Hi, can anyone give me an idiot's guide to DVDdecryter? Thanks.

[Kirjava]

I'm new to this so I wont know what most things mean, hence the idiots guide. I only want to copy stuff so I don't need to keep digging out my favourite discs (and I don't want to damage them if I don't have to). I've copied a couple but when I put my external hard drive into the side of the tv it said it couldn't read the audio format, then on another one it said the same for video, but they work fine on my laptop (with windows media player). I didn't change any settings so I've probably done something blonde. Can anyone give me an absolute basics lesson?

[jman98]

More useful first would be to tell us your TV brand and model number. It's probably got restrictions on what it will play and knowing those restrictions would potentially allow us to find out what it supports and better be able to help you.

[october262]

you might want to upgrade to dvdfab, because dvddecrypter is no longer updated and won't work for newer movies.

[Kirjava]

Thanks.
My laptop is acer Aspire 5734Z, and the TV is an LG, model number: 32LG700-ZA. Had to hunt for the stickers.

[jman98]

The manual at the LG website contains no information of any kind as to what video format it supports. Awesome.

People who live outside of the USA and Canada can almost always use DVD Decrypter because the types of copy protection it does not understand are almost never used outside of North America.

I'm sorry but as I cannot determine what your stupid TV supports, I think it would be a waste of time to go further down this path as it may not support DVD at all. You are surely capable of doing a web search and finding a guide on DVD Decrypter on your own if you wish to use it anyway.

[CobraPilot]

More information might be helpful:

o From your comments, it seems you have been able to rip two of your "favourite discs" to an external hard drive: one will play video only, one will play audio only. Correct?
o You are confident your TV truly has the capability to play videos from an external hard drive. Where did you get that information? How is it attached to your TV; i.e., what type cables (HDMI, DVI, RCA, S-Video)?
o Does the TV have a built-in DVD? Does it work?
o Is there some reason you're unwilling to simply copy the favourites to a blank DVD and play the copies through a DVD player? I assume you have one because you "don't [want] to keep digging out my favourite discs (and I don't want to damage them if I don't have to)."

If jman98's comment about DVD Decrypter is correct about its being sufficient for UK copy protection, then DVDShrink should work as well, converting dual-layer disc files to fit on single-layer (cheaper) discs, if that would work for you using a DVD player.

[Kirjava]

I've got three films and a tv series copied. I don't mind the series because nobody else likes it but I want to be able to play Puss in Boots on the tv. I might have the right cable to play it through the DVD player but then I'd have to keep getting up to wake up my laptop. I probably just have to change a setting somewhere.

The tv does not have a built in DVD player, I plugged my external hard drive into the USB on the side. I know it can be done because a friend played Chuck from his external hard drive. He plugged it into the DVD player, and I tried that but it still wouldn't play. He didn't rip them though, he downloaded them. When I tried to play stuff it alternated between "unable to recognise audio" and "unable to recognise video".

[fritzi93]

Use MediaInfo to find out the particulars about your friend's file, which played successfully on your TV.

It was probably a plain MPEG2, or re-encoded to XviD or H264, and put into a container of some sort. I would guess it's an *.avi, *.mp4 or *.mkv, something like that.

Find out what it is, and we can tell your how to re-encode or repackage your videos to suit your hardware.

BTW, first you say TV, then DVD player. It's confusing. How exactly are you connecting to your TV, and what worked?

[lordsmurf]

First you need to see what formats can play. Just guessing, I'd start out with a fairly generic H.264 as MP4, and see what happens. Try AAC, but MP3 may work better for the audio.

Those "built into the TV" players are, in two words, absolute crap. The biggest issue is utter lack of documentation by the manufacturers. LG isn't the only one guilty of this.

DVD Decrypter is probably useful in this workflow, but not for the initial ripping.

Even an idiot's guide is going to have 4-5 steps minimum. (It's won't be one-click, that's for sure.)

See if this plays... (PM me when you're done testing -- but post results in this thread, not the PM)

[Kirjava]

The tv couldn't see it.

[Kirjava]

I tried putting it into the side of the tv and in the DVD player, neither worked. My friend's one played through the DVD player.

[lordsmurf]

Then I would just give up, to be honest.

Those TV "player features" are mostly just a pain in the ass, and never work properly. A lot of them still use now-abandoned (outdated and inferior) Divx/Xvid formats, with limited specs. The video sample that was uploaded is a standard modern H.264 file with AAC audio.

Get a WDTV if you want a convenient media player. Great small players, play almost anything.
See them here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&field-keywords=wdtv...puters&x=0&y=0

A £75 player will save you a ton of headache. You could just rip the DVD as an ISO, store on the hard drive, and you're done. Yep, that easy. Done.

[Kirjava]

Thanks for trying everyone.
I think I'll just get the cable to play it from my laptop through the DVD player.