Handbrake et al on Apple TV

[maelstromr]

Hi everyone,

I am considering getting an Apple TV soon and am intrigued by all this ripping dvd's into an AppleTV useable format, but have some concerns that did not pop up on a pretty half hearted search.

1) Does the ripping movies and circumvention of any built in DRM cause trouble with the workings of the Apple TV? I am moderately tech-savvy but my fiance is not and I don't want her to have to deal with anything beyond the built in software for playing things.

2) Does ripping dvd's violate any apple policy or threaten some sort of breaking with later updates? I am confident of my right to rip my properly purchased dvd's for personal use in terms of copyright issues but am not up with how this might affect future use or be dealt with in future updates, so a tech heavy legal light response would be more helpful.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dynaflash]

1) Does the ripping movies and circumvention of any built in DRM cause trouble with the workings of the Apple TV? I am moderately tech-savvy but my fiance is not and I don't want her to have to deal with anything beyond the built in software for playing things.

Nope, as long as you rip within the appletv's playback specifications (like handbrakes appletv preset) you need nothing else.

2) Does ripping dvd's violate any apple policy or threaten some sort of breaking with later updates? I am confident of my right to rip my properly purchased dvd's for personal use in terms of copyright issues but am not up with how this might affect future use or be dealt with in future updates, so a tech heavy legal light response would be more helpful.

Well, "future use" would require a crystal ball to predict. The only possible caveat would be the off chance that some future software update would *only* allow the playback of videos that contained drm. Personally I would find that highly unlikely as frankly it would probably kill the product.

 

[maelstromr]

Thanks very much, that is helpful. I agree that too much fiddling with DRM requirements will kill the good avenues of electronic distribution and so hopefully Apple et al will do their best to avoid it. I suppose there's always the old standby - refuse to update - as well.