How to Remove DVD Copy Protection?

In order to protect the DVD from being copied for illegal use, the DVD manufacturers would embed some region code technology to the DVDs, so that the DVDs could not be played unless in some specific regions. However, there are still some ways to obtain the DVD playback in other region codes, even though they have been protected with the DVD copy protection codes asides from region codes. In this blog, you can get to know various types of DVD copy protection types.

Part 1: Introduction to DVD Copy Protection Types

There are many types of DVD copy protection technology. Below will introduce the most common 9 copy protection technologies for you.

Related reading: How to Play Region Locked Blu-ray/DVD on PC?

1. Region Code

DVD discs are graded because movies are generally released in the current season, if movies that are not released in the current season flow into the local market earlier, it will greatly reduce the box office revenue of the film dealers and cause the profit of the film company to shrink. The region code is added to the film, and the region code recognition mechanism is added to the DVD player. In this way, the disc can only be played when the region code recognition mechanism of the DVD player is consistent with the region code attached to the DVD.

2. RCE

RCE is abbreviated as Regional Coding Enhancement, which is a new encoding technology used on some zone 1 DVDs produced by Warner and Columbia to prevent certain region-wide DVD players from reading these DVDs. RCE is an additional layer of coding technology to prevent certain full-zone and multi-zone disc players from playing zone 1 DVDs. The ordinary region code is part of the DVD specification.

3. APS

APS (Analog Protection System) is an analog signal protection system. The encryption technology mainly prevents copying from DVD to other formats in an illegal way. Through a Macrovision7 chip, a special signal is used to affect the copy function of the DVD. The image of the copied DVD is produced horizontally, and it would appear the phenomenon of uneven contrast.

4. CSS

CSS stands for Content Scrambling System, which is the digital rights management (DRM) and encryption method used in commercial DVD production to prevent illegal copying and distribution. Since in 1996, CSS has been used on DVDs to encrypt the data so that only licensed DVD players can decode and play the DVD content smoothly.

5. UOP

UOP stands for User Operation Prohibition which is one of the digital rights management used on commercial DVD discs to prohibit the DVD users from carrying out actions related to the DVDS. In other words, users may not be able to do further actions to the DVDs, including copying. Some additional copyright notices and FBI warning would be added to the DVDs.

6. DCPS

DCPS is short for Digital Copy Protection System. In order to make digital connections between various components and prevent digital copying, the Consumer Electronics Association has obtained five digital copy protection system solutions. The DVD player encrypts the encoded audio/video signals, and then sends them to the receiving device, which will be processed by the receiving device. This prevents unauthenticated connected devices from stealing signals.

7. CPPM

CPPM (Content Protection for Prerecorded Media) is only used for DVD-Audio discs, which is improved on the basis of CSS technology. The key is placed in the lead-in area, but unlike CSS, there is no program key in the sector header. There is a 56-bit "album identifier" for each episode in the control area, which is similar to a CSS disc key.

8. Sony ARccOS Protection

ARccOS is the abbreviation of Advanced Regional Copy Control Operating Solution and is a copy protection system designed as an additional layer for use with CSS protection. In order to prevent users from getting rid of copy protection, the system deliberately creates damaged sectors, which may cause errors when using copy software.

9. HDCP, DVI and HDMI

HDCP, High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, is a specification made by Intel Corporation to prevent illegal copying of content transmitted via the Digital Video Interface (DVI). The purpose of the development of this technology is to solve the problem of piracy caused by the advanced development of digital imaging technology and television technology in the 21st century.

Part 2: How to Remove DVD Copy Protection by Copying to a Blank Disc?

Additionally, in order to remove DVD copy protection by copying to a blank disc, some excellent DVD copy programs to copy and backup DVD would be introduced here. One of the best DVD copy program you should not miss is Leawo DVD Copy. As one of the most comprehensive DVD cloners, it can copy the DVD to DVD disc with 1:1 original quality supported. Users are provided with 3 copy modes to meet various needs, including Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode. It can also backup and copy CSS protected DVD discs by easily removing the regions codes and encryption. You can also enjoy the 6X higher copying speed. Furthermore, its bonus features are quite rich, for example, its ability in copy ISO to DVD, high quality DVD-9 to DVD-5 compression, customized DVD disc menu, 2 DVD video standards for copying DVD from different areas, Multilanguage support, built-in player and so on.

