San Diego (CA) – Real Networks is back with a new application that can easily save and play DVDs from your hard drive. The Real DVD app will also organize saved DVDs into a nice library and you can even apply parental controls to your saved movies. Initially an XP and Vista version will be released and a Mac version is currently in development.
Users simply insert a DVD and hit save. According to Real Networks Chairman and CEO, Rob Glaser, the program will then store an “exact” copy of the DVD to your hard drive. The copying takes about 20 minutes and of course, you’ll need about 4-8 gigabytes of free space for each DVD.
Geeks have been ripping and saving their DVDs to their computers for years. They have also been sending these bootlegged DVD images across the Internet, mainly through the peer to peer networks. But the copying process has often involved multiple programs and a fair amount of headache. What Real Networks is doing is bringing all those rippers and encoders down to the common person’s level. Just insert the disc and hit save. It can’t really get much easier than that.
Unlike current DVD ripping programs, Real DVD preserves copyright protections and the saved movies cannot be sent through the Internet. We’ll see how long it takes hackers to get around this limitation.
Drawback: DRM
A ripped file cannot be played on another computer unless that computer runs another license of RealDVD (at extra cost) as well. According to RealNetworks, RealDVD-ripped files can be licensed to up to 5 PCs. The cost involved includes $50 for the first retail copy as well as $20 for each additional license (up to four additional licenses per RealDVD master copy are possible.) Real said that it will be offering the software for $30 for users who pre-register to buy the software.
At first look, Real’s new RealDVD software makes sense. Easily rip a DVD and take that DVD with you on a hard drive. Provided you have lots of hard drive storage and you enjoy watching moves on your PC (or use an entertainment PC), it is an enticing package. Five licenses per ripped file sounds reasonable to us, even if we believe that users should be able to play the movies they own on any device, whether they 2, 5 or 15. DRM is a controversial inconvenience factor no matter how you look at it.
The problem with RealDVD is its price. It is a bit of a stretch to call a $130 DVD ripper package (of $50 for the base application and up to $80 for additional licenses) a mainstream application. We assume that the CSS license isn’t cheap and the movie industry wants to be compensated for every device you want to watch a DVD you have purchased from them already. Common sense suggests that the $50 base application should include five licenses and not just one.
Right now, we believe RealDVD is simply overpriced.