DVD backup to netbook

[sawman5]

Hi,

Sorry for the newbie question, but I am trying to backup some DVDs for my kids (Barney, shrek, etc) to my netbook so they can watch it in the car.

Is it possible to do back them up to a file/files ( < 1 gb) with all the menus, chapters, etc?

[V Bot]

I have several dvds on my Acer netbook. I saved them in ISO format, which is much larger than AVI. Need to convert them. I just backed them up on my desktop and transferred them with a flash drive. Look into Freemake Video converter. I play them in WinDVD.

[redwudz]

Probably you can back up the whole DVD, but with my netbook (Asus Eee), I convert my decrypted DVDs to Xvid and use that instead. The movies play with no problems. Your kids probably just want to watch the main movie anyway and don't want to deal with DVD menus, extras, chapters, etc.

I use the freeware converter Handbrake for that type of conversion most times. But there are other converters also that may work for you. For a netbook, around 1GB is more than enough for size. You may be able to reduce the size a bit smaller, if your only output is to a small netbook screen.

If you really want to put the whole DVD on the netbook, you might try using a software player like VLC or maybe better, MPCHC, for playback, as they can navigate the DVD structure. But it saves a lot of space and makes it simpler to convert a DVD to Xvid or another more compressed format.

And welcome to our forums.

[jman98]

Is it possible to do back them up to a file/files ( < 1 gb) with all the menus, chapters, etc?

Not really. You're asking for some pretty heavy compression here. H.264/X.264 could meet your needs and give you the best quality and some software players understand chapters for the format, but there's no way to convert the menus.

[CobraPilot]

If those extras and menus are vital, why not consider a simpler alternative:

Buy a portable USB DVD recorder/player (about US$30 and up) and just play the original (or DVD backup) through the netbook, no conversion necessary. For example:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=portable+usb+dvd+recorder&um=1&ie=UTF-8...ed=0CCYQ8wIwAg

Use a longer-than-normal USB cable to keep the DVD player out of the hands of the children, if that's a concern, and/or if that's necessary.

Note: Most such portables have a dual-USB-connector in case a single cable connection doesn't provide enough power from the netbook's USB port. If a single connection isn't enough, you may need usb extension cables.