DVD movie images best formats etc

[webguru]

Sorry about the title --- I didn't know what the correct subject could be.

I would like to get all my dvd movies imaged on my media machine.

Unfortunately, I am completely ignorant in this process and would like to see what others have to recommend based on their experience.

I would like to do the following:

1) Image my movies to the best format possible that would allow me to convert those files to other formats later while preserving the dvd quality (possibly for portable media devices)

2) Use as little space possible on my hard drive while trying to keep 100% quality on movies

3) Find a really good player for the movies (apparently some players enhance movie quality???)

4) Recommendations on the best tools to help in the process

My external hard drive is 1 TB and it's connected by Firewire.

I basically would like to rip all my dvds once and put them away without having to reach for them again.

Any recommendations on the process would be appreciated.

Thank You,

WG

[headkaze]

When you say 100% quality then you basically want to copy the entire movie to your HDD. That is the only way to retain the quality 100%. You can of course remove parts of the extras and things to save space. Converting the movie to XVid will take much less space but reduce quality since it's a lossy codec.

Unforunately most DVD's are between 4 and 8 gig in size. The main problem is DVD's are always encrypted and on top of that may be copy protected, so to make a copy you need software to decypt and in some cases bypass copy protection.

For basic decryption DVDDecrypter is freeware and will work for many titles. Some that have included copy protection might not work. In that case AnyDVD is the best way to go but it's not free.

DISCLAIMER: We certainly don't condone piracy but making backups of your own legally purchased DVD's for your own use is okay.

[webguru]

I bought a licensed copy of CloneDVD.

It can create images of many different formats like AVI, MPEG4, ISO and some others.

What do you think of those formats?

I also noticed something called DVDShrink. Is it worth making ISOs of the movies and using DVDShrink?

BTW: I agree with your disclaimer. My dvd collection is purchased movies.

[bkenobi]

DVDShrink does just what it says...it shrinks the DVD to fit into a smaller format. This is usually used to take a DVD9 movie and make it fit onto a standard burnable disc (4.7GB). The only way to do that is to either cut out extra content (extra audio tracks, features, etc.) or to reduce the quality of the video while re-encoding. If you are trying to keep the original quality (100% quality you mentioned), you would need to be careful about what options you specify with DVDShrink.

[shumardw]

I also think XVID is the way to go with movie conversion. I have lots of younger kids that visit the house to play with mine and they always want to tear through the DVD videos. I have found it better to have as many as I can fit on the HTPC and let them use that instead of the originals. I do cut out everything except the main movie with my conversions to save space. Plus most people only want to watch the movie anyways. If you set everything to 100% quality when converting, I can't see any noticable difference in quality. The only down side that I can see is the time needed to convert each movie. If you plan on having a large collection, this could take a considerable amount of time.

[bkenobi]

I usually prefer XVID or DIVX when I'm d/l'ing stuff myself. How much space do you save by doing the conversion? I know that you end up cutting a bunch of stuff out, but even with that included, do you go from say 5GB down to like 1GB? I'm wondering how much time it takes versus the amount of HDD space saved. At some point, it's probably worth it just to buy a 1.5TB HDD and be done with it. Those things only cost ~$100-$150 USD these days. If it takes hours per movie to convert and you cut the movie in half, you are probably money ahead just dumping the DVD contents to a big drive and moving on. Well, that's assuming there is manual input required for the entire process. If it's possible to batch the process, then it doesn't matter really.

[Visitor Q]

This is an excellent media player and it is FREE!

http://www.videolan.org/

You can drag and drop iso files right into it and play them!!!

If you want to buy something, PowerDVD is a nice player too.

As far as ripping DVDs I heard that Media Center on Vista rips DVDs right to your hard drive but if you want to rip ISO files here is another great program and again it's FREE! =]

http://www.imgburn.com/

I highly recommend all 3 of these programs. hehehe Not Vista.

[Tom Speirs]

Im assuming we are talking about your own dvd collection here, and its legal to make backups in your country.

The best thing to do is pay for the storage and a nas server, and use AnyDVD, and grab the whole DVD.

Just face the fact you need a lot of storage and a NAS server/box. I recommend Thecus for the NAS box, and there compatible with the new 1.5tb drive.

Its an incredible pain in the ass transcoding every disk to xvid etc, and yourll soon get fed up with doing it. It may even put you off cff movies for good if you get a dhar disk failure and have to do them again. There is loads of info out there on how to do that, this isnt the best place to ask. Whereas just copying the dvd with AnyDvd is just a few easy clicks.

AnyDVD is one of the few software products thats easily worth the price and paying for.

[Visitor Q]

I agree, AnyDVD is great software. I am a big fan of foreign movies and AnyDVD always does the trick, has for years.

[shumardw]

Everybody has made some good points here. I still prefer the conversion process because I am able to cut everything out except for just the movie. No other languages, subtitles, extra clips, games etc. Most DVD's now days have some much extra stuff. After I have seen it, or done it once I never go back to it. So I just don't want to waste the space will stuff I will never use. Plus I hate having to wait through the FBI warnings or forced previews. I just love being able to click on the title and watch the movie. I back up all my movies after I convert them in case the HD does crash. But as always, with GameEx you have many options to do what you want. Great program Tom.

[Stub]

A license that wont expire on me ( I don't appreciate the 1 and 2 year garbage ) for AnyDVD HD would end up costing me around US$ 114

It is not a mainline workhorse app. I find the price to be unreasonable. I will be sticking with the cheaper alternatives even if it is not as slick. Occasionally having to try a second program to decode it is not enough of an inconvenience for that price.

[wobbly]

FairUse Wizard

this maybe of some help

http://www.fairusewizard.com/lang_en/fairu...ht_edition.html

its free