All

I'm looking for a solution to auto rip my collection of 100 DVDs and 300 CDs, along with my father's collection of 1400 CDs (yes he's a jazz collector) and ~250 DVDs (he buys anything he doesnt have). Sorting and finding a specific song, disc or dvd is a hassle, and I've been through about 150 of my cds and I need to find a better way.

I'm not worried about the HDD cost/investment, I want the convience of not having to search for discs and auto-ripping (and I know I may have to tweak some id3/tags & pictures, but that should be minimal)

The Sony XL1B2 looks promising, but noone seems to have been able to figure out batch dvd ripping. I also heard bad stories from XL1 owners and tagging. I also saw some professional solutions > $2K but none w/batch dvd ripping/encoding.

I'm willing to go on linux if there's a command line option and a changer than will work with the Sony or another product.

Thanks in advance for the help

Let's see, you want something that takes as input a wheelbarrow-full of CDs and DVDs, and the result is one or more HDD's full of the contents. Besides violating the Digital Millenium Act (by circumventing CSS digital copy protection), the other part I don't see happening automatically is opening all those DVD and CD cases and putting them in the tray(s), one at a time.

But maybe you live in a country not affected by the DMA. No problem, I believe we should be able to make copies of material we legally acquired, for our own use. Still, the part where you give it a bunch of discs and it automatically loads them one at a time escapes me. I put my entire CD collection (~550 discs) onto a PC HDD, it took me about a month of spare time.

Oh, and this is the DVD Recorders Forum, doubtful what you are wanting to do has anything to do with recording DVDs.

Sorry I wasn't much help.

i'm going to close this thread and move it to the HTPC forum

the xl1b2 is a dvd +/- r(w) and there have been several threads in the past in the dvd recorders part of the forums, so I was hoping someone with one would see this

It's an interesting device: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ENU79C/ref=ase_interactiveda606-20/103-9351819-3778222?s=pc&v=glance&n=541966&tagActionCode=interactiveda606-20

But it apparently only loads CDs (not DVDs) from it's 200-disc inventory. I supose it might have saved me some effort when I put my CD library on a PC HDD, I still would have had to load it up 3 times though. Hard to avoid that part. And I don't think it would have found the cover image of every CD and made the icon of every folder containing an album have the appropraite CD cover image. And arranged all the albums by a given artist in a folder for the artist. Seems like another example of "if you want something done right, do it yourself".

And yes it will burn DVDs. But from files on a PC. As opposed to standalone DVD Recorders (no PC connected), which is what mainly gets discussed in this Forum.

I'm not sure why bobkart replied with such a synical response.

I too am looking for a solution to do extactly what post #1 is asking. and it's very legal. What makes you think he didn't legally aquire all his media? All he asked was there a way to do it automatically. Sheesh.

Anyway,

I currently own a PRIMERA BRAVO DVD DISCPUBLISHER and it will "batch duplicate" cd's & dvd's just fine. However, I wish there was a way or some software somewhere that would allow me to load the input hopper with 25 of my 'legally purchased' DVD's at a time and then rip them for a "personal" backup copy in .ISO format or Folder/IFO so that I can stream them from my media player. I am not interested in manually loading each DVD 1 by 1 when I have such a great robotic device as the Primera bravo.

Perhaps less cynical and more factual:

You're likewise out of luck if you're looking to buy software that lets you copy a DVD onto your laptop's hard drive; it's no longer for sale, at least not in the United States. Even if you want to put the movie you bought onto a pocket-size video and game console, such as Sony's PlayStation Portable, which allows users to watch video stored on flash memory or a miniature hard drive, you can't legally do so, because you'd have to “rip,” or decode, it to make the transfer—and the studios claim that this action violates the DMCA. When you rip a CD, be it to an audiotape or an MP3 file, you're not breaking any laws. But to rip a DVD you need to somehow get around the encryption technology built into a standard disc, and since such circumvention is forbidden by the DMCA, if you rip a DVD, you are breaking a law. Under the DMCA, legality doesn't depend on how the copy will be used but rather on the means by which the digital content is copied.(From: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/3673)

In other words it doesn't matter anymore how "legally acquired" the media is. the DMCA doesn't care. Odd that a Motion Picture Producer such as yourself doesn't know that circumventing CSS is illegal. And in case you want to point to me as some kind of MPAA sympathizer, it's right in my first reply here:
I believe we should be able to make copies of material we legally acquired, for our own use.Unfortunately the DMCA takes that right away.

*sigh*

Once again........

