Editor: AnyDVD is a Windows application that unprotects and copies DVDs and HD-DVDs with AnyDVD HD automatically in the background. The resulting DVD is unprotected and free of region encoding. AnyDVD and other third party copy tools like DVD Shrink (Freeware), CloneDVD, Pinnacle Systems, Inc. Instant Copy, InterVideo, MacTheRipper, Smartripper and DVD-Copy are able to copy CSS-protected movies.
Besides decrypting DVDs the software is also able to bypass and rip copy-protected audio CDs. Unlike DVD Decrypter (Freeware), AnyDVD does not require the user to store an image on the hard disk but allows copying on the fly.
AnyDVD is outlawed in Germany as it removes the copy protection from DVDs. The Heise news portal was sued by the record industry for linking to Slysoft's website in a news report easylingo.
The program could also remove the region code, and even simulates an RPC2 drive if not successful, bypassing DVDs that Detect a region free drive. It then removes the region data when copying the DVD. It also removes Macrovision, an analog copying protection which distorts the video signal when recording the DVD to an analog device, such as a VCR. Many DVDs have fast forward disabled in the beginning of the DVD when commercials and copyright infringement warnings are shown, which is removed by this program.
Current versions include an older version of the ripper based on FixVTS (open source program). It can fix defective DVDs with mastering errors (such as DVDs made with fluxDVD) and other structural problems. FixVTS analyzes DVDs and makes them comply more with standards. Sony's ARccOS, Macrovision's RipGuard, and many other copy-protection schemes violate DVD standards. Programs like AnyDVD and Fengtao Software's DVDFab Decrypter can re-organize DVDs based on how they are actually played, removing or ignoring irrelevant and useless data.
