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AnyDVD Supports UHD Blu-Ray Ripping, While Devices Patch Security Holes (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the movie-rippers dept.

The controversial ripping tool AnyDVD has released a new beta version that allows users to decrypt and copy UHD Blu-Ray discs. The software makes use of the leaked keys that came out recently and appears to work well. Meanwhile, disc drive manufacturers are patching security holes. TorrentFreak reports: This year there have been some major developments on this front. First, full copies of UHD discs started to leak online, later followed by dozens of AACS 2.0 keys. Technically speaking AACS 2.0 is not confirmed to be defeated yet, but many discs can now be ripped. This week a popular name jumped onto the UHD Blu-Ray bandwagon. In its latest beta release, AnyDVD now supports the format, relying on the leaked keys. "New (UHD Blu-ray): Fetch AACS keys from external file for use with 'UHD-friendly' drives," the release notes read. The involvement of AnyDVD is significant because it previously came under legal pressure from decryption licensing outfit AACS LA. This caused former parent company Slysoft to shut down last year, but the software later reappeared under new management. Based on reports from several AnyDVD users, the UHD ripping works well for most people. Some even claim that it's faster than the free alternative, MakeMKV.

35 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Dead to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sorry, but AnyDVD is dead to me. I paid for a lifetime license and now they don't honor it. I honestly don't buy into the whole "oh, that OTHER company shut down, and we're an entirely different company, but oh we have their code and their forums and everything, so pay us again" BS.

    1. Re:Dead to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Same thing happened to me. I've still got it installed, but it's stuck at version 7.6.9.5.

      You'd think the least they could do is release a local copy of the online database to paid users that covers titles up to point where support ended. Instead, it's simply inaccessible, making BD+ titles that required the database un-decryptable, even though they previously worked.

      I'm not too pissed off, because I got a lot of use out of the software over the years, but I will probably never buy the new version because the same thing could easily happen again, maybe even a week after purchase, who knows.

      I simply don't buy movies any more. I'll watch the occasional one on TV or Netflix, but for the shit they've been putting out over the past decade and the crap that industry is full of, to hell with them. I'll watch old movies or find something else to do. There's still a ton of Bogart and Eastwood movies I still haven't seen that I got for free years ago.

    2. Re:Dead to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm personally pissed because I paid for a lifetime license and got less than a year of updates. And the deal they offered to pay them again was atrocious.

      I know some people who paid for lifetime updates got years out of it, but there's no way in hell that I'm giving them another dime after they failed so miserably in handling it.

      Personally, I don't buy the notion that they're a separate company when they're mostly the same employees and they have the source code. The minor discount they offered was a pretty big insult to those of us that had recently paid them for licenses.

    3. Re:Dead to me by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sorry, but AnyDVD is dead to me. I paid for a lifetime license and now they don't honor it. I honestly don't buy into the whole "oh, that OTHER company shut down, and we're an entirely different company, but oh we have their code and their forums and everything, so pay us again" BS.

      SlySoft is DEAD. The company founder was jailed and the company was forced to shut down. (Slysoft was either a company based in Antigua). The company wiped all the front-end servers during the shut down, including customer databases. That company is dead. USTR and AACS LA forced them to close and they folded.

      Now, RedFox is composed of the developers of the company - they discovered when SlySoft shut down, and the servers wiped, the source code servers and build machines were very much alive. So they basically stole it all - source code and everything, shut down the old Slysoft servers because the company is legally dead.

      For a time, they hosted Slysoft data - at their expense. Remember, the financial assets of Slysoft were seized during the shutdown.

      So RedFox guys got together and incorporated in Belize, again, with their own money (they didn't even do a Kickstarter, which is the trendy thing these days). As a goodwill measure, they offered recent licensees a whopping 50% discount off new licenses (including lifetime). This was on top of the 20% discount they were offering to get seed money started, and you can get another 10% if you pay in bitcoin.

      They didn't have to do any of it - because legally speaking, Slysoft's assets are no more. They are two completely independent companies. In fact, AnyDVD's source code is technically stolen from Slysoft, but I'm sure SlySoft will not be suing them for the theft.

      I'm sure the US Government might try to seize the source code back, but I'm sure that would lead to thornier issues since the wrong move might make it available to all as part of a FOIA.Or who knows what else - treat it wrongly and it might end up through some legislative loopholes to be a US government supported piece of software.

    4. Re:Dead to me by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      When someone sells you something for "lifetime", it means "for as long as I live". Not you.

