I have bought a number of DRM protected DivX video files which I can view on my computer via the free DivX player, but not on a regular dvd player. Instead of buying a DivX compatible dvd player, I would like to remove the DRM protection and convert the DivX files into anything I can burn on a dvd and watch on my regular dvd player. Not for any illegal purposes, but just in order to be able to view what I have paid for on my own equipment. Can anyone help?
Nope. Welcome to the wonderful world of DRM. Divx DRM hasn't been hacked yet and I suspect there isn't enough of a market for anyone to bother, at least not now. A Divx-capable DVD player is cheap although you might want to cut your losses and not buy anymore DRMed stuff.
There IS a (cumbersome) way to convert the divx-drm files into avi: the screen capturing programme 'Fraps' does the trick (I tried it), but only 30 seconds at a time. Then the avi files (each around 350 MB) have to be compressed and put back together. Compressing and merging should be feasible; any helpful suggestions?
Avi2dvd will convert. I don't know if it will merge the files, but I can tell you not to use one of those "joiner" programs - they don't work. Since you will ultimately have to reauthor the DVD anyway, you can convert the AVIs to VOBs and merge them into one compilation.
The full version of Fraps ($37 I think) does not have the 30 second restriction, so it should be possible to make a 15 minute recording of some 10 GB. Then I don't need to merge, just to compress. I'm not sure though whether my computer can handle the amount of data: CPU = Pentium 4 640 - 3.20 GHz, Memory DDR400 - 1 GB, Harddisk 200 GB Sata.
If it can handle a 30-second run, it'll handle whatever length, provided you don't have much running in the background e.g. a scheduled virus scan or update or screensaver.
In view of slow-motion problems with Fraps recordings (I got this info in another forum), I will refrain from buying it. I took an LCD screen and simply filmed the sequences, which are of an inferior quality anyway. Good enough, no problems with slow-motion or frame-by-frame viewing!
