Each year, studios lose up to one billion dollars through the digital hole. We created RipGuard DVD to help you get most of it back.

Nearly one billion dollars in DVD retail revenues escape each year into the digital hole, the result of DVD ripping of copyrighted content. DeCSS Ripping breaks the CSS encryption found on DVDs and places these unprotected files onto a PC, where they can be burned onto inexpensive recordable DVDs or shared over P2P networks. Over 6 million households use DeCSS rippers around the globe, and this phenomenon is approaching mass-market critical mass.

Macrovision’s goal in designing RipGuard DVD was to give studios back the majority of this lost revenue, quarter-over-quarter. RipGuard DVD does this by blocking ripping among the majority of real-world DeCSS ripper market share. Implemented today, RipGuard DVD gives studios back 97% of this lost revenue. Macrovision’s planned evolution and Unique Digital Framework design ensures that RipGuard DVD will continue to address this majority ripper market share over time.

RipGuard DVD works on every current DVD drive and player in the market and is THX™ Verified, ensuring the audio and video quality of the original digital content. There is simply no consumer penalty to protecting your DVD content with RipGuard DVD, and no reason not to act today to protect your DVD business.

Key Benefits

Complete DVD Protection

Macrovision is no stranger to providing solutions that meet the industry’s demanding standards. Over 8 billion units of studio content–including over 4 billion DVDs–have shipped with Macrovision® ACP™ (commonly known as Macrovision), our solution for the analog hole.

RipGuard DVD delivers DVD rip control that meets these same, exacting standards. It plays on every DVD player and PC on the market. It offers the market’s most effective rip control, and will continue to do so over time. It features frictionless workflow integration. The combination of RipGuard DVD and Macrovision ACP form the only complete DVD protection solution that plugs both the analog and digital holes in a single step.

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RipGuard Reduces Ripping

RipGuard DVD applies an innovative, format-based Unique Digital Framework to each protected DVD5 or DVD9 title. This technology blocks ripping by the most commonly used rippers. In fact, by ripper market share, RipGuard DVD blocks 97% of rippers used in the wild. With nearly a billion dollars in cannibalized DVD retail revenue at stake, RipGuard DVD can produce some amazing financial windfalls for your DVD business. The non-repeating nature of the Unique Digital Framework enables RipGuard DVD to sustain its remarkable effectiveness over time, title after title, year after year.

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RipGuard Works on Today's DVD Players & PCs

Only Macrovision can guarantee RipGuard DVD playability on all PC and consumer electronic DVD players. Our DVD certification process for Macrovision ACP includes testing and certifying every DVD device, before and after market release. RipGuard DVD playability has been integrated into this process. The result is pristine playback of RipGuard DVD titles on every player –today and tomorrow. In developing RipGuard DVD, Macrovision turned to the industry-respected labs at THX Ltd., which have awarded THX Verified product status to RipGuard DVD, concluding that RipGuard DVD preserves the integrity of the original digital audio and video:

"THX works with our partners and licensees to develop technologies that support the industry-accepted quality standards established by THX,” stated Sheau Ng, chief technical officer of THX. "THX Digital Works performed compatibility and performance quality testing of RipGuard DVD titles, which revealed no degradation of the digital audio and video when compared with the original DVD.”

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RipGuard is Workflow-Friendly

RipGuard DVD fits seamlessly into existing workflow. It requires no new hardware. It works when DLTs are shipped from Author to Replicator, or when authored files are sent electronically over secure networks. It is inherently flexible, and can be adapted to work with future transport and production methods. RipGuard DVD is applied as a software-based step at either the Authoring or Replication facility, and is wholly agnostic of the technologies in use (e.g. it has no impact on LBR productivity).