How to Decrypt and Rip your Blu-ray Movies

In looking over the guides we have on this site, it came to my attention that sometimes we take for granted the technical pieces we know and overlook some critical items which would benefit readers of MissingRemote.com. I happened to already have written an article on this, so it seemed to make sense to update and post here for your benefits.

As more and more Movie Manager software applications are developed it increases the necessity to have your movies stored on your system/server. Sure there’s the option on MyMovies to have "offline" discs in your collection, but it’s a pretty big inconvenience to find the movie you want to watch, only to be told you have to get up and go find the disc and put it in your system. Indeed, most users who utilize these movie managers will tell you that having the movies stored on a hard drive is the optimal configuration for a number of reasons. You have instant access to any movie from any HTPC or Extender connected to your network, and you can configure your own backup strategy to never have to replace a movie (read: No more scratched discs!).

With all that being said, let me preface this article by saying that the legality of this varies based on who you ask and where you are located, so proceed at your own risk. MissingRemote is not liable for anything you may do as a result of this guide…we merely want to help those that are capable of doing so. With that in mind, click Read More to continue reading…

Decryption Explained&heading=Decryption Explained

Ever since the creation of video cassette recorders (VCR) movie
studios have been utilizing various encryption methods for protecting
their content. Encryption means there is a layer of technology on the
content media which is intended to thwart copying of the movie. With
content as valuable as the Blu-ray format, studios have continued to
try to make it very difficult to copy discs for personal use, layering
Blu-ray discs with an ever changing encryption scheme attempting to
prevent you from creating a copy of a movie you rightfully purchased.

Decrypt
means reading the disc and removing the copy protection. This allows
you to copy the movie to an alternative storage location such as
another disc, a hard drive, or a flash drive. Once the movie is
decrypted, it is unprotected and you can do with it what you wish. With
the decrypted movie on your hard drive, you can then put it on your
laptop or server, and play it anywhere you wish by using compatible
Blu-ray software. Arcsoft Total Media Theater, for example, allows you
to play a Blu-ray movie stored on your hard drive.

In addition
to the commonly known reason for decrypting to copy to a hard drive
there are other benefits such as being able to play on a
non-HDCP-supported display. If you have an older display or television
that is not HDCP-compliant, then the Blu-ray player software will
prevent you from being able to watch. Being able to decrypt the movie
allows you to watch it anywhere, and on any device.

Unfortunately,
there is presently no sponsored software provided by the movie studios
which allows you to decrypt a movie for your own personal use.
Fortunately, a small company by the name of Slysoft offers a program
called AnyDVD HD which allows the decryption of a blu-ray disc (or DVD
for that matter) for playback as well as for copying to your hard
drive. The program will decrypt movies on the fly in the background, or
can be used to copy the movie to a hard drive. As I mentioned, the
movie studios do continue to update their copy-protection scheme, so
Slysoft does their best (and they are quite fast) at releasing updates
to AnyDVD to allow for decrypting of the latest movies.

The actual process of copying a movie is
quite simple, but it’s the additional options you can choose which
really can make your watching of the copied movie that much more
pleasant. For starters, you will need to obtain a copy of Slysoft’s
AnyDVD HD from their website. If you’re nervous or unsure, they offer a
fully unlimited two week trial for evaluation. Otherwise, the cost is
63 Euros (which converts to approximately $86 US), and this includes
unlimited upgrades for a period of one year.

Installation and Config&heading=Installation and Config

Rip Movie to Hard Drive&heading=Rip Movie to Hard Drive

Copying
the movie is actually the simplest task. To begin, Right click on the
fox icon, and select “Rip Video DVD to Hard Disk.” This will bring up a
small dialog window with just a few options. First, is selecting your
“Source Directory,” which is the drive which contains the Blu-ray disc.
(Often the default should be correct.) The second is “Destination
Directory” which is where the movie will be stored. As I mentioned,
Blu-rays can range anywhere from 20GB to as high as 50GB for a single
movie, so make sure that your hard drive has sufficient storage space.
AnyDVD supports ripping to a local, external, and even network drive,
so your options for expansion are plentiful.

The final step is
to press the “Copy DVD” button. The progress bar will begin and you
will be shown “Time remaining” informing you how long it should take.
Feel free to continue utilizing the computer as you normally would, but
you will be unable to play the disc until it has finished copying. It
might run a bit slower than normal, but for most tasks you should not
notice. And that’s it, once complete you will now have a fully playable
movie in the folder you previously selected!