# Mac The Ripper and Arccos Protection....



## angour (Jun 3, 2008)

Hi all.

I downloaded MTR to rip some of the Region 1 DVDs I own. My MAC is set to Region 2, as I am in Belgium. 

At the end of the rips I receive a message saying that the disk has bad sectors and may not be played properly. Indeed, VLC refuses to play the ripped files... I know that this is most likely the Arccos protection. However, I thought that MTR 2.6.6 was able to remove it. You can even select this in under the "Mode" section, there are two options to strip off the Arccos protection. Unfortunately neither of them works.

Any ideas? Help? 

thanks in advance


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## minckster (Jun 3, 2008)

When I get that message, I've had a lot of luck with opening the problematic .vob file(s) with MPEG Streamclip (free) and selecting Edit -> Fix Timecode Breaks. I then usually Export the corrected file, which re-encodes it, although "Save As" may be sufficient.


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## angour (Jun 4, 2008)

Thanks a lot for the quick reply  I will try this once I have some time this week and will post about the results


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## angour (Jun 5, 2008)

I downloaded MPEG Streamclip, but it does not want to open .vob files, I get a message that it is not a recognized file format.

Any more suggestions?


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## minckster (Jun 9, 2008)

Sorry for the delay in replying. For some reason I didn't receive an email about a new post in this thread. Three thoughts:

1. In MacTheRipper, are you selecting "Full Disk Extraction" under "Mode"? That choice seems to be the best for ripping problematic DVDs. I never select "Full Disk (ARccOS) Extraction" unless MacTheRipper does so on its own.
2. Did you try opening just one of the .vob files with MPEG Streamclip? If memory serves right, it should ask something along the lines of, "This is one of a whole group of related vob's. Do you want them all?"
3. You could try upgrading to the next version of MacTheRipper, which is donation-ware.

Good luck!


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## Crpl_Hicks (Nov 25, 2009)

I know this is a late response, but anyone else thinking that MTR3 will solve this problem...forget it!  Using MTR3 on any DVD with ARccOS will 1- tell you that it has ARccOS 2- Quit when you get it to "decypt" the DVD.  You can try usually use MTR 2.6.6.  it creates a huge file, probably because MTR is "fooled" into thinking there are several copies of the movie.  Then use Popcorn 3 which allows you to select the correct movie out of the several.  Check @ the running time of the real movie & match that to 1 of the several presented by Popcorn & select that one to copy.  8 out of 10 times it works...except for Disney movies & the new Star Trek.


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## macpro11 (Jan 24, 2010)

In response to the previous posts, you actually can use MacTheRipper to rip newer movies like Star Trek but it requires a little bit more effort on your part. The way Star Trek and other newer movies have used protection against illegal ripping is to attempt to fool the ripper program by making it think that there are more than one .VOB file on the DVD. I had trouble with this my self, where mac the ripper would rip the DVD and when I went to watch the movie the movie would be out of order. To solve this problem all you need to do is go back to your movie and find the amount of time each chapter takes and then go into mac the ripper and use the title chapter feature extraction feature and look for the right feature that has the correct chapter times that you wrote down. For example, Star Trek's correct one for me was feature # 21, not the supposed Main Feature as identified by Mac the Ripper.


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## Crpl_Hicks (Jan 28, 2010)

The only problem with extracting  without doing the whole disc, is that you can't compress it.  For example if you use MTR to extract say 23 chapters of the "correct" movie and the total size is larger than 3 gb a compression program like Popcorn won't be able to compress it.  Although I think if you tried to make a disc image, then you could do the compression?

I have found that if you have a long movie, 2 hrs plus, I divide the total # of chapters in half & put it on 2 discs, like the Last Emperor that way you don't have a high compression rate on a single layered disc.  But if you have a dual layer burner then no problem


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## ohdagyo (Jun 18, 2010)

in response to macpro11:

I tried using your method of sifting through to get the one with the chapters that match the times of the actually movie and none of them matched. Im using MTR 3.0-R14.

Anyone know if the newest MTR(4) can pinpoint the "actual movie" to be ripped or is this just the way my world has to be now haha


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