   Re-authoring DVD: illegal?
  I just bought myself BattleStar Galactica from Amazon UK, the Mini-Series and the Year 1 series.I loved it, it's an amazing series, too bad it doesnt run here in Portugal.Thing is, I would like my father to watch it with me too, but the DVDs only bring English subtitling for the hearing impaired, even though they are labeled Zone 2, but I already expected this.Would it be illegal for me to dump the DVD onto my computer and edit the subtitles, translate them, and then burn it and watch it? This would be a lot of work, but it would be cool just to let my father watch it. What tools are there for this?   
  Well, the best thing to do is check your local laws. In the US, for instance, something like this would probably fall under fair use.As for tools, you're going to need a DVD ripper, like DVD Decrypter, and then a recoding tool. Nero Recode works nice. For subbing, I'm not sure   ;  I actually just did something like this.If ripping the DVD yields a subtitle file along with the movie.  It will simplify the process.  You can just open the subtitle file and translate it, not having to worry about timing everything.  Otherwise I could see it as a very painstaking process going about making subtitles and synching them up to the movie.  As far as making subtitles, you could check out something like VobSub.  I haven't used it, but this looks pretty promising as well.Once you get subtitles that are synched up with the movie, you can use VirtualDubMod to burn them directly onto the movie.  The subtitle file will have to be in .ssa format, which a program that comes with VobSub called SubreSync can do.  It is pretty awesome watching it go through and put the subtitles directly on top of the video.  It does take a while (the length of the movie, I believe).  Then you can burn the movie back onto a DVD with the subtitles already in the movie.  Note: the subtitles will permanently be there on that movie file.There is actually a good tutorial on this that I used.  I will post it as soon as I find it.EDIT: OK, that tutorial could be anywhere on the internets...it did take about a half hour of searching the first time to find it.  But here's the next best thing for now.....[] = Click on.1) Download VirtualDubMod (henceforth, VDM)2) Download VobSub into the VirtualDubMod folder3) Open VirtualDubMod4) [File > Open Video File...] Open your video file in VDM5) [Video > Filters] Opens a dialog box6) [Add] Text Sub 2.23 [OK] (If TextSub 2.23 isn't there, try downloading VobSub to the directory again)7) [Open] Browse for your subtitle file and select word wrapping preference [OK]8) [OK]9) Make sure [Video > Full Processing Method] is selected.  (I think it is by default)10) [File > Save As...] Pick a new file name.  Choose compression (Uncompressed in this case) [Save]11) Watch in awe as the program goes through the whole movie and adds the subs.12) Enjoy subtitled movie.13) Thank Jeff if it works :)I, for one, think it's insane that I remember how to do that.  I've only done it once.Hope this helps,JeffPS: As for the legality...um...I dunno.[Edited by - GodlyGamr on December 28, 2005 11:02:17 PM];  rip it (its legal to make backups in the US at least (I belive)) Then use vobsub to play subtitles from http://www.divxsubtitles.net/ I checked for you, im not sure specifically what you need, but they have alot of battlestar subtitles there in portugese. Aside from spelling portugese wrong (right?) I hope that helps. I buy all my movies in French because thats what they speak where I live, but then I go on the internet to find all the subtitles. Sometimes I find them in arabic, which is cool but theres always a bunch of languages available. If you cant find them, search google for 'Divx subtitles'.best of luck.- slowpid   ;Quote:Original post by slowpidrip it (its legal to make backups in the US at least (I belive)) Then use vobsub to play subtitles from http://www.divxsubtitles.net/ I checked for you, im not sure specifically what you need, but they have alot of battlestar subtitles there in portugese. Aside from spelling portugese wrong (right?) I hope that helps. I buy all my movies in French because thats what they speak where I live, but then I go on the internet to find all the subtitles. Sometimes I find them in arabic, which is cool but theres always a bunch of languages available. If you cant find them, search google for 'Divx subtitles'.best of luck.- slowpidBacking up the movie is legal, however, circumventing the copy protection to do so is not.Its kinda like making bullets legal, but banning all the guns.   ;  Screw the legal system. Nobody is getting hurt, nobody is losing money (besides you), and the handful of people that will know about it probably won't know or care that adding (which inherently requires copying since the media is readonly) some subtitles to a DVD you bought could be considered illegal.   ;Quote:Backing up the movie is legal, however, circumventing the copy protection to do so is not.Its kinda like making bullets legal, but banning all the guns.No, Backing up the movie is legal. So is circumventing the copy protection to do so. The part that is illegal (thanks to the DMCA) is telling someone or providing for someone to do the same, without educational merit. It's perfectly legal to grab the software and do it, just as long as nobody told you where to grab the software (or at least, a big ass entity told you where to get the software which can shield you legally: Google), nobody wrote the software (open source or big-ass corporate entity ;), and nobody distributed the software to you (big-ass corporate entity ;).But then again, it's not you who has to worry about any of the consequences, especially in such a case as this one, it's the developers of the program.If you live in the USA, feel free to make this modified backup copy for you and your father to consume under the DMCA, just don't try to sell it to anyone. If you live outside of the USA, feel free to make this backup copy, and do whatever you feel like with it.   ;  Thanks for the replies guys!Well, I really don't feel like this is going to be something that is going to negatively affect the makers of the series in any way, they are not going to lose money because of this, and I have no plans to go out and distribute it......so I'm using a Zone 0 documentary about James Cameron's Aliens as a testbed, it's a 12min thingie, and after digging into google for some tutorials, I found this one.From there on it was just a question of downloading the correct tools, demuxing, OCR the subtitles into text (they come in bmp form!), edit those subtitles, reconvert them into bmp form, and remux the small video file.Again thanks for the tips! [wink]   ;  Why are you using Zone 2 in south america anyways? The Zone 1 version would have given you spanish subtitles atleast.   ;Quote:Original post by PerfunctionWhy are you using Zone 2 in south america anyways? The Zone 1 version would have given you spanish subtitles atleast.You know that Portugal's in Europe, right?   