Don't know what to do with my home movies - Help Please

[Rocksolid]

SO I have all of these home movies on DVD that I burned about 10 yrs ago and it's time to do something with them. I was thinking of re- burning them from the current DVD to a new one. I was also thinking of putting them in the cloud but then I have to spend money every more to store it ( really I'm not cheap) and I don't know if I trust the cloud and getting access to my files when I want them. What would happen if they go out of business? I also don't know anything about ripping so I'm hoping I can get some good advice here.

[newpball]

Reburning them certainly won't harm. Burned, as opposed to manufactured DVDs, can certainly start to fail after 10 years.

I would archive the videos at two physically separate locations in two different formats, e.g. DVD, Hard Drive, USB stick, M-Disk etc.

[Rocksolid]

If I decide to re burn them how should I do this? I only have 1 burner on my computer. I have about 30 dvd's with movies.

[Cornucopia]

ImgBurn. "EZ-ModePicker" mode.

1. Create Image file from Disc. Put your disc in, choose a path to store the file, rename the file (if necessary). Click "READ" button. Should save it as *.ISO.

2. Write Image file to Disc. Put your blank in. Choose the ISO source file. Click "WRITE" button. Done. (delete your source file if you don't want to keep it)

Doesn't get much easier than that.

BTW, I have >14 year-old burned DVDs still going strong, so I would say it often depends primarily on your media quality (and storage/handling) choices.

Scott

[Keyser]

BTW, I have >14 year-old burned DVDs still going strong,

Same here!

I would reburn them using high quality media (e.g. Verbatim AZO DVD+R/-R), but instead of deleting the ISOs after burning, I would keep them in an external hard drive.

[Rocksolid]

Thanks everybody for your advice.

[Rocksolid]

I saved the ISO and burned it to a new dvd and it worked great. Now I went back to the ISO to watch it from the file and all it wants to do is burn it. Is there a way I can watch it on my computer? I want to put them on an external hard drive but I am guessing I need to save it on the hard drive before I burn them because I was able to watch it before I burned it on a dvd. Is this correct?

[usually_quiet]

This might help: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/mount-an-iso-image-in-windows-vista/

Virtual CloneDrive allows a PC running Vista or Windows 7 see a DVD ISO file as a disc loaded in a drive.

Windows 8 is supposed to have the built-in ability to mount an ISO.

[newpball]

Windows 8 is supposed to have the built-in ability to mount an ISO.

Supposed?

Windows 8 is already more than 2 years in production!

[usually_quiet]

Windows 8 is supposed to have the built-in ability to mount an ISO.

Supposed?

Windows 8 is already more than 2 years in production!

Then instead of trolling, maybe YOU can confirm that since I don't have an ISO or files to generate one on this Windows 8.1 laptop to test it with.

[Rocksolid]

I am running Win 7. So I need to download a program to run an ISO file?

[usually_quiet]

I am running Win 7. So I need to download a program to run an ISO file?

Yes. DVDFab Virtual Drive is another free solution you could try. Daemon Tools is well-regarded but not free.

[johns0]

WinCDEmu is another iso mounter you can try,better than the other ones mentioned imho.

[Keyser]

VLC media player lets you watch the contents of the ISO (DVD-Video) without the need to mount it as a virtual drive.

Menu: Media -> Open File...

[jagabo]

About the only media player that can't play DVD ISO images in Windows is Windows Media Player.

[MOVIEGEEK]

You can also just drag and drop the VIDEO_TS folder to your PC instead of creating an ISO, I also have old DVD's that are stored on an external HDD.

P.S. VLC is a great player, as Keyser mentioned it will play ISO's.

[johns0]

About the only media player that can't play DVD ISO images in Windows is Windows Media Player.

MPC-HC doesn't play iso properly which i tested a little while ago.