Who said "ANYTHING" about violating CSS???? I read, re-read, translated, disected, autopsied, magnified, shaken it up, spun it around and no matter how hard I try to find it, I don't see anywhere in barrmulio's original post where it says he was trying to descramble the Content Scrambling System that are put on certain DVD's that he may not even have. It could be 250 home videos for all we know. What I did find however is your prejudice reply ASSuming that's what he was trying to do.

Now, ofcourse, I know what he wants to do....you know what he wants to do.....we ALL know what he wants to do. *smile* Nevertheless, you/we/all of us shouldn't jump down his throat for it because as you stated.....I believe we should be able to make copies of material we legally acquired, for our own use.and maybe that's just what he's trying to do. Afterall, that's exactly what YOU DID bob with your 550 disc CD collection.... riiiIIiiight?? reminds me of one of my most favorite scriptures.... "Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." but ofcourse, we won't go there during Christmas time. *smile*

I beleive I already addressed your other concern that was escaping you about how loading discs one at a time can be done automatically.

CDs aren't affected by the DMCA. There is no CSS-like protection to circumvent.

And for doing that to be hypocritical, I would have had to say that I don't feel people should be able to make copies for their own use. In fact I said the exact opposite. So what's the exact opposite of hypocritical?

I seriously doubt there are no CSS-protected discs among those he is trying to "rip". But if there aren't, and I did move past that point if you read far enough into my first response, I still have to wonder how this device is going to open the DVD case on each DVD. That seems to be a big part of the problem.

EDIT: And if anyone is jumping down someone's throat here it is you. Don't expect any further replies from me.

Who said "ANYTHING" about violating CSS???? I read, re-read, translated, disected, autopsied, magnified, shaken it up, spun it around and no matter how hard I try to find it, I don't see anywhere in barrmulio's original post where it says he was trying to descramble the Content Scrambling System that are put on certain DVD's that he may not even have. It could be 250 home videos for all we know. What I did find however is your prejudice reply ASSuming that's what he was trying to do.

I guess you missed the part where the OP said his dad [referring to the 250 DVD's] "buys anything he doesn't have". Therefore, a reasonable person (such as bobkart) could deduce the obvious, that is, a majority, if not all, of those commercially bought DVD's likely have CSS encryption, and regardless of motive (backing up or piracy) circumventing that encryption [which is what would have to be done to accomplish the task as laid out by the OP] is a violation of the DMCA. This is just an objective statement of FACT not a judgement against the the OP's intentions. Lashing out at bobkart doesn't change this FACT and I think that's all bobkart was trying to say to PREFACE his attempt to answer the OP's question.

BTW bobkart, I believe that your statement regarding CD's not being covered by DMCA is possibly in error. I believe ALL copyrighted digital content is covered by the DMCA this would include audio and even software (e.g. games) that are distributed on digital media that contain anti-piracy encryption algorithms. Some music companies (e.g., Sony) are infamous for including anti-piracy algorithms even on CDs. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

I've spent the last few days ripping cd's that I legally bought and paid for as well as DVD's that I legally bought and paid for, and putting the content on my new Creative Zen Vision M PMP. I guess I should just now sit here quietly with my hands in the air and wait for THEM to come take me away and throw me in jail.


Sheesh.

What did I say in another thread about this forum becoming more and more unfriendly?

bobkart, vferrari....I feel you.

dmeander, I feel you too. Archiving your legally purchased collection of DVD's is no worse or more illegal then someone who owns an iPod filled with their old school CD collection of music they ripped using the iTunes program it came with it. Just because some CD's don't have CSS don't mean it's OK to rip them.

thats probably why I said what I said. instead of judging people and their motives, lets just answer the questions and help one another.

BTW bobkart, I believe that your statement regarding CD's not being covered by DMCA is possibly in error. I believe ALL copyrighted digital content is covered by the DMCA this would include audio and even software (e.g. games) that are distributed on digital media that contain anti-piracy encryption algorithms. Some music companies (e.g., Sony) are infamous for including anti-piracy algorithms even on CDs. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
Yes I believe there are some new CDs that include digital anti-copying measures. I don't have any of those. Mine are all just Red-Book (the original CD Specification) CDs. No encryption/protection etc. "Ripping" the contained tracks involved merely copying their bytes. Thus not covered by the DMCA. But I believe ripping those Sony CDs would be so covered.

Dmeader, as vferrari correctly interpreted, my initial reply here is not making a judgement as to whether what the original poster is doing is right or wrong (in fact I show my sympathy with what he is trying to do by expressing my viewpoint that we should be allowed to copy our own media for our own use), but just pointing out that it is forbidden by the DMCA. Far too many people read such a "pointing out" as a condemnation of anyone trying to do it. No such condemnation is present though. In fact in later such similar posts (this one was made sometime ago) I started adding statements to the effect of "I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just pointing it out" because so many people seem to see an implicit judgement in the simple pointing out part.