Step 1. Download Leawo DVD Copy and install it on your computer.

Step 2. Open the program and insert the DVD disc to the drive on your computer. Once insert the DVD, then click “Add Blu-ray/DVD” to load the DVD content.

Step 3. Choose relevant settings. You can select the Disc Type, Copy Mode (Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode) and subtitle and audio track. You can choose your own preferred modes according to your own requirements.

Step 4. Start copying DVD. Once set all the parameters, you can click the big green button “Copy” on the top-right corner. Here, in order to make an ISO copy, you must take a tick in the box before “ISO File”. Then, click “Copy” button below to start copying the process. When the ISO file has been copied, then you can insert a blank DVD disc to the drive and load the ISO file to the new DVD disc for further viewing.

Part 3: How to Remove DVD Copy Protection by Ripping to Digital Format?

Instead of copying the protected DVD disc to a blank DVD disc, you can also remove DVD copy protection and rip the DVD to digital format. In order to rip the protected DVD without any quality losses, Leawo DVD Ripper can be one of the best choices you can make. With Leawo DVD Ripper, you are allowed to rip DVD to video, extract audio content from DVD disc and save in various audio formats like AAC, FLAC, WAV, MP3, etc. As well, Leawo DVD Ripper can easily rip the DVD content to all kinds of digital formats, including MP4, WMV, MOV, HD MP4, HD MOV and so on. With Leawo Blu-ray Ripper, you can personalize the Blu-ray movies including file merging, media editing, 3D movie creating, parameter adjusting, etc. with the best output quality. Follow the steps below to remove DVD copy protection by ripping to digital format.

Step 1. Download Leawo DVD Ripper on your computer and install it.

Step 2. Load the DVD disc on your computer’s disc drive and then click “Add Blu-ray/DVD” to import the DVD disc to the ripping panel directly.

Step 3. Choose output format. There is a drop-down box named “MP4 Video” by default next to “Add Photo” button. Click the edit option to choose your preferred output video format. 

Step 4. Set output directory. Once the output format has been confirmed, you can click the green button “Convert” to start the conversion process. But before it starts, you need to set a directory under “Save to” box. Finally, you can just click Convert button at the bottom to start the DVD to digital format.

Part 4: How to Remove DVD Copy Protection with Handbrake?

HandBrake is an open-source and free video transcoder to transcode media files from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs, available for Linux, Mac, and Windows. As a post-production tool, its primary purpose is to convert media files from supported source formats (like DVD, video, and even Blu-ray movies) to MP4 or MKV format. Here are the detailed steps on how to remove DVD copy protection.

Step 1. Download libdvdcss codec. In order to remove DVD copy protection with Handbrake, such as CSS, libdvdcss codec should be installed ahead of time. You can download it by searching for in the Google.

Step 2. Download and install Handbrake on your computer. Then open Handbrake and load the protected DVD to the disc drive.

Step 3. Once the protected DVD disc has been imported to the drive, libdvdcss would automatically read and remove copyright protection from DVD.

Step 4. Confirm the destination setting. Here you can choose your preferred titles to be copied or the whole content. Then click Add to queue option to add them to the ripping list.

Step 5. Select the output format and start removing DVD copy protection from the original DVD. 

Part 5: Comparison Among 3 Ways to Remove DVD Copy Protection

Since it is not friendly to encounter the DVD copy protection, you can refer to the above mentioned solutions to remove DVD copy protection with ease and accuracy. But, which way is the best to achieve the goal? Here, a comparison list related to these 3 ways would be shown below.

Features	Handbrake	Leawo DVD Copy	Leawo DVD Ripper
Convenience to remove DVD copy Protection	Need additional codecs	Automatically remove without third-party codecs	Automatically remove without third-party codecs
Output digital formats	MKV, MP4	More than 180 formats	More than 180 formats
1080P or even 4K video output	NO	YES	YES
Edit DVD videos	NO	NO	YES
Convert 2D DVD to 3D video	NO	NO	YES
Burn ISO image files to Blu-ray/DVD	NO	YES	NO
Quality lossless	NO	YES	YES