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Real Networks, the makers of real player, is not a startup by any definition of the word. But it was interesting to find them going through all the pains to launch their new product at DEMOfall 08. Real Networks has launched a new and slick service, RealDVD that lets users rip any DVD to their PC.

This ripping does not in any way violates the DRM of the the DVD and allows users to rip DVDs legally. Thank god someone finally came up with a legal and cheap DVD ripping tool. The DRM preservation was to be expected from Real Networks as otherwise they would have landed themselves in a pretty ugly position with RIAA and MPAA trying to gun them down.

RealDVD makes an exact copy of the DVD on your hard disk. Saved DVDs are than encrypted and locked again to make sure they cannot be shared or stolen. The software even copies the cover art of the movie so that you can see the movie in a graphical menu. The movie could even be played while being copied to the hard disk. The entire process of saving a DVD takes around 10-40 minutes for 4-8 Gigs.

People with a huge DVD collection could transfer the entire catalog to an external hard disk and have their collection show up in the screen guide of RealDVD. In addition to this movies could be sorted, and you could resume the  last movie that you were watching last night. And now the most important feature of all, yes RealDVD has parental controls.

In short now you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on Kaleidescape’s DVD storage system. You can do the same thing with ease in RealDVD for just $29.99. The software would be available at RealDVD.

Some other interesting facts that you may want to know are:

• Fifty percent of U.S. broadband households have over 50 DVDs in their collections, and last year consumers spent more than $16 billion purchasing DVDs (According to TDG Reports & Screen Digest)
• Hollywood shipped 1.1 billion DVD discs in 2007 — nearly 30 million more than in 2006 (According to Screen Digest)

You can watch there DEMOfall 08 launch video below: