Is ripping a dvr disc to a comp as easy as a cd? (1 Viewer)

[Ken Burkstrum]

I want to know if it would be as easy as ripping a CD or if you'd still have to go through the same crap you do with normal DVD movies?

 

[Ken Burkstrum]

you guys have dvrs, some of you had to of tried it before. :frowning:

 

[Steve Berger]

I am a little confused. Do you mean things recorded on the hard drive of a DVR or a DVD disk burned on a DVD recorder?

If you're extracting from a hard drive then you'd need to search out methods specific to the device in question.

If you are referring to a self made DVD, then you generally need to "rip" the disk. In theory, you could just copy the VOB files to the PC since there is probable no CSS or macrovision, and then combine them (a DVD is constructed from 1Gb chunks along with navigation files) but you could end up with incorrect aspect ratios, no/wrong audio, out of sequence, etc, since those pieces of information are located in the IFO files. A DVD from a DVR can also be encoded as "copy never" "copy once" or "copy free" however. I think it's called CPRM; which could cause problems with any device that is CPRM compliant (ie all VCRs built after year 2000).

In practice, self produced DVDs are sequential with single audio tracks most of the time so copying VOBs and joining them usually works; however using a ripping program works best as it extracts the mpeg correctly and can read through errors which will stop a straight file transfer. A DVD uses lots of error correction for playback but file transfers are picky. Ripping goes very smoothly since there is no CSS, encryption, or macrovision to break.