Amazon video for vidding

[arduinna]

Does anyone know how to rip an Amazon video to be able to vid with it? It's even legal now (woo, DMCA exemption!), but the googling I'm doing is bringing up very few programs with even fewer reviews, so I'm not sure what's reasonable and what's potentially malware. I'd be happiest with something free, obviously, but am willing to pay for something that works. Amazon has some stuff that iTunes doesn't, and it's starting to get frustrating.

The two options that seem to be most likely are GetFLV and Aimersoft Video Converter Ultimate. Anyone have experience with either one, or know of something better? (CNet loves GetFLV, gave it a five-star Editor's Pick rating, but the user reviews are full of people claiming spyware/malware...)

Legal or not, it is so hard to leave this post open!

Comments

[bironic]

UGH good luck. I tried to rip/de-DRM an iTunes movie for my Riddick vid earlier this month and the results were terrible. That's with paid software, which I resorted to after the sort of Googling you mentioned and a series of nonfunctioning freeware downloads, including, I believe, Aimersoft. But maybe m4vs are especially difficult.

Watching this space with interest.

[arduinna]

There are Options for iTunes ripping that we will be in touch about! But fwiw, I've discovered that while the iTunes encoding is freaking fabulous for most things, it's crap at some others -- Skyfall, for instance, looked bloody awful no matter what we tried, including watching it unripped.

Still and all, iTunes is my go-to for high-quality downloads to rip, because it's so good 90% of the time.

[thirdblindmouse]

Agh, I could swear someone posted on Dreamwidth about how to do this for Amazon video, but it was OS-specific so I didn't save it, and all I can find now is therienne's iTunes post.

[arduinna]

Ah well, thanks! I shall persevere, and if worse comes to worse, will suck it up and try GetFLV on my cheapass laptop after disconnecting it from my network. *g*

[sholio]

This may or may not be helpful, because I basically vid like no one else in vidderland, but my idiosyncratic process might actually be helpful in this case. *g* I don't generally rip source; instead I use a video screen capture program to clip only what I need from a playing or streaming file. The one I use is Snapz Pro, which is only available for the Mac and is payware (it costs $69). I can't remember if you use a PC, but since this is the kind of thing where PCs usually beat Macs, I'm sure there are programs that are just as good or better.

[arduinna]

Yeah, I got a PM from someone else suggesting screen capture, as well, so that may wind up being the answer. It's a little annoying, though; I'm on a PC, but my vidding partner is on a Mac, and the easiest way to work cross-platform is to have identical full files. Ah well! As long as we can finagle a method to get *something*! TY for the pointer!

Also, fwiw, as far as I can tell, *every* vidder has an idiosyncratic system! Everyone I know has a different method of getting and manipulating source. It's kind of fascinating.

[sholio]

Also, fwiw, as far as I can tell, *every* vidder has an idiosyncratic system! Everyone I know has a different method of getting and manipulating source.

Hee! That's comforting to know. :) I just always feel like such an outlier in talk of vidding process, because it always seems to start with ripping source and that's never been a thing that I do. (Mostly for hard drive space reasons, although that's less of an issue than it used to be.) Anyway, I hope you'll be able to work something out!

[wyomingnot]

I used a program called Audials One. It wasn't free, but it couldn't have cost too much (because i wouldn't have paid for something pricey). This was a few years ago, and I don't know if it'd still work. But just thought I'd mention it. :)

[arduinna]

Ah, thank you! I've added that to my list of things to investigate.