4 ms·

Is it possible to backup and use the DVD content from local disk? Haven't had the best of luck with DVDs and buying one of eBay makes me feel even less optimist

Is it possible to backup and use the DVD content from local disk? Haven't had the best of luck with DVDs and buying one of eBay makes me feel even less optimistic the DVDs will last long.

mixmastamyk 3y ago
Manufactured discs usually last a very long time.
- worthless-trash 3y ago
  OP might be concerned with not having a CDROM in their machine. Same concern that many of us may have in 20 years. I have older software on 3.5" floppy disks that I can no longer access, and fortunately have the disk images.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    You can get a 3.5" drive with a USB cable. Works well.
    - worthless-trash 3y ago
      Thanks, i'll look into it as a secondary backup.
- Casteil 3y ago
  "Usually" Not sure I'd trust my only copy of something I want to keep long term to a "usually."
  - mixmastamyk 3y ago
    My CDs from 1986 are fine.
kayodelycaon 3y ago
I remember Disk Utility on macOS being able to dump the raw data from a DVD or CD into a disk image. And I think virtualization software can mount the image as if it was a disc. It’s been at least 5 years since I’ve done anything like that though. Edit: You can always use dd to grab the raw data.
lizknope 3y ago
I bought the DVDs. It used Adobe Air which I had never heard of and is discontinued. Each page of the magazine is in some encrypted format but I found software on the internet to decrypt it. You can use cp to get those files. Then you can google about the encryption. My parents got me a subscription in 1987 when I was a kid and I'm still a print edition subscriber and linked my online account to my subscription. I can read any issue online as well and print to PDF so I do that every couple of months so I have every issue from 1888 to 2023.
- blinkingled 3y ago
  Thanks, not going to bother with the DVDs then. Will check out if subscription is reasonable and go that route.
  - lizknope 3y ago
    The Adobe Air program was basically just a front end to display and decrypt everything. I could never get it to work on Linux so I never actually even looked at it except the screenshots in the help document. All the files are named well like NGM_1918_04_125.jpg National Geographic Magazine, year 1918, 4th month (April), page 125 Yeah, it was annoying but I ran a for loop on every file in the 80GB or so to translate it to normal JPEG. It took about 24 hours and that was 10 years ago on a much older computer.
- fy20 3y ago
  Adobe AIR was a precursor to Electron in the late 00s. It allowed apps written in JavaScript, ActionScript and some other Adobe tech to be easily built for multiple platforms.
gramie 3y ago
The content is just a whole bunch of JPG files that have been XORed with 239. If you XOR them with 239 again, you get the original JPG images. If you do a Google search, you should be able to find several programs/scripts that will do the job for you.

Is it possible to backup and use the DVD content from local disk? Haven't had the best of luck with DVDs and buying one of eBay makes me feel even less optimistic the DVDs will last long.

mixmastamyk 3y ago

Manufactured discs usually last a very long time.

worthless-trash 3y ago
OP might be concerned with not having a CDROM in their machine. Same concern that many of us may have in 20 years. I have older software on 3.5" floppy disks that I can no longer access, and fortunately have the disk images.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  You can get a 3.5" drive with a USB cable. Works well.
  - worthless-trash 3y ago
    Thanks, i'll look into it as a secondary backup.
Casteil 3y ago
"Usually" Not sure I'd trust my only copy of something I want to keep long term to a "usually."
- mixmastamyk 3y ago
  My CDs from 1986 are fine.

kayodelycaon 3y ago

I remember Disk Utility on macOS being able to dump the raw data from a DVD or CD into a disk image. And I think virtualization software can mount the image as if it was a disc. It’s been at least 5 years since I’ve done anything like that though. Edit: You can always use dd to grab the raw data.

lizknope 3y ago

I bought the DVDs. It used Adobe Air which I had never heard of and is discontinued. Each page of the magazine is in some encrypted format but I found software on the internet to decrypt it. You can use cp to get those files. Then you can google about the encryption. My parents got me a subscription in 1987 when I was a kid and I'm still a print edition subscriber and linked my online account to my subscription. I can read any issue online as well and print to PDF so I do that every couple of months so I have every issue from 1888 to 2023.

blinkingled 3y ago
Thanks, not going to bother with the DVDs then. Will check out if subscription is reasonable and go that route.
- lizknope 3y ago
  The Adobe Air program was basically just a front end to display and decrypt everything. I could never get it to work on Linux so I never actually even looked at it except the screenshots in the help document. All the files are named well like NGM_1918_04_125.jpg National Geographic Magazine, year 1918, 4th month (April), page 125 Yeah, it was annoying but I ran a for loop on every file in the 80GB or so to translate it to normal JPEG. It took about 24 hours and that was 10 years ago on a much older computer.
fy20 3y ago
Adobe AIR was a precursor to Electron in the late 00s. It allowed apps written in JavaScript, ActionScript and some other Adobe tech to be easily built for multiple platforms.

gramie 3y ago

The content is just a whole bunch of JPG files that have been XORed with 239. If you XOR them with 239 again, you get the original JPG images. If you do a Google search, you should be able to find several programs/scripts that will do the job for you.