what is a decent alternative to any dvd?

i am not opposed to paying a decent price for a product however 300 dollars us for a lifetime subscription is too pricey for me anyone no of worthwhile alternative

2010-05-14T12:29:59Z

thanks Ben my math skills were lacking at the time and i was also unaware of the 20% off

2010-05-14T12:36:16Z

also the ridiculous thing is by US and international laws you are allowed to back up one copy of any DVD you own because of the nature of the medium getting scratches so easily the real criminals is the MPAA and Hollywood who make their mediums difficult to decrypt despite being perfectly legal then they try to sell you the digital copy crap that is overly compressed and in a terrible format that is not native to any decent media players save for vlc

Ben2010-05-14T12:14:58Z

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I'm assuming you mean the 'Any DVD' software application.

I'll be honest here and say there are not a lot of alternatives out there. One reason for this is technically such software packages are supposed to be illegal for US based companies to sell because they can circumvent the copy-protection and encryption mechanisms built-into DVDs which violates the DMCA law in America.

The way Any DVD gets around this is that they are based out of Antigua which is not subject to such laws as the DMCA act and they are not fearful of prosecution.

Anyway, I'm not sure where you got the $300 figure from. The lifetime subscription to Any DVD is just a little over ~$80 and for Any DVD HD it's about ~$140 or so.

In addition, there is currently a 20% discount promotion on Any DVD HD so it is only $109 USD for a lifetime subscription.


Update: The DMCA law technically makes it illegal to make backup copies of copy-protected DVDs. Although you are legally able to make a back-up copy of certain things you own (e.g. music CD, software CD etc.), a copy protected DVD is encrypted, and in order to copy the DVD to your computer, the data on the disc must first be decrypted by circumventing the copy-protection mechanism that the movie industry has put in place.

The DMCA clearly states that circumventing an encryption/copy-protection mechanism is illegal, regardless whether it is for personal back-up purposes. To my knowledge, no one has actually been fined or prosecuted for making back-up copies of legally purchased DVDs, but the current law would suggest that it is illegal.

Anonymous2010-05-14T18:34:01Z

a vcr is an alternative to a dvd