Downloading movies to watch on board

[Simi 60]

Clearly different rules in different parts of the world.

Big business and govt. gets away with so much on a HUGE scale that I can't get that excited about the little guy stepping into a small scale grey area.

 

[Lou_tribal]

I am sorry to insist but...
US code title 17 specify that:

1202. Integrity of copyright management information
[...]

(b) Removal or Alteration of Copyright Management Information.—

No person shall, without the authority of the copyright owner or the law—

(1) intentionally remove or alter any copyright management information,

Ripping a dvd requires to remove DRM so is an alteration of copyright info.

Will you be chased down an go to jail for this no and in most case it is the same if you download a movie.
But that does not mean it is legal...

The grey zone is only that there is no specific mention to allow or deny this for personal usage. But no mention does not mean it is legal.

Anyway I am not a layer so maybe a layer specialized in that domain can state it with more precision.

L

 

[Benthic2]

Another option would be your local library. You can borrow DVD's there to take with you. If you're gone a long time you can go online to extend your loan.

 

[Commander Nomad]

I am sorry to insist but...
US code title 17 specify that:



Ripping a dvd requires to remove DRM so is an alteration of copyright info.

Will you be chased down an go to jail for this no and in most case it is the same if you download a movie.
But that does not mean it is legal...

The grey zone is only that there is no specific mention to allow or deny this for personal usage. But no mention does not mean it is legal.

Anyway I am not a layer so maybe a layer specialized in that domain can state it with more precision.

L

Meh, who cares. I've been "illegal" downloading movies/music and swapping movie files with friends for over 15 years.

If you consider jaywalking a crime, by all means stay away from the seedy criminal movie pirating underground. For everyone else, get a cheap vpn and don't worry about it.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Meh, who cares. I've been "illegal" downloading movies/music and swapping movie files with friends for over 15 years.

If you consider jaywalking a crime, by all means stay away from the seedy criminal movie pirating underground. For everyone else, get a cheap vpn and don't worry about it.

Right on spot and in line with my first comment on that thread... Finding movies to download to watch off the grid on your boat is pretty easy, but not if you want to stay legal virgin
And if you want to be morally legit, buy the dvd and download the movie, you will have paid your tribute and won't need to bother with ripping a dvd.

L

 

[wkearney99]

Plex is also useful for syncing if you've got more than one plex server. I'm considering the use of a PC on the boat to act as a Plex server and have it sync with the Plex server at home. This way I can load a movie on the home server and have it automagically transfer to the one on the boat. Assuming there's connectivity at the boat, of course. Plex does have a lot of internet-based features but with some tweaking it can be configured to run without an internet connection at all.

Other solutions include Kodi and Emby, which are a bit more geeky to setup/use.

 

[Lou_tribal]

To stream movies to TV I love google chromecast pucks. These are pretty cheap, and you can stream movies from computer, tablet phone etc start a movie on one tv and continue on another one and many other features.

L

 

[Commander Nomad]

To those that are considering the dark side of downloads, do yourself a favor and get a vpn. NordVPN is $10/month and when connected I appear to be in Russia, Slovenia, France, Estonia, Argentina, .......you get the idea. As long as you don't have a RICO warrant out for you and you're not an associate of ISIS you are anonymous.

 

[geoleo]

The first thing I did when I got my Trawler was to trash the TV that came with it.

 

[Simi 60]

To those that are considering the dark side of downloads, do yourself a favor and get a vpn. NordVPN is $10/month and when connected I appear to be in Russia, Slovenia, France, Estonia, Argentina, .......you get the idea. As long as you don't have a RICO warrant out for you and you're not an associate of ISIS you are anonymous.

PIA is about $3 a month or $30 a year.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.c...loCENoZyIlm1t4EMsZ4xVOWgWUwi4NEBoC5pkQAvD_BwE

Quite often they have specials for cheaper deals again.
Used it for years, never a problem.

 

[ssobol]

I am sorry to insist but...
US code title 17 specify that:



Ripping a dvd requires to remove DRM so is an alteration of copyright info.

Will you be chased down an go to jail for this no and in most case it is the same if you download a movie.
But that does not mean it is legal...

The grey zone is only that there is no specific mention to allow or deny this for personal usage. But no mention does not mean it is legal.

Anyway I am not a layer so maybe a layer specialized in that domain can state it with more precision.

L

"Ripping" a movie is a vernacular term that may mean removing the DRM. However, if you copy a DVD you are also copying the encryption or DRM (e.g. byte by byte copy or .ISO file) and since the DRM or encryption is not "cracked" you are not in violation of the Digital Rights Act. You are making an identical copy of the DVD you purchased, DRM and all.

In the case of Tivo, the files on the Tivo box are encrypted. This is more to protect the Tivo revenue stream than to protect the content (if you don't pay the fee for the Tivo box they won't let you watch what you record, although you can continue to record new things). When you use the "transfer to PC" function the encryption is removed during the transfer. Once transferred you are still prohibited by copyright law from distributing the video files to anyone else, but you can use them for your personal use.

