WD TV Novice

[gazoopert]

Gday all, Have just purchased a wd tv unit and am a complete computer novice! Was Hoping someone would be able to help me out with steps on how to upload protected dvds to my hard drive and also convert to a format that the wd tv recognises. Any information would be greatly aprreciated.
Cheers

[yoda313]

http://www.videohelp.com/glossary

Hello,

That might be a place to start. First off fyi it's called "ripping" to take the video off a dvd to your computer.

First option is to rip the dvd to iso and simply copy to your harddrive (the external one you plan to use with the wdtv. However doing so you will lose the menus.

If you want to save space and convert to a smaller format try xvid or divx. You might also try something like h264 inside a mp4 or mkv format.

You can rip the dvd with any number of free or paid programs:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools

Be sure to get the most recent update to be sure it can bypass the latest copy protection methods. Anydvd is a great payware software to use - its advantage over other programs is you can decrypt (rip) the dvd from your drive without copying to the computer first - you can rip directly from the disc with another program if you want.

From there once you have the files on your pc you can simply use the included software that came with the wdtv to convert. However on first glimpse it looks like it only converts to stereo. You'll need to use more advanced software like xvid4psp to get digital surround sound in your file.