[HiDefGator]

Several poster's have mentioned moving their dvd collection to hard disk. I'm wondering which software package is best to do this with? What format do you use for the files on the disk? Do you need special software to play the movies once they are on the disk?

thanks,

mike

 

[classicsat]

I can't name names, but you need to decrypt first (illegal in at least the USA), pull to HDD, then merge the VOBs. At least that is what I do.

 

[RedMan8]

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to provide this link...
Mod's feel free to delete if this is a no-no.


http://forum.videohelp.com/topic301015.html

 

[HiDefGator]

Thank you redman. That was just the link I needed.

 

[Carlton Bale]

I'd recommend purchasing AnyDVD to decrypt and CloneDVD to re-author the movie and copy the VOB files to your hard drive. Yes, there are many free solutions out there, but both of these products are very well supported by Slysoft, are very easy to use, work with every DVD you'll run across, and are sometimes updated several times a week. I've used the free alternatives, but my time was well worth the investment I made in the commercial software. It's super easy to use and very reliable.

If you want to convert your MPEG2 DVDs from VOB files to some other format, Clone DVD Mobile is a great product as well. You can purchase all three in a bundle. Having said that, there are free equivalents that are about as easy to use as Clone DVD Mobile, so you may not need to purchase this one.

To try a demo version of each, download them from slysoft.com.

 

[HiDefGator]

Also good to know. I'll give them a try. I like easier.

 

[MickeS]

I still use DVDDecrypter although it's a bit long in the tooth and then do the additional processing with TMPEGEnc. Works very good.

 

[captain_video]

Check the forums at Doom9.org. DVDDecryptor still works for most DVDs but won't decrypt anything from Sony (ARccOS) or other discs using RipGuard.

 

[Carlton Bale]

Check the forums at Doom9.org. DVDDecryptor still works for most DVDs but won't decrypt anything from Sony (ARccOS) or other discs using RipGuard.

Exactly why I use AnyDVD instead. Plus, AnyDVD has support for HD-DVD and BluRay.

 

[mattack]

Are there tools that will rip separate titles on the DVD into separate files that I can double-click (e.g. .mov files)?

These are my own DVD-RW or DVD-Rs, from my DVD recorder. Though I still like the idea of using a DVD recorder, I'm also considering keeping a hard drive backup -- but I'd like to be able to categorize the stuff a bit.. (Most of the stuff is musical recordings from talk shows -- and I would make folders based upon the various musicians.)

 

[mattack]

This is on a Mac, btw, so if there are UNIX CLI tools that might be portable, that's reasonable.

 

[Justin Thyme]

I used DVDDecrypter and some other tools a while back but I am ripping all of my disks over now because it has gotten a lot less tedious and error free to do.

I use DvdFab Platinum- which resizes/ compress them to MP4 (it supports a variety of mpeg4 codecs as well as profiles for a bunch of portable devices, so I can make one for the Tivo Media Server and one for the Video iPod).

It has worked on 99% of my dvds- I guess I have gone through maybe a 150 or so by now- a few serials like avengers and Hercule Poirot, but most are commercial movies- and a lot of them Pal Videos from New Zealand. I recall DVDDecrypter had to be tweaked to fix the sync on Snow White, but DvdFab handled it with no complaints.

There is no rhyme or reason about the ones that fail. One was a kind of a low budget thing created at a symposium, another was a Cirque du Soleil dvd- all the other Cirque's did fine though.

 

[Soapm]

Are there tools that will rip separate titles on the DVD into separate files that I can double-click (e.g. .mov files)?

AutoGK can do this. Search at any of the above mentioned sites.

 

[captain_video]

DVDFab Decryptor is a freeware tool that is about the only one that is still updated on a regular basis other than AnyDVD. Check the downloads section at dvdidle.com. The current version is actually called DVDFab HD Decryptor and works on HD-DVDs and BD discs as well.

 

[greg_burns]

Anybody know what will rip Disney's Cars? I've tried DVD Decrypter, DVDFab Decryptor, and a trial of DVDAny. Is just my hardware having a problem?

Perhaps the kid has already messed up this second disc and that is the problem.

 

[mattack]

AutoGK can do this. Search at any of the above mentioned sites.

That's only a Windows app as far as I can tell. Plus, it looks like it does conversion -- even if I DID run Windows, could I losslessly convert between the DVD and some double-clickable file an then back to something I could burn to another DVD that had the same quality as the original?

 

[gtrogue]

That's only a Windows app as far as I can tell. Plus, it looks like it does conversion -- even if I DID run Windows, could I losslessly convert between the DVD and some double-clickable file an then back to something I could burn to another DVD that had the same quality as the original?

MacTheRipper is pretty much the only ripper for OS X. MTR2 has problems with discs that use rip prevention measures (ripguard, etc.). MTR3 works better and you can find it online if you look around. The best combo I've found on a Mac is MTR3 with DVD2OneX2 for reauthoring and Handbrake and VisualHub to do file conversions and transcoding.

 

[Carlton Bale]

That's only a Windows app as far as I can tell. Plus, it looks like it does conversion -- even if I DID run Windows, could I losslessly convert between the DVD and some double-clickable file an then back to something I could burn to another DVD that had the same quality as the original?

If you want lossless, it's best to just store the files in VOB format (the way they are stored on the DVD.) That's what I do with all of my movies, and it's the only way to preserve the menus. My directory structure is has each movie in its own folder and a vidoe_ts folder under that containing the vob files (i.e. /movies/movie name/video_ts/vobfil1.vob ). Most DVD playback software will recognize and play a video_ts folder and play it like a normal DVD.

But, if you want a single, clickable file, you'll to to enter convert it to a single mpeg 2 file and lose the menus, or to a lossy xvid/AVC/mpeg4 file, which is great for saving space but does diminish the quality some. I only transcode video I'm going to watch on a portable device while traveling.

 

[mattack]

bummer. What I wanted to do was be able to break up the DVDs full of 'music videos' (really performances on Letterman, Leno, etc) into separate files -- but not lose quality.. so I could then later use a regular DVD authoring program to put a whole bunch of the same artist back on DVDs.

(I have tried saving performances on my non-Tivo recorder, but the original DVD burner went bad, and the one I have replaced it with isn't a perfect replacement and won't see unfinalized DVD-Rs.. so I've thought of possibly using a cheap external hard drive to store batches of them.. if I could easily do this conversion and categorization.)

 

[Carlton Bale]

mattack: Not sure about Mac, but on a Windows PC, you can use AnyDVD to decrypt and CloneDVD to rip selective portions of individual DVDs to hard disk, and then use a DVD authoring program to recombine them into one DVD. DVDShrink is an old program that will do the same thing. It's free, but hasn't been updated in years and may not work on all DVDs.