Handbrake is a wonderful, open-source, utility for converting DVD movies to other formats.  In my case, I use it to convert my DVD collection for use on my Apple TV.  It works great.

Today, a new version (0.93) was released.  It includes a long list of improvements from GUI updates to fixes for the lingering errors in 0.92.  Among the list of changes was the news that Handbrake will no longer decrypt DVDs!  This is no shock to Windows users, who are accustomed to using more than one application to rip a movie. For the rest of us, this is quite the change.  I have never needed anything other than Handbrake.

Fortunately, it is an easily fixable issue, and the Handbrake developers include the solution.  Simply install the VLC player.  Handbrake will automatically leverage the necessary library to do the decryption, if needed.

What makes this news interesting to me is the “why” associated with this change.  What was wrong with the built-in solution?  Was it fear of some legal pressure?  Is it based on a collaboration of those two teams?  Is it assumed that the VLC team will continue to develop and manage the necessary library(ies) needed to keep this solution working?  Is it possible that VLC is working to have Blu Ray decryption soon that Handbrake would now be able to leverage? In my dreams.

The possibilities are both exciting, and slightly disconcerting, as this is a relatively important change for Handbrake users.

The more prominent change in their release, while not as interesting to me, was the addition of converting files and sources, other than DVD’s.  This is similar in capability to the now open-sourced project VisualHub.