Ripping
Encyclopedia : R : RI : RIP : Ripping
Ripping is the process of copying the audio or video data from one media form, such as Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) or Compact Disc (CD), to a hard disk. While the original media is typically digital, the extraction of analog media such as VHS video or vinyl records to a digital format can also be referred to as "ripping". To conserve storage space, the copied data is often then encoded in a compressed format such as MP3, WMA or Ogg Vorbis for audio, or MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD or Ogg Theora for video.
For consumers of digital content, there are a number of practical uses for ripping. One is to allow the owners of CDs or DVDs to listen to or view that content in a more flexible way. For example, ripping can allow users to listen to music from a number of different albums without having to change discs and make customized playlists of the music. Ripping can also be used to allow music to be played on portable digital audio players.
Ripping also allows content to be losslessly copied for a very low or essentially zero cost and given to those who did not purchase it, possibly substituting for sales of content. Hence it has aroused fierce opposition by the recording industry, who view it as theft.
Since the music or video is transferred to a data file, the files can be shared with other computer users over the Internet.
Ripping may not capture all data on an audio CD. CD-Text may be captured, but additional CD+G data such as lyrics and graphics present on some CDs may be ignored by ripping software, preventing an identical backup and recreation of the original CD.
Legal status
Creating a backup of purchased copyrighted media is legal in some countries, including the United States, but in the United States, purchasing software to circumvent copy-protection in commercial DVDs is illegal [link]. In countries such as France, anyone is allowed to make a private copy of a copyrighted material for oneself and the source copy does not even have to be legal (making copies for other people is however forbidden, and, a fortiori, charging for such copies).Ripping speed
The speed at which a CD or DVD can be ripped is often expressed as a multiplier, such as 12X (means 12 times faster than standard playing speed). Important in estimating ripping speeds are:- the media-player's speed: a CD has a maximum rotation speed (so it does not break due to rotational forces) and the media players get closer and closer to that limit (e.g., a player that can read a CD at 60x the normal speed). It is also important where the laserhead is. It starts reading closest to the center (lowest bitrate for a given rotation speed) and goes to the border of the CD (highest bitrate)
- the interface between the player and the encoding device: this might be extremely fast (SCSI) to very slow (USB 1.1 or even over an Ethernet network)
- the encoding device (in most cases a PC) will encode the digital input to a compressed format. This is a highly CPU-intensive task, so various factors such as the CPU's clock speed, architecture, and design affect encoding speed.
- the encoding algorithm/quality: WMA encoding is generally faster than MP3, 64 kbit/s encoding might be faster/slower than 192 kbit/s
- the compressed file is then written to a disk. Again this might be very fast (SCSI or FireWire) or rather slow (over 10 Mbit/s Ethernet or to a flash card)
- Some rippers, like Exact Audio Copy, will rip multiple times and compare the result to make sure that the ripped file is accurate. This slows down the ripping but will make sure that the output is an accurate copy, and let the user know if the output has any faults.
| Forms of pirated movie releases |
|---|
| Cam | Telesync (TS) | Telecine (TC) | Workprint (WP) | Screener (SCR) | DVD-Rip | DVDR Image | HDTV-Rip |
See also
- Bandwidth of devices
- Ripcording MP3 Software
External links
- [Awaken] - Comprehensive information on ripping (FAQ/Glossary of terms)
- [Etymology of ripping]
- [Hydrogen Audio] - Large online community of audio enthusiast's - the sites "user forum" offers an extensive amount of information about "ripping".
- [CD Freaks] - Large online community of audio enthusiast's - the sites "user forum" offers an extensive amount of information about "ripping" - similar to Hydrogen (above), but with a larger focus on the hardware used to "rip" CDs and the "media" used to "burn" CDs.
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