animedays wrote:I've looked around, and it looks like DVD decrypter is no longer updated, and no longer Freeware. ??? Am I wrong?
DVD Decrypter stopped being updated 4 years ago because of Macrovision's threats/action. 'Freeware' doesn't enter into it anywhere - it was always free, that never changed. It's also still freely available online in various places.
The burning engine from DVD Decrypter was distilled separately and has continued on as ImgBurn, though. It's still being updated.
Thing is, the DVD standard is limited to the kind of copy protection measures it can use and still be compliant. Just because a ripping program is several years old doesn't mean it won't work. Copy obfuscation measures (like ARccOS) work by exploiting standard deviations in the format spec itself - which means that some ripping programs will see through it, and others won't (and it's not always clear which apps belong to which side; SmartRipper was shown to be able to handle some discs that DVD Decrypter chokes on, and SmartRipper hasn't been updated in like, six or seven years).