3 Best Ways to Remove DVD Copy Protection Easily

When we have purchased the commercial DVDs, you will find that they are protected by region codes or DRM protection. Under this condition, the DVD content can’t be saved to computers for playing back, or even some DVD players would fail to play the DVD movies because of the protection. As a result, people would want to do the DVD protection removal and copy DVDs to the protection-free discs, folders, or ISO files for saving and playing more flexibly. So in this article, the 3 best ways to remove DVD protection will be introduced to you. Both free and paid services are provided. You can continue on reading now.

Contents

Part 1: How to Remove Copy Protection on DVDs

To remove copy protection from the DVDs, you need the help from an extra tool, which is a DVD copy software that supports unlocking the DVD protection and copying the content to another DVD disc, folder, or ISO file. Based on this, we choose the following 3 reliable tools to help.

Tips

When copying DRM-protected content, please strictly keep it for personal use but not commercial use. 

Remove DVD Copy Protection without Hassle via VideoByte DVD Copy

VideoByte DVD Copy is a desktop software provided for Windows and Mac users to backup DVD movies with original quality. You can copy the original DRM-protected DVD to a new blank disc in DRM-free format. More importantly, this software will maintain the video and sound quality at 1:1 ratio during the copying process, and at the same time, the protection can automatically be unlocked. The software provides 3 modes, including "Full Movie", "Main Movie" and "Custom" for people to select the most suitable way to copy DVDs. Also, VideoByte DVD Copy can speed up the DVD copying process by adjusting the writing speed to "×2.0 - Recommended" or "Max".

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A Tutorial Video on How to Copy Protected DVDs

Steps to Remove DVD Copy Protection

Step 1. Insert DVD to Computer

You need to connect the disc drive and insert the DVD you need to remove DVD protection to it. If you want to copy it to another disc, you would also need another disc drive for inputting the blank disc.

Step 2. Select to Load DVD Source

Now, you can open VideoByte DVD Copy and select the DVD source to load in the software in "File" menu. You may need to wait for a few minutes to load the content.

Select Source2

Step 3. Choose Output Target and Copy Mode

When the content is loaded, select a "Target" in "File" for copying the DVD content to. Then you can go to select a copy mode for copying the DVD and remove the protection. The functions of the 3 modes are as follows:

"Full Copy": Copy the whole DVD disc.

"Main Movie": Copy the main movie only.

"Customize": Choose certain parts of the DVD for copying specific contents.

DVD Copy Main Movie

Step 4. Set Output Options and Copy DVD

After clicking the "Next" button, you will be turned to the window to set some output options. When pressing "Start", the DVD copying process will begin and the protection will also be removed at the same time automatically.

Note

If you want to unlock the DVD copy protection and rip the DVD to MP4 at one go, you're highly recommended to try VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper. It's a versatile ripper which is able to rip blu-ray/DVD disc of all types into 300+ mainstream video/audio output formats including MP3/MP4/MKV and so on. The key point is that all the ripping steps are easy to grasp.

Free Way: Unlock DVD Encryption with Handbrake

Handbrake is a free software providing the DVD copying function to rip commercial DVDs and save them to the protection-free condition. The commonly-used formats MP4 and MKV are supported as the formats to save be copied DVDs. After getting the protection-free DVD content, people can save them on any device for playback without using a hard drive. However, the classic interface makes the software a little more difficult to use than VideoByte DVD Copy. Below is how Handbrake DRM removal works:

Step 1. Insert the DVD to your computer. Then open Handbrake for loading the DVD content in the software.

Step 2. You can choose the output format and other parameters for saving the copied DVD content, such as the video bitrate, resolutions, frame rate, sample rate, etc.

Step 3. When the settings are finished, you just need to press the "Start Encode" button to unlock the protection and copy DVD to your select format.

Free Remove DVD Copy Protection with VLC

Instead of being a simple media player for both computers and mobile phones, VLC also provides the DVD copying function that people can use to remove DVD copy protection and convert the content to common video files. But you need to pay attention that VLC can only remove the region codes protection. For the other types of encryption, it will fail to do the DVD copying. Here is how it works:

Step 1. Import DVD to VLC after inserting the disc. You should go to "Media" menu and select the "Convert/Save" option.

VLC Load DVD

Step 2. In the "Open Media" window, click "Disc" and choose the DVD you need to copy. Then continue to "Convert/Save" for going to select and output format for ripping the DVD to.

VLC Copy DVD

Step 3. Simply press the "Start" button, then VLC will start copying the DVD to your selected video files for saving on your computer locally.

Part 2: Basic Knowledge of DVD Copy Protections

As you may notice, there will be different types of DVD copy protections used today to lock the DVDs for preventing the abusing use of them. This part will give you some basic knowledge about them.

CSS

CSS stands for Content Scramble System, which is widely used for locking almost all the commercial DVDs in the market to protect the DVD content from being copied.

DVD region codes

DVD region codes are used for dividing the DVDs to be playable when they only match the region numbers. If you are in the region where the DVD doesn't process the code, you will fail to play the content.

RCE or REA

Just like the DVD region codes, RCE or REA is used for preventing the DVD of one region to be played in another region, even you are using a region-free player to stream the DVD disc.

UOP

UOP stands for User Operation Prohibition, which can stop people from doing much actions while streaming the DVD using the majority of DVD players. The industry will use UOP to reveal the copyright notices like the FBI warning within the United States.

Sony ArccOS

The full name of Sony ArccOS is Advanced Regional Copy Control Operating Solution, which is developed as an additional layer to be used in conjunction with CSS. This protection would result in some corrupted errors while you try to copy the DVDs with ripping or copying software.

Disney X-Project DRM

Disney X-Project DEM also calls 99 titles copy protection. It will confuse the DVD copying ripping software, leading them to choose the wrong title, so that the process would be failed. Even people can still copy the movies successfully, the file structure will be added up to a 40GB or 60GB file, making it hard for people to store it.

Part 3: FAQs on DVD Copy Protections

Except for learning the basic knowledge about the DVD copy protection, this part also include some FAQs that many people may ask. Now just see if they can also solve your questions.

Can copy-protected DVDs be ripped?

Even for the copy-protected DVDs, people can rip and convert them to common files for enjoying more convenient playback offline. But you will need software that can bring you such function to decrypt DVD. Tools like VideoByte BD-DVD Ripper can do such help.

How to check if a DVD is copy-protected?

Generally, all commercial DVDs are protected by different types of encryption. If you want to double-check the copy-protected condition, you can check the back of the DVD for seeing if it has the protection logo, saying that the DVD is protected by region codes or other DVD copy protection methods.

Conclusion

DVD copy protection is the biggest reason that stops us from copying, converting, and backing up DVD movies. To get your DVD copied successfully, you must use reliable software to do the DVD copy protection removal, and the best 3 ways have been offered in this article. Use any of them to try copying a DVD movie now.

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