I've spent the last few days ripping cd's that I legally bought and paid for as well as DVD's that I legally bought and paid for, and putting the content on my new Creative Zen Vision M PMP. I guess I should just now sit here quietly with my hands in the air and wait for THEM to come take me away and throw me in jail.


Sheesh.

What did I say in another thread about this forum becoming more and more unfriendly?

Merely trying to point out facts that people may not be aware of not passing any judgements whatsoever and I explicitly stated that was the intention. You appear to have missed that point altogether when you read my post and bob's. I agree that unjustified sarcasm, such as what you displayed in your response (I guess I should just now sit here...), apparently based on misinterpreting or not carefully reading what someone has posted, is indeed one way the forum is getting unfriendlier.

P.S. Regarding ripping of legally obtained CD's etc... like I posted, the DCMA does not recognize end user intent or whether the copyrighted material was initially obtained legally. If you circumvent digital encryption to make a copy, the DCMA is violated, period. It's something, of course, many people do so that they can have content when and where they want or to backup/archive a collection with legal software provided by third parties. Consumers are led to these measures because the content providers just don't "get it" that consumers desire this level of control over purchased content (has nothing to do with piracy) and have not provided alternatives. However, even though the threat of enforcement is very unlikely, most people take the prudent course and do go around advertising it on a public forum. No need to leave a digital audit trail for the content police to use if Big Brother decides to rear his ugly head in the future. After all, the record industry didn't have any qualms serving a subpoena to a 12-year old girl who was hosting her private music collection on a publicly accessible server. Don't ask, don't tell...just friendly advice, not a judgement...

Take care

Well, wether it was intended to be that way or not, I found the initial replies to Barmulio's query scornful and dismissive. He made it clear that he did "get it", and I did not see the need to start waving the DMCA flag in his face. Furthermore, I believe what he is searching for to be quite reasonable.... some sort of application to transfer content from CD and DVD discs to a computer system featuring a database application to catalog the data. I suspect that he wasn't really expecting to find a neat little robotic arm to take the discs out of the boxes for him.

On the subject of the DMCA, believe it or not there are those of us with extensive media collections that have never had a P2P app on their system. Never a Bit-torrent client. Never downloaded. Never uploaded. Any and all of my content is legally acquired, and once in my hands is NEVER shared, traded, sold, publically exhibited, lent or given away. In the future I'd suggest not starting each reply to queries in this area with words to the effect "....you know that you are breaking the law in doing this....". I do not see how it is your place to represent the DMCA police (unless you are on the MPAA or RIAA payroll) and enforce the laws yourself. I prefer to believe that most people are basically honest.

Not sure what started the verbal blood-letting either however, there is some software readily available on the Internet for download and purchase called DVDFab Decrypter (http://www.dvdfab.com/index.htm) -- Gold or Platinum versions. This software will allow personal backup of commercial DVD titles with a number of very nice options (such as selective ripping of the main title only for transfer to media servers). These options include ripping a DVD to a mobile device such as iPod, PSP or generic portable media viewer.

DVDFab Decrypter is updated on a regular basis, usually to cope with the newest Sony releases. For whatever reason, this software has and continues to be readily available on it's own commercial website. The content houses have either not gone after them or not been able to intimidate them or what they are selling may be completely legal under some loophole none of us here are aware of.

I believe it has a command-line option for running in batch files (but not sure if current versions have retained it). If so it is conceivable that it, in combination with an auto media loader, could do what you desire.

Well, wether it was intended to be that way or not, I found the initial replies to Barmulio's query scornful and dismissive. He made it clear that he did "get it", and I did not see the need to start waving the DMCA flag in his face. Furthermore, I believe what he is searching for to be quite reasonable.... some sort of application to transfer content from CD and DVD discs to a computer system featuring a database application to catalog the data. I suspect that he wasn't really expecting to find a neat little robotic arm to take the discs out of the boxes for him.

On the subject of the DMCA, believe it or not there are those of us with extensive media collections that have never had a P2P app on their system. Never a Bit-torrent client. Never downloaded. Never uploaded. Any and all of my content is legally acquired, and once in my hands is NEVER shared, traded, sold, publically exhibited, lent or given away. In the future I'd suggest not starting each reply to queries in this area with words to the effect "....you know that you are breaking the law in doing this....". I do not see how it is your place to represent the DMCA police (unless you are on the MPAA or RIAA payroll) and enforce the laws yourself. I prefer to believe that most people are basically honest.

Sigh...