Some shows recorded by Tivo are copy protected. While you can keep them as long as you want and watch them as many times as you want, you cannot transfer them to other devices.

 

[wkearney99]

In the case of Tivo, the files on the Tivo box are encrypted. This is more to protect the Tivo revenue stream than to protect the content (if you don't pay the fee for the Tivo box they won't let you watch what you record, although you can continue to record new things). When you use the "transfer to PC" function the encryption is removed during the transfer.

Some shows recorded by Tivo are copy protected. While you can keep them as long as you want and watch them as many times as you want, you cannot transfer them to other devices.

Technically, files transferred from a Tivo are going to remain encrypted against the MAK for your Tivo account. There are 3rd party tools that will remove this during transfer. pytivo and tivodecode are the two I use for this.

Programs sent by your cable provider with their copy protection flag set cannot be transferred off your Tivo device. They can be recorded onto the Tivo from the cable and played back, of course. Few channels actually do this.

I've had Tivo units since nearly their start, and use them to this day. They're quite nice, if a bit pricey. No monthly fee when you buy them with a lifetime sub. But they're totally geared for home use via cable. They do make an over-the-air version. But either way their setup is totally geared toward a home, fixed-location, setup.

 

[Lepke]

Back to firestick. That's what I use for streaming. To record, I plug my recorder into the tv. The firestick is plugged into the tv. It doesn't allow downloading w/o viewing, but I can record anything on the tv.
Dvds & Bluray disks can easily be ripped to your drive. I use Magic dvd ripper/copier and Magic Blu-ray ripper/copy. Don't remember the cost, but cheap compared to anything else on the boat. I didn't have good luck with the free software. If you buy the dvd ripper, then the Blu-ray ripper is discounted. I haven't had any disks that couldn't be ripped/copied.
There are many ripping softwares out there. I've been using Magic's software for maybe 10 years.
Plan on a big hard drive. Average dvd is about 6-7gb and Bluray about 25gb. With a fast computer/average drive, it takes about 15 minutes to rip a dvd, and a long time to do bluray.

Also, there's lots of older movies on Youtube.

 

[Simi 60]

Plan on a big hard drive. Average dvd is about 6-7gb and Bluray about 25gb.

Knock them down to a smaller size.
Movies done at around 1.3gb in an MKV format are more than acceptable on our 40 inch screen.
Have even had movies at around 800mb that are more than acceptable.

 

[Jetstream]

I use Itunes for my movies.

I have a laptop that travels with me and my itunes movies are all stored on an external hard drive.

On the boat I have a Apple TV. The Apple TV can see my laptop and the hundreds of movies on it..

Easy peasy.

I also have a high speed low cost network on the boat. When in cell range I just download movies or stream netflix.

This is similar to what we do as well. Download the movie/tv show to our iPad or iPhone and stream it to the Apple TV.

 

[Panacea123]

I know enough to be dangerous about this subject.

I would like to download movies at home, to watch aboard on the Smart Tv I have. I have an Amazon Prime account.

A few questions:

-Is the best way to download movies at home with a Firestick?

-Does the Firestick plug directly in to the TVs USB plug on the boat?

-Or, is an HDMI connection needed to feed the TV on the boat from a Firestick?

Any feedback on other options would also be appreciated.

I use a USB memory stick, go to the local library and get DVD for free burn them to the stick. Stick plugs into TV mine hold about 300 movies. And takes up no room in the boat.

 

[wkearney99]

Drive space is pretty cheap these days, so keep that in mind before you go crazy trying excessively compress movies.

I find makemkv works reasonably well for most DVDs I own. Typically around 4-6gb per movie. Playback is at the same quality as was on the disc. It's possible to transcode into other formats but you have to be careful about using a format that will work with your desired players.

 

[stubones99]

If you down load a movie from anywhere to your HD or disc for your personal use, it's not illegal. If you sell or distribute it, could be. You paid for the right to use it, you should be able to display it on your viewer the way you want.


Would like to find an easy inexpensive way to record current TV, and play back the next day and skip the ads. Any ideas?

Try Skipr.tv - Watch TV, Not Commercials? which is yet another box that can identify commercials and remove them, leaving a recorded movie / TV show. Skipr isn't here yet and we don't know the price either. Probably needs a live internet connection to reference the database of known commercials while you're processing videos, but once clipped, the result file will not have commercials.

If you use a legit service for your move downloads, yes, they are yours for personal use. If you use Kodi or other services, you're pirating the movies and yes, that's illegal if you get caught.

 

[wkearney99]

Kodi is a media player, using it is perfectly legal. Where you are pushing limits is if you load plug-ins that obtain pirated content. But Kodi itself works quite well as a player and is not illegal. Likewise, using it to playback media you already own is perfectly legal. There's lots of wrong information out there, don't add to it.

