Are you a DVD enthusiast? Looking into how to remove copy protection from DVD? Read this post, you're going to learn 3 easy yet efficient ways to remove DVD copy protection.
When ripping a protected DVD, often you would get an unplayable outcome or an error notice, such as "read error" and "copy protection 0x8003030 error". Why? Most commercial DVDs contain some forms of copy protection for preventing the DVD from unauthorized distribution or playback.
Thus, removing copy protection from DVD is a necessary step whenever you want to back up your movie collection or digitalize the disc. Luckily, this is easy to approach once you are with the right DVD copy protection removal software. Keep reading, I'm going to show you 3 easy ways to disable copy protection from DVDs of any kind, including the latest released Disney movie DVDs.
1. Remove Copy Protection from DVD with VideoProc Converter
- OS: Windows and Mac.
- What's in it for you: Remove copy protection from virtually any kinds of DVDs in 2 minutes.
Whether you want to remove copy protection from the old morning show DVDs, the latest Disney-99 title movie DVDs, the 21st Century Fox movie DVDs, or whatever other commercial DVDs, VideoProc Converter can help you out. This easy yet powerful DVD copy protection removal software supports all common and non-standard encryption schemes. With it, everyone can bypass copy protected commercial DVDs in one click, without using additional plugins or software.
Thanks to the support of the high-quality engine, it lets you bypass the DVD copy protection without losing quality. The last but not least thing I appreciate about this DVD CSS removal is its high process speed, about 2 minutes to remove the copy protection of a 2-hour Disney DVD.
What's more? This powerful DVD protection removal tool has a wide range of input and output formats, so you can easily convert DVDs to digital formats, including MP4, MKV, MOV, WAV, and MP3, etc. The last but not least thing I appreciate about this DVD CSS removal is its high process speed, about 2 minutes to remove the copy protection of a 2-hour Disney DVD.
One Click to Remove DVD Copy Protections and Region Codes - VideoProc Converter
- Remove CSS, RCE, Sony ARccOS, UOPs, and 99-title Disney movie DVD protection…without additional software.
- Rip the encrypted DVD to MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV, ISO, and another 370+ popular or rare format.
- Break DVD protection at a blazing fast speed, thanks to the support of level-3 GPU acceleration tech.
- Offer an all-in-one solution for your digital file. Let you edit, convert, and shrink DVDs without quality loss
DVD copy protection removal software free download!
Step 1. Import the Copy Protected DVD.
Download and install this free DVD copy protection removal software on your Windows or Mac. Launch it up, choose DVD to enter the DVD ripping panel. Hit Disc to open up the Select the source disc panel. VideoProc Converter will auto recognize the installed DVD. Next, you hit Done.
Step 2. Choose the Result Format.
Navigate to the Target Format panel to pick up MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, or any other digital format as the wanted output format. You can also hit the Backup button to get options like ISO, VIDEO_TS, Main Copy, and Title Copy, etc.
Step 3. Remove Copy Protection from DVD.
Hit RUN to start to remove the copy protection from DVD. To remove strong DVD encryption, just tick up the option box for Safe Mode.
Learn More about the DVD Converter in VideoProc Converter
2. Remove Copy Protection from DVD with HandBrake
- OS: Windows, Mac and Linux.
- What's in it for you: Remove UOP, CSS, and region code copy protection from DVDs.
Before getting into the detailed steps of removing copy protection from DVD with HandBrake, it's important to know that this free DVD copy protection removal software is for ripping unprotected DVDs even though it can bypass the UOP protection. If you still want to rely on HandBrake to unlock CSS or Region Code copy protection from movie DVDs, you have to take advantage of the libdvdcss library.
Step 1. Install HandBrake.
Go to the official site of HandBrake to download and install the latest version of HandBrake on your PC or Mac.
Step 2. Download Libdvdcss.
For Windows users:
- Download libdvdcss.dll (32bit or 64bit) first.
- Copy and paste the DLL file under C:\Program Files\Handbrake.
For Mac users:
- Start Terminal and enter the command line: /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
- Press Return and enter your password. It now starts to install Homebrew.
- Once Homebrew is successfully installed on the Mac, start Terminal again.
- Enter the command line: brew install libdvdcss. Press Enter.
- Homebrew now starts to download and install the libdvdcss library on your Mac.
Heads Up
OS X El Capitan and later come with a new security system named SIP (System Integrity Protection). It will remove the libdvdcss library and a few other apps that are used for removing protection from DVDs. Hence, you might fail to install the libdvdcss library on your Mac by following the above steps. No worry, however, we've already found the solution.
- Download and install libdvdcss.pkg on the Mac.
- Start Terminal.
- Enter sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/ sudo cp ~/Downloads/libdvdcss_1.4.0/libdvdcss.2.dylib /usr/local/lib/libdvdcss.2.dylib and press Enter. That's it.
Step 3. Import the Encrypted DVD.
Launch up HandBrake. The tool will display all the files and discs it detected. Choose the DVD you want to remove the copy protection from, and this will lead you to a new panel.
