The Fishure-Price Fair Use Disc Ripper 5000
(or the F.U. 5000)

 

WARNING: Copyright violation is bad, mmm'kay? Only rip your own discs.

 

Back in 2010, Patrick Norton unveiled his "RipMonster 3000". This was a PC gaming tower that he had hacked to hold seven optical drives. Using apps like dBpoweramp (for CDs), he could rip multiple discs at the same time.

This seemed cool, but I wanted this to work on Mac. I also wanted to do this with DVDs.

 

Enter the Fair Use Disc Ripper 5000!

Note: Reddit user tallnginger suggested calling it the "Fair Use Disc Ripping Machine 5000", or F.U. DRM 5000.
While very clever, most of what I am ripping doesn't have DRM. Still, this was clever enough to mention here!

 

Goals of the build:

• • Use real optical drives (not external "clam shell" optical drives)
• • Keep the unit as self-contained as possible
• • Make it work on a Mac (but it will work on Windows as well, just with different software)

 

Mac software used:

• • CDs: dBpoweramp, since XLD won't rip multiple discs at once. Always use a secure ripper. Never use iTunes/Music!
• • DVDs: Mac DVD Ripper Pro, since RipIt only does one disc at a time, and is now (sadly) outdated software. Read below for how to rip multiple discs with Mac DVD Ripper Pro.
• • mp3tag, to fix any tag or image errors made during the CD ripping process.

 

My Mac hardware (for those who are curious):

• • MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021, M1 Max Chip, 64 GB of RAM
• • MacOS Monterey 12.3

 

To build your own Fair Use Disc Ripper 5000, you will need:

• • A bare CD duplicator case: CopyStars Bare Duplicator Tower
• • Five optical drives: Plextor Internal CD-DVD Drive
• • A powered USB 3 hub: Anker 7-port USB3 Powered Hub
• • Five SATA-to-USB 3 cables: StarTech SATA To USB 3 Cables
• • Apple USB To USB-C Adaptor, since Apple had to go and change the way things plug in (only needed if you have a newer Mac)
• * NOTE: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from the above links.

 

So, let's get to building the machine. Instead of having five optical external drives, with five power cables, hooked up to a powered USB hub, I decided to find a way to put everything in "a box". The parts above are exactly what I bought to make the Fair Use Disc Ripper 5000. Please note: While I do not guarantee you will have the same experience that I am having, I am not looking to gatekeep this machine. These details are provided to you without warranty.

Assembly is very straight forward. Mount the five optical drives into the tower. Attach the supplied SATA power cables to each optical drive. Using the supplied SATA data cables, plug the cables into each of the optical drives. Then plug those cables into the SATA-to-USB 3 cables. Finally, plug all the USB plugs into the powered hub. For the USB hub power cable and the USB data cable, I chose to do a dirty hack. I simply knocked a hole in the back of the tower, and threaded out the USB hub power cable and the USB data cable. I'm sure there are prettier ways, but this is what I chose to do.

You should now have a tower that has five optical drives, two power cables and one USB cable. Plug the two power cables into the wall, hook up the USB cable to your Mac, launch up the software and get to it!

dBpoweramp settings that I prefer:

 

 

I mentioned earlier on this page that there is a hack involved on the DVD ripping. Mac DVD Ripper Pro only rips one disc at a time. However, you can have multiple copies of the app running at the same time! Again, I will warn you, the following info is provided without warranty. This is what *I* do. I am not responsible if your machine freezes, or you type something wrong. OK? Good.

How I rip the DVDs. Launch the Mac DVD Ripper Pro app the way you normally would. Insert only one DVD. As soon as the DVD has loaded, start ripping the disc. Now, while that first disc is ripping, go to your Terminal app. Type the following command (without quotes): "open -na MDRP.app" (see screen shot below), with MDRP.app being the program Mac DVD Ripper Pro. When the second copy of the program launches, insert a second DVD. Repeat the process for all five discs. You are now ripping five DVDs at once!

I hope the Fair Use Disc Ripper 5000 helps anyone who needs to rip a LOT of their own discs. The $600 spent on the parts was well worth the time I saved ripping all of the discs!