      Never buy anything "for lifetime" where you're dependent on someone to continue his business. It's usually a good indicator that he won't be doing it for much longer.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    5. Re:Dead to me by Guyle · · Score: 1

      When someone sells you something for "lifetime", it means "for as long as I live". Not you.

      In an ideal world, sure. In the real world, shit happens, and you get what you get. Yeah, I didn't like having to buy AnyDVD HD again from RedFox after having a lifetime license from SlySoft. But you know, I respect the guys who resurrected it and brought it back to life, so they deserved getting my money again. Hell, the one thing I wanted was UHD support, and it's finally coming around. They wouldn't have had money for that kind of development if they just let everyone who had old SlySoft lifetime licenses keep use of the software. Might be the same software, but seriously, the fact that it really is two different companies - and the unique circumstances surrounding how this went down - makes this scenario very different from others.

      If you're good at something, never do it for free.

      The Joker had it right.

    6. Re: Dead to me by jedidiah · · Score: 2

      I just switched to the competitor. All is good. Plus I no longer need to run an OS not of my choosing.

      AnyDVD was never "fast". So "speed" is not something that would get me to switch back.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    7. Re:Dead to me by BLKMGK · · Score: 1

      Right there with you, I was a lifetime user and supporter of many years myself. Got others on the bandwagon and used their software to great success. Now suddenly it's Chinese software in posession of the full IP of the other company but they cannot honor my license? I should accept this? No thanks, I've moved on and there are other options.

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
    8. Re:Dead to me by BLKMGK · · Score: 1

      Jailed? No he was fined $30K or had to spend 6months in jail. Sorry, don't make this out like the guy didn't do just fine out of this.

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
    9. Re:Dead to me by BLKMGK · · Score: 1

      All the more reason not to support them it seems?

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
  2. MakeMKV is free by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What do I care if it's somewhat slower than AnyDVD? I hardly buy any movies at all, anyway, since most of the time if I've seen it once I have no interest in seeing it again. And it's not like I'm hanging around while I rip a Blu-Ray or DVD.

    Plus MakeMKV is available for Mac.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re: MakeMKV is free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      MakeMKV doesn't support UHD Blu Ray unless you use a tool like AnyDVD or DeUHD.

    2. Re:MakeMKV is free by antdude · · Score: 1

      Ditto. I used to buy discs a lot, but I rarely watched them. I will just borrow/rent/stream/record if I am going to rewatch, but usually in higher formats like VHS -> DVD -> HD -> 4K for kicks. I just don't have a lot of fret times like I used to. :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    3. Re: MakeMKV is free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I just backed up my UHD Blu-Ray of Ghostbusters (1984) using only MakeMKV and the leaked key list. I have neither AnyDVD nor DeUHD installed.

    4. Re: MakeMKV is free by LoonyLonesome · · Score: 1

      So how big are these UHD's anyway ? I believe a Bluray movie is typically 25-30gb, are the UHD's ~55-60gb ?

    5. Re: MakeMKV is free by Kjella · · Score: 2

      So how big are these UHD's anyway ? I believe a Bluray movie is typically 25-30gb, are the UHD's ~55-60gb ?

      Officially the discs come in three sizes of 50, 66 and 100GB but in practice most are of the 66GB variety and raw rips 50-60GB. Remuxes with just the primary audio and no extras are usually 10GB less. But they have started to make encodes which are typically around 20GB that give you all the UHD benefits (resolution, color space, 10 bit color, HDR, HEVC compression) in less space than a Bluray. It looks better if you have a setup that can handle it, HDR throughput or HDR -> SDR mapping can be difficult to get right and if you don't the picture will look terrible because the tone mapping is wrong. It's getting better but auto-detecting and using HDR capabilities is very much a work in progress.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    6. Re: MakeMKV is free by omnichad · · Score: 1

      To keep the same visual quality, the rip should end up about twice the size after re-encoding as an equivalent 1080p title. Four times the resolution, but the codec (HEVC/H.265) uses half the bits. Disc capacity is up to doubled too.

      Once re-encoded, my rips end up at about 12-15GB for standard Blu-Ray and the quality difference is nearly imperceptible to the original.

    7. Re: MakeMKV is free by BLKMGK · · Score: 1

      What hardware player are you using? I might like to pick one up for future use :)

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
    8. Re: MakeMKV is free by BLKMGK · · Score: 1

      Kodi I've got covered with multiple NUC, I'm interested in the drive you're using to rip the UHD BR :) I run Kodi at home (since the XBOX days), source compiled on one and one of their precompiled distro on another, and Plex on the road. I'm just wondering if there's a particular drive that's best for ripping this new media, I don't think my normal BD drive will do it right?