Step 4. Choose the Output File.
Beginners can choose the wanted output format from the giving options of Preset. Advanced user? Just navigate down to find the Video and Audio tabs. Here, you have dozens of options used for customizing the video bitrate, resolutions, frame rate, and sample rate, etc.
Step 5. Remove Copy Protection from DVD with HandBrake.
Once you're satisfied with all the adjustments, choose Browse to set up an output file folder. Press Start Encode on the top menu bar. HandBrake will then start to rip the DVD and remove the copy protection schema.
3. Remove Copy Protection from DVD with IMGBURN
- OS: Windows.
- What's in it for you: Free to remove CSS protection from DVDs (not guarantee to work).
DVD Decrypter users might have heard about IMGBURN since both two are developed by Lightning UK!. From the information provided by Wiki, IMGBURN cannot remove the CSS or any other sort of copy protection from a DVD, however, from my test, it sometimes could work for removing CSS encryption from a few old movie DVDs.
Step 1. Install IMGBURN.
Come over to the IMGBURN homepage to find a list of mirror sites. You can visit one of those mirror sites to download IMGBURN install pack. After that, install and launch up the freeware.
Step 2. Choose the Conversion Mode.
Choose Create image file from disc on the start interface of this CSS protection remover to enter the conversion panel.
Step 3. Select the DVD.
Hit the down-triangle button to find the DVD that you want to remove copy protection from, and click it.
Step 4. Remove Copy Protection from DVD with IMGBURN.
Hit the yellow explore button to choose an output file folder for holding the output ISO file. Press the blue arrow to start to unlock copy protected DVD with IMGBURN.
8 DVD Copy Protection Forms
The DVDs in your hand may adopt different copy protection forms like CSS and ARccOS. Some encryption schemes are easy to bypass while others are not. To give you a better reference, below I list the basic information of 8 of the most common DVD copy protection forms.
1. CSS
Content Scramble System (CSS), introduced in 1996, is the most widely applied Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme. It adopts the 40-bit stream cipher to prevent the DVD content from being copied without permission. Apart from that, an unauthorized device won't be able to read and play the CSS-protected DVD.
2. Region Code
A region codec is for preventing the playback of a commercial disc in a region other than the one it is released. Suppose you have a DVD that is released in Canada (region 1), then you could not play it on a region 2 DVD player. With region codec protection, movie studios can effectively control the release date and price of new movies according to region.
3. RCE
RCE, the abbreviation for Region Codec Enhanced, is for preventing the playback of a movie DVD in a region other than the one it is released, even if the DVD is played in a region free player.
4. UOP
The full name of UOP is User operation prohibition. Just as its name implies, UOP is for preventing people from performing any actions during the playback of a UOP protected section. It is initially come out to stop viewers from skipping the copyright notice, but now UOP is more widely running for stopping views skipping the ads of a DVD.
5. ARccOS
Sony ARccOS Protection, a copy protection system created by Sony, is designed as an additional layer used with the CSS scheme. When people are trying to copy the DVD by using a DVD copy tool, ARccOS will deliberately generate corrupted sectors on the DVD.
6. APS
APS is the abbreviation of Analog Protection System. It is a VHS and DVD copy protection system developed by TiVo Corporation (formerly the Macrivsion). It works by adding pulses to apply negatively impact on the AGC circuit of the recording device. By doing so, it can damage the digital copies of APS encrypted DVDs.
7. HDCP
HDCP refers to High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection. It's a digital copy protection scheme proposed and carried out by Intel. When users copy a DVD without permission, the HDCP technique will interrupt the process and downgrade the result picture quality to achieve the purpose of protecting the DVD content.
8. Disney X Project
Disney X Project (99-title) is a new copy protection scheme developed by Disney. The features of this sort of encrypted movie DVDs are 99 titles and over 40GB of file size. Currently, no freeware can remove a Disney 99 title copy protection scheme. Among a handful of commercial DVD rippers that claim themselves to be able to remove the Disney X Project protection, only VideoProc Converter is found truly stable and reliable.
FAQ
Does DVD Shrink Remove Copy Protection from DVD?
Yes, DVD Shrink can remove copy protection. However, it only works for old DVDs since the program was discontinued 16 years ago. The old DeCSS decryption algorithm it adopts does not work for Sony ARccOS movie DVDs and a few other recent protection forms.
What Is the Best Software for Removing the Copy Protection from DVD?
VideoProc Converter is the best tool on earth for removing the DVD copy protection, and for good reasons. It's capable of removing CSS, RCE, Disney 99-title, and all other kinds of copy protection from old and recent DVDs. The self-explained interface and the support of the level-3 hardware acceleration tech ensure a beginner can get everything done in minutes. Moreover, it's an all-in-one video processing program, allowing you to 1:1 copy DVD to ISO file, convert 420+ video and audio formats, and apply basic edits to videos, etc.
Disclaimer: We do not advocate copying authorized or protected DVDs for commercial use.