The great tragedy off all this is the greed of the distribution companies. Legit customers from the get-go have always been willing to pay 'something' for content. But the distribution companies come of of the gate immediately assuming everyone's going to pirate media and refuse to come up with legit ways for honest consumers to access the content. I know this from having met with several during the early days of content distribution. They just could not get their heads around the notion that pirates of media WOULD NEVER PAY and did not represent lost revenue (because there wasn't going to be any revenue from them, EVER). Thus they set up an ever more inconvenient scheme for copy protection that impeded legit customers from using the content. Basically, shot themselves in the foot making it too hard for legit customers, thus the pirated content takes hold because it's EASIER to use.

Anyway, rants aside about copy protection... there's lots of decent tools out there, pick one that works and move on. Pay for the content you consume.

 

[Mrwesson]

Portable hard drive will connect to just about anything. You can legally load it with dvds/bluray's you own. I don't condone piracy but if you decide to go that route make sure you subscribe to a VPN. If you download a movie you own through a pirate website are you stealing? Gray area but nobody has ever been prosecuted for downloading a movie.. It's sharing/uploading a copy that will get you in trouble. This can be bypassed by simply disabling uploads via your Torrent client.

I once received a "strike" from Comcast for downloading pirated content for downloading a game I happened to own. I simply emailed them a copy of the receipt and a picture of my upc/serial and the strike was removed.

For playback I have a 3tb on board loaded with shows and movies. I have it hooked up to a Raspberry Pi running LibreELEC which is basically a Kodi OS.

If all that sounds complicated it's not. Basically a $35 apple tv.

 

[Delfin]

We've rediscovered the public library. Even in our small town, we can rent from over 1,000 titles, 10 at a time, then rip them onto a drive for later consumption.

 

[catalinajack]

The first thing I did when I got my Trawler was to trash the TV that came with it.

Yeah, and I threw away a large library of printed books. Total waste of time.

 

[Woodland Hills]

Yeah, and I threw away a large library of printed books. Total waste of time.

We did the same, now I have them on my Kindle. For decades I’ve lugged crates of books from home to home, built and transported bookcases and shelves, etc. Now I accomplish the same thing, have a library, and it weighs ounces. Imagine if I had to find room aboard for my 3000+ LP records! Instead I sold them to collectors and keep all the music in the cloud or on my iDevices.

 

[catalinajack]

We did the same, now I have them on my Kindle. For decades I’ve lugged crates of books from home to home, built and transported bookcases and shelves, etc. Now I accomplish the same thing, have a library, and it weighs ounces. Imagine if I had to find room aboard for my 3000+ LP records! Instead I sold them to collectors and keep all the music in the cloud or on my iDevices.

You missed the facetiousness in my posting, the part about reading being a waste of time. I was responding to the worthlessness of the poster's comment that he threw away his television. Good for him but no one cares about his distaste for television. His comment is unhelpful to the original question posed, a per peeve of mine here.

 

[geoleo]

You missed the facetiousness in my posting, the part about reading being a waste of time. I was responding to the worthlessness of the poster's comment that he threw away his television. Good for him but no one cares about his distaste for television. His comment is unhelpful to the original question posed, a per peeve of mine here.

How do you know " no one cares about my distaste for TV" ?????????Are you a mind reader and knows what 'everyone cares about'???????????LOL

 

[wkearney99]

We've rediscovered the public library. Even in our small town, we can rent from over 1,000 titles, 10 at a time, then rip them onto a drive for later consumption.

Which is pirating content. It's one thing to rip a file from media you own. It's another thing to make it from media you don't own. Oh, I know it's 'convenient' and all that, but it doesn't make it honest, or legal. At least with the streaming services the content providers are getting compensated. Maybe not to the extent of outright disc sales, but better than zero.

 

[Exctyengr]

I don't know about the rest of you fellow TFers but when I am on a boat I eschew TV! I get to much of that at home. I'd rather wipe down the engine.

 

[BruceP]

I'm in Canada so the rules may be different, but for me I can download Apple TV and Netflix movies to my laptop. The last time I checked, you need to connect to Apple once a month and Netflix once a year to still be able to play them.

We don't have WiFi all of the time when we are cruising, but for various reasons we usually hit a marina every week or so with WiFi to briefly connect to Apple and Netflix and renew the connection.

 

[ssobol]

... We don't have WiFi all of the time when we are cruising, but for various reasons we usually hit a marina every week or so with WiFi to briefly connect to Apple and Netflix and renew the connection.

In my experience in the US, you need to connect to Netflix about every 30 days (if you are on a monthly payment plan) to renew the downloads. You can only renew a downloaded video a certain number of times and if the video has been removed from the Netflix library it cannot be renewed or played even if you had previously downloaded it.

 

[geoleo]

I don't know about the rest of you fellow TFers but when I am on a boat I eschew TV! I get to much of that at home. I'd rather wipe down the engine.

I agree, but according to most of the posts on this thread we are in a slim minority.