't protected, but store-bought ROM-discs are (always?) encrypted. The flashed firmware gives you direct access to the bits on the di…

I see. I expect DRM-encumbered discs to contain encrypted data, but I think this is the first I've heard of an optical drive withholding the encrypted bits from an application. (And region codes aren't what I think of today as DRM. They've never been much more than silly speed bumps, so I wouldn't expect them to be at the heart of what's going on here.)

I mean, you can get the encrypted bits on the disc, except the key, so those don't really help you anything. If you ask the drive for the key, it'll tell you 'what? no, fuck off'/'that address is invalid', while one with custom firmware will just hand you the key, as it's just normal data, and then you can use that to decrypt the rest of the disc and get what you were really here for.

Re: Ripping a DVD, a federal crime in 1999, requires $22 and free software in 2026

#44

Post by foresto »

Telaneo wrote: post #43
foresto wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. I expect DRM-encumbered discs to contain encrypted data, but I think this is the first I've heard of an optical drive withholding the encrypted bits from an application. (And region codes aren't what I think of today as DRM. They've never been much more than silly speed bumps, so I wouldn't expect them to be at the heart of what's going on here.)

I mean, you can get the encrypted bits on the disc, except the key, so those don't really help you anything. If you ask the drive for the key, it'll tell you 'what? no, fuck off'/'that address is invalid', while one with custom firmware will just hand you the key, as it's just normal data, and then you can use that to decrypt the rest of the disc and get what you were really here for.

> I mean, you can get the encrypted bits on the disc, except the key, so those don't really help you anything.

They do, because a key can be obtained externally, such as with a software library made for decrypting the discs.

In any case, thanks; I think I finally understand what's going on here. Based on what you've written, custom firmware is not actually required, but it makes things more convenient (especially for folks without much technical experience).

Re: Ripping a DVD, a federal crime in 1999, requires $22 and free software in 2026

#45

Post by Telaneo »

foresto wrote: post #44
Telaneo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you can get the encrypted bits on the disc, except the key, so those don't really help you anything. If you ask the drive for the key, it'll tell you 'what? no, fuck off'/'that address is invalid', while one with custom firmware will just hand you the key, as it's just normal data, and then you can use that to decrypt the rest of the disc and get what you were really here for.

> I mean, you can get the encrypted bits on the disc, except the key, so those don't really help you anything. They do, because a key can be obtained externally, such as with a software library made for decrypting the discs. In any case, thanks; I think I finally understand what's going on here. Based on what you've written, custom firmware is not actually required, but it makes things more convenient (especially for…

> Based on what you've written, custom firmware is not actually required

This is correct for normal blu-rays, but not the UHD ones, since they add another layer of encryption. There's some nonsense going on with VUKs and MakeMKV not being able to decrypt all UHD discs, since some are encrypted with keys that aren't easily available (though you can send in a dump of the disc to the devs and they'll often change that fact for that disc).

If you know of a software library that can decrypt any random UHD disc without external keys, then please, do tell, since the MakeMKV people apparently don't know about it.

Re: Ripping a DVD, a federal crime in 1999, requires $22 and free software in 2026

#46

Post by delecti »

jeroenhd wrote: post #39
delecti wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The drive I got for ripping blu-ray discs cost me $80, 2 years ago. The current best seller on amazon is also $80 (both $79.99, to be precise, so the same price down to the cent). The same drive I bought is $116 on Best Buy right now. It can also write to discs (ostensibly, I didn't consider that when buying it, and don't have any reason to test it). Meanwhile the cheapest external drive I can quickly find on Amazon…

For context: 21% VAT and Amazon resellers pretending 1 euro is worth 1 dollar in their pricing makes for the biggest price difference between what I found and what you bought. From what I can tell, the affordable BD players cannot play all discs. They can read (and probably write) all data discs, but when I buy a disc, there's no guarantee I will be able to rip it and make it accessible over my LAN. That's the kind o…

The one I bought can play and rip all discs, after a firmware update. It was the one currently for sale for $116.

It only takes a little bit of research, and there are plenty that are not being scalped (or probably more commonly, scooped up by people who intend to use them). I found some in EU pricing in just a minute of searching. The MakeMKV forums are full of suggestions for suitable drives.

Post reply on HN