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
  3. Why I rip my media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sick of paying for Blu-Ray player software that refuses to play media after about 1 year and requires a paid upgrade to continue playing media I've owned for years. This is just one of the myriad reasons why Blu-ray media has never achieved the level of market acceptance that DVDs enjoyed.

    1. Re:Why I rip my media by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      Same here. I have a legit blu-ray (Avatar) and I can only play it using a old version of AnyDVD (No, I will NOT buy a expensive dedicated blu-ray player, my PC is more than enougth for the job).

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    2. Re:Why I rip my media by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      Pretty much the only approach that makes sense is to just rip the original disk and forget about it. Back up the ripped copy if you are worried about needing the original again.

      I've watched a BluRay disk just ONCE with a real player.

      That was one time too many in my opinion.

      Hollywood is it's own worst enemy.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Why I rip my media by BLKMGK · · Score: 1

      Ditto! I rip and store the originals - too much forced crap on disks these days. Here's an FBI warning, here's a preview, here's who knows WTF I don't want to see. I also buy my disks used as often as possible for as little as possible. Some movies that I really appreciate I'll pay for brand new but it's sure not too many with the cost of them.

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
    4. Re:Why I rip my media by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

      I think it is mostly because bandwidth and compression technologies became viable for "good enough" streaming.
      Personally, I do own about 120 blu-rays of stuff that I want to look/sound as good as I can get, but that's nowhere near my peak ~700 dvd collection.

      --
      ...
  4. Re:Uh, OK... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    I already went over that edge. What good is screens with more and more pixels to display actors with less and less talent, scripts with less and less content and stories with more and more pandering to special interest groups than content?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. This is the reason... by coofercat · · Score: 1

    This is the reason I haven't bought a single bluray yet. Once it's as broken as DVDs are, then I'm in - otherwise not so much. If I can't rip it to my Nas, then I can't watch it - I have no intention of running off to the garage to put a different bit of bit of plastic in the player each time I want to watch a film. This isn't the 1990s any more.

    In my case at least, DRM didn't stop 'piracy' because I wasn't swashbuckling on the high seas to start with. It did stop consumption though.

    1. Re:This is the reason... by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      You need to check out what's available. All DRM is as broken as DVD DRM.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    2. Re:This is the reason... by jason777 · · Score: 1

      I've ripped my entire collection via MakeMkv. What are you waiting for?

    3. Re:This is the reason... by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      I spent weeks changing discs and copying my DVD collection to my media server at one point this is after I had already re-purchased most of my VHS collection on DVD. If I can't purchase new movies in a format that I can place on my media server then I'll just watch what's on netflix or hulu and they go suck it.
         

  6. Re:Uh, OK... by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

    That describes most of Marvel's movies and almost all DC's. But even more so than declining actors or scripts are directors like Michael Bay or George Lucas who again IMNSHO shouldn't be allowed near a camera or editing room.

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  7. Re:Whatever by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    > No one will ever need more than 640x480 pixels.

    It all depends on screen size and viewing distance.

    Also a very good SD stream beats a crappy HD one.

    For a lot of content, the extra video bandwidth is just a waste of resources even if you are viewing it on a screen large enough and a distance close enough for the extra resolution to matter.

    Some people you just don't want to see too clearly.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  8. If I can't rip it by JohnFen · · Score: 1

    If I can't rip the DVD or Blu-ray, I can't watch it. It's as simple as that.

    1. Re:If I can't rip it by BLKMGK · · Score: 1

      An ironic statement made in a posting about software that allows you to do EXACTLY that. RedFox aka SLySoft and MakeMKV as well as others allow you to rip the media just fine.

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
    2. Re:If I can't rip it by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      It was a supporting statement, not an ironic one.

  9. Free software would have liberated you by jbn-o · · Score: 1

    That's another reason you're better off investing in free software, software users are free to run, inspect, share, and modify at any time for any reason. It's not the program that costs no money, it's the users that are free to make the program suit their needs. If the software were free software you could run it, hire people to improve it, learn programming (if you're not a programmer) to make improvements yourself, and share copies to help your community. I invest in free software and I recommend others do so too. We can liberate ourselves from so many abusive practices with software freedom.

    --
    Digital Citizen