Converting Digital Copy movies

I think I’ve read all I can here and elsewhere about this issue. Apparently it’s not easy to do.

 

I have a View 280v2 with the newest firmware. I just downloaded the newest updater and SMC software this morning. After getting the “please install the codec…” error I downloaded the program suggested all over these forums ‘video4fuze’ and haven’t had a single success in converting either movie.

 

I’m trying to convert District 9 and Star Trek digital copy files for my View.

 

SMC refuses to recognize the videos as supported even though they play on WMP11. Video4fuze errors out everytime with an error I do not understand. As a test I did convert a picture using the program so it does work, just not with those movies. Is this caused by the DRM? I keep finding programs that claim they will convert the files but I won’t pay for any of them, I shouldn’t have to. I already spent $45 on the BluRay’s, why should I or anyone else spend another penny on conversion software?

 

Overall I love my View and Sansa products, I’ve purchased 3 of them as gifts over the past 3 years. This is my first attempt to actually put a full movie on my player. I’ve put short clips on before with no problems.

the files are probably DRM protected and that is what is causing the issues with converting. 

Thanks for the reply. 

 

Isn’t everyone else having this same problem with these Digital Copies then? I assume this means you have to own a Zune or iPod in order to use them? Where exactly would you get a legal copy of a movie that could be put on a Sansa device? I love my player for value vs. price but if a standard feature of other brands of players is unuseable on mine I see no reason to jump up to a Fuze or any future Sansa product if they’re going to keep using the SMC.

Sandisk will keep using SMC because its their product but users are working on Alternatives. Video4fuze is very popular, and when rockbox is stable that might be an option on the Fuze. As for the legal digital copies that work with Sansas, there is a grey area that you can decide on for yourself. This being using a program like handbreak or another DVD Ripper to rip the movie to your computer and then try putting it on the player. Again this is a grey area in terms of legality. I have also had some success with digital copies that were made for PSP. I did have to use a video editing software to re-export the files as mpegs so I could transfer them to my player.

I did some more research on this subject and it seems it’s even worse than I knew. Not even Zune’s can use DRM stuff, unless it is purchased from the Zune store. So pretty much you can only count on iPods to work. Since I’ve already moved the WMV versions to my PC from the discs I will probably never be able to use them because I won’t have a player that supports them. A couple articles on the topic indicated that the movie industry is more bullheaded than the music industry and they’re trying to reinvent the DRM-wheel so to speak.

 

Another tid-bit — there is a site called playsforsure where you can look up to see what DRM stuff with play on which players. Guess what, our Sansa products are on that list. All of them. So you can’t even know from the M$ official site what is going to work and what won’t. Quite frankly I find this to be deceptive advertising on the part of the movie industry. I won’t be surprised if there is a lawsuit at some point. I don’t know what % of the market is held by Sansa players, I’d bet upwards of 20%, but some nifty lawyer should sue on our behalf. That, OR Sansa can find a way to make the SMC backward compatable with DRM.

accujimmy, 

I think I am having the same problem.   Unfortunately, I’m unable to offer a solution.    I’ve been trying to get video4fuze to work for a week with the .wmv files created from the Digital Copy disk.   The .wmv files can be played perfectly with windows media player.   I don’t know that much about DRM, but once I used the provided code to create the .wmv I thought everything was fine. 

Especially when WMP worked on the new file. When I use Video4Fuze, I get errors also, as displayed by the Video4Fuze console/"dos’ screen.  Here are a few error samples. 

“This file has been encumbered with DRM encryption; it will not play in Player.”  LISTED NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE MENCODER PROCESS

“ProcessInputErrorNew_Face failed.  Maybe the font path is wrong.Please supply the test font file (~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf)” 

“Too many video packets in the buffer: (4098 in 10156153 bytes)Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the –ni option.”  REPEATEDLY THROUGHOUT THE MENCODER PROCESS.   

Maybe it is a DRM issue.   Many people have noted that it is not unusual for Video4Fuze to show error messages and the .avi files turn out fine.    So I don’t know what to make of the error message that I’ve received.   In my case, an .avi is created but the video is all “garbaged” and the auto sounds corrupted.    I still have a couple of Digital Copies that I have not applied the serial code yet.   I’m tempted to download them as an itunes file so I can at least use them for an ipod (if I decide to get one).  

HOPING TO HEAR FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS WHO HAVE TRIED.

Isn’t it the View that can handle the “digital copy” versions directly?  The View has a different NVIDIA chipset.

For everything else, ignore the so-called digital copy, as it has a kludgy DRM scheme embedded.  Take the original DVD copy (often on one of a two-disc set) and use this version for transfer to the Sansa.

Hey, you paid for the original, and the right to play it on your Sansa, or the big family TV, or the little one in the kitchen, that’s up to you.  The big joke with “digital copies” is that those same AVI / MPEG files on the original DVD are all dgital, aren’t they?  And these folks charge you additional for a crippled mess.

I run my DVDs through a decrypter for transfer of those VOB files through the Sansa Media Converter.  It’s a several-step process.  Video4Fuze does a wonderful job, as the individual conversion steps are automated.  If you convert your VOB files to AVI using AnyVideoConverter, you can even import the video using the Rhapsody 4 client.

In a nutshell, the Digital Copy is a mess.  Think about it, if you want to watch a DVD, any DVD, all you need do is pop the DVD into the computer tray and press play. 

Bob  :cry:

IMO the problem is with Digital Copy, not the View/Fuse, etc.

They are players that play unencrypted movies. If the content providers decided to cripple the DVD you bought to the point where it’s unusable, that’s their choice, and I would suggest avoiding them in the future.

Play for Sure is just another example of a failure this way. It was created by MS, and their latest player, the Zune, doesn’t play ‘Play for Sure’!

You can remove DRM from iTunes M4V video by M4V Converter Plus. It converts m4v video you purchased or rent to QuickTime MOV, iPod, iPhone format in high speed and great quality.

 

You can free download it and have a try to convert your M4V files to unprotected MOV fomat.

Download: http://www.m4vconverterplus.com/M4VConverterPlus.zip

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Okay, download and install Handbrake at www.handbrake.fr and rip the dvd to mp4.

handbrake un- drm’s the video. so now that the video is unripped, convert it with video4fuze.

if video quality is bad, go to the video tab in the middle and set the constant quality to 100%

Handbrake does not decrypt ‘digital copies’.

Handbrake no longer decrypts CSS used for standard DVDs. It relies on VLC for this. VLC’s libdvdcss library can only decrypt simple CSS, and will fail with many recent DVDs.

http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Sources

My problems converting any movie to my Sansa View were solved by purchasing AnyDVD Converter software. The program is very user friendly and it will convert

any movie from a DVD to your Mp3 player. The solfware will convert the movie to a output folder you selected as a Mp4 format. Now drag and drop the file to your

video folder or copy and paste.

Cliff4