Once again, I am not questioning/judging people's honesty just trying to help people to understand a law that is arcane and is frequently misunderstood in this area (e.g., "good intent" and "legally purchased content") and my only point is to INFORM people to KEEP THEM OUT OF TROUBLE not to tell them what to do and what not to do with their content. The subject line alone is proabably a red flag for the MPAA/RIAA. Believe it or not, I'm not the bad guy here.

I believe its prudent to inform people of some of the potential traps that they may be exposing themselves to when posting to a public forum regarding this subject matter, there are ways of discussing such topics discretely without putting oneself at risk and that's the point. Not sure why you would want to suppress this information from those who may not know better? That's worse than passing judgement on people trying to use purchased content the way they see fit. True there are better ways to get the message across, I'm sure, [Looking back on on the thread again, I agree that initial responses could have been phrased better to avoid the appearance that the DCMA was the first and foremost consideration in the task the OP was asking about, but the response taken in its entirety clearly showed that even though the DCMA was discussed there might be a way to do what the OP wanted to do.] However, not many people who post here are professional writers - so true intentions may not come across clearly. But just because there will be misunderstandings when information is disseminated on the forum shouldn't mean we should suppress the information. That would be called censorship and that's probably worse then being accused of being a shill for the RIAA. Which, by the way, couldn't be further from the truth.

I'm not trying to prolong a flame war here, I'm just hoping you'll see that you may have misunderstood my intentions. Again, not trying to judge anyone including yourself.

Take care.

Just my 2cents, IMO, over my life time I bought over 2000 8Track and cassettes tapes Legit!
and forgot how many Vinal Albums and 45's, and now thats its the 21 century I had to re-buy all that on CD's and DVD. as i see it I already bought the license rights to listen to that album or tape. but no i had to buy it all over agian? and im sure some new format will come out and get me for triple! how many times do i have to pay for something I already paid for?
and some countrys have no copyrites at ALL. No laws to stop them at all! or should say no one to enforce the law on them. I say for private use throw away copyrite laws! but its just my take on things.

I prefer to believe that most people are basically honest.
Here here!

Sigh...

Once again, I am not questioning/judging people's honesty

And never did, anywhere in this thread.

Just a few thoughts....

Q: Did you get a license from the MPAA to make copies of DVDs on hard disks?
A: A Kaleidescape customer has a fair-use right to make copies of DVDs and CDs that he or she owns onto the Kaleidescape System's hard disks. No license is required provided the copies will only be used for that customer's personal home video entertainment.

The Motion Picture Association of America ("MPAA") does not issue licenses of any kind. The MPAA is a domestic trade association of the American film industry that serves as "the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries."

The Kaleidescape System is manufactured and sold pursuant to licenses from a number of technology licensing bodies, including the DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., the DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation, Dolby, Macrovision, DVI Promoters, HDMI Licensing LLC, Digital Content Protection, LLC (HDCP), MPEG LA, LLC, Nissim Corporation, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (acting for three different patent pools), Toshiba Corporation (on behalf of the DVD Patent Licensing Group), and many others.


Q: Does loading a DVD into the Kaleidescape Server bypass DVD copy protection?
A: Most DVDs are protected by the Content Scramble System ("CSS"), a method used to encrypt the video and audio data. Manufacturers of legitimate DVD playback products must obtain a license from the DVD Copy Control Association (the "DVD CCA") to remove CSS encryption. Kaleidescape has obtained such a license, and Kaleidescape scrupulously adheres to its required procedures and restrictions. For example, when playing back DVD content, the System only allows the audio and video outputs permitted by the CSS License Agreement. The System's analog video outputs are further protected by certain Macrovision technology, which was obtained pursuant to a separate license from Macrovision Corporation. The CSS License Agreement does not prohibit the copying of CSS-protected DVD data into memory or onto a hard disk. However, in order to comply with the CSS License Agreement, any such copying must be done without exposing certain types of DVD data (keys or unscrambled audio/video data) on "user-accessible buses," such as the PCI bus in a personal computer. The Kaleidescape System complies with this restriction by virtue of being a closed system comprised of proprietary hardware and software that Kaleidescape designed from the ground up with content security as a major design objective.



Q: How can you copy a Macrovision-protected DVD onto a hard disk?
A: Macrovision is a copy protection technology that applies to the analog video outputs of DVD players. Kaleidescape has a Macrovision license and our products have been tested and approved by Macrovision Corporation. That license and certification is what enables Kaleidescape to apply the Macrovision copy protection technology to a Movie Player's analog video outputs. This has nothing to do with making a digital copy of the information on a DVD disc.


Read more here: http://www.kaleidescape.com/faq/

thank goodness for a great company like kaleidescape