(Credit:
Handbrake)
Handbrake, the closest thing to entertainment manna we have, has released the newest version of its open-source DVD ripping software, version 0.93. There's just one problem: it no longer rips DVDs. At least, not the kind you'd want to rip.
While it has some shiny, new functionality, like the ability to ingest video in any format (not merely DVDs) and superior video quality, it rid itself of the number-one reason for getting it in the first place:
DVD decryption.
Handbrake's author tries to put a brave face on this by offering a klugey workaround:
HandBrake will dynamically load VLC's copy of libdvdcss if you have it in your Applications folder in Mac OS X, and if you're on Linux, and you want to live on the wild side, you can install libdvdcss on your system and get the same effect....
[In other words] we're not about to stop you from choosing to decrypt DVDs. If you're on a Mac, and you have VLC 0.9.x installed, you won't even notice the internal capability's gone. If you're on Linux, all you have to do is install a library.
Why the change? I loved this feature, not because I want to steal movies, but because I want to rip and burn my DVDs to my Mac's hard drive so that I can watch them on flights without consuming excessive battery life, as playing an actual DVD would, not to mention the bother of lugging DVDs around with me.
Yes, Handbrake has offered a workaround, but I can't recommend the new release based on its lack of DVD decryption, the top reason anyone uses Handbrake in the first place.
There's a rich irony in Hollywood today. If you look at where Hollywood makes the most money, the vast majority of its cash comes from PG-13, PG, and G-rated films. R-rated films? It's hard to find any in a list of Hollywood's all-time highest grossing films at the box office.
Indeed, within the top-25 highest grossing films of all time, only one rated-R film even makes the list, The Matrix: Reloaded at number 28. If you include the top 50, only one other R-rated movie (two total) makes the list. In the top 100? Only 11 R-rated films.
So why are more and more movies (perhaps intentionally) laced with content that guarantees an R rating and poor attendance?
I don't know. I can't imagine it being anything other than a cynical, smug Hollywood attitude that insists on adding "that one scene" in the name of art, pretending that it knows what audiences really want.
For those interested in watching movies on their own terms, or who have children that you'd really like to see Saving Private Ryan, for example, but you think the gritty violence may be too much, you now have a choice.
It's called Clearplay, a 100-percent legal DVD player and software service that edits movies on the fly without actually altering the physical DVD. As such, it gets a free (but begrudging) free pass from the Directors Guild of America, which successfully sued into oblivion Cleanflicks and other DVD editing services (though it's still possible to buy edited DVDs online).
How does Clearplay work, and why would you want to use it?
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I've written about Handbrake before. It is manna from heaven. I'm happy to report, however, that the latest release of Handbrake (0.9.0) is even better.
If you have a computer download Handbrake. Now. Put a DVD in. Let the magic begin. Now supports Mac and Windows (and, in fact, this newest rev has a dramatically improved Windows user interface).
(Credit:
Handbrake)
This is the second open source application review that I've done, but it really should have been the first. I could probably live without talking to other people (Adium), but I'm not sure I could survive long flights without the occasional movie. Handbrake covers this fundamental human need.
If you're not currently using the open-source Handbrake application, your life is woefully incomplete. Handbrake is one of the applications that you will continue to use when you die. Angels are using it, even as I type, to rip their DVDs to their hard-drives so that they can save battery life on long trips (to Redmond, most likely :-).
Enough gushing. What is Handbrake?
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