How do I get the DVD onto my computer + a normal DVD drive??

[Planxty]

Ok.. I've seen similar questions round this board, but none have answered my question.

My situation is this...

I have a DVD/CDRW combo drive (NOT a DVDRW drive, just normail DVD)

I want to put my DVDs on my computer.

How can I do this??

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[Richard_G]

Presumable you want the DVD files on your hard drive so you can watch them from there rather than carrying discs around. Download DVDDecrypter and rip the contents of the DVD in File mode to your hard disc. You'll then be able to watch them with PowerDVD, WinDVD or (if you are really desperate), Windows Media Player.

[jtoolman2000]

I think we need to go deeper into this one. Unless you are going to be say, loading a few movies onto a lap top so you can view then while traveling, which by the way is perfectly legit and convenient, I don't see the point in doing this. Yes, if it is just a learning exercise then by all means, knock yourself out. Nothing wrong with that. If your point is to then convert of edit these ripped files to something else like VCD or DIVX/XVID then again I say, if it's for the sake of learning, it's fine. However the quailty drop will be readily noticeable.

What you really need to do, assuming of course you have a regular desktop computer is to invest in a DVD/RW drive. Dirt cheap right now. Media is also dirt cheap at only 10 - 15 cents more than CDs for pretty good quality media.

Backing up to DVD is very easy and if done right, zero to slight quaility loss in the majority of case. You back up your entire DVD movie collection and save the originals in a nice safe area away from the kids and such. I do that will all my movies. a 35 cent investment and a hour or so is all it takes to backup a disc.

Just my two cents.

[Planxty]

Hey guys, thanks very much for your replies.

Yes Richard_G, what you explained would suit me perfectly. I will check out this DVD Decrypter.

@jtoolman2000

If I was to rip them onto my computer using DVD Decrypter, what kind of file type would they save as? And what kind of quality would it be?

You said that if I was to convert them to DivX the quality would drop very noticeably? I have downloaded some DVDs as .avi files and the quality of some have been very good. The file size being approx 700mb each.
Yet the quality of others, even though around the same file size, can be quite crappy.

So, if I was to use this DVD Decrypter program, what file would I save the movie as? And how good quality would it be?

[BobK]

If I was to rip them onto my computer using DVD Decrypter, what kind of file type would they save as? And what kind of quality would it be?

If you rip them to your computer then it will save as exactly the same files that are on the DVD (in File mode), or as an .iso- which also an exact copy of the DVD.

The quality would be exactly the same as the quality on the DVD since you'd have exact copies of the DVD files on your HD.

Once those files are on your computer you could convert them to other formats.

[Planxty]

If I was to rip them onto my computer using DVD Decrypter, what kind of file type would they save as? And what kind of quality would it be?

If you rip them to your computer then it will save as exactly the same files that are on the DVD (in File mode), or as an .iso- which also an exact copy of the DVD.

The quality would be exactly the same as the quality on the DVD since you'd have exact copies of the DVD files on your HD.

Once those files are on your computer you could convert them to other formats.

Thanks for your reply BobK!

Can I convert them to watchable files using DVD Decrypter??

If not, which program is best to do this?

[BobK]

Can I convert them to watchable files using DVD Decrypter??

If not, which program is best to do this?

Depends on what you want to watch them with. A software DVD player (ie- PowerDVD) will let you watch them without any conversion.

[jtoolman2000]

PLease quench my curiosity. Just why do you want to rip DVD to your HD when you can simply watch them on TV which will look immensely better ( specially on mine )

Yes some divx do look ok till I show you the original side by side.
The main idea behind ripping a DVD to File mode or to ISO is to create a backup. If the movie only file size happens to be the same size as a DVD/R then it can be backed up with NO loss in quality. If you are attempting to keep everything that is normally include ( the stuff I don't watch anyway ) the it will require srinking via Transcoding. This by itself will reduce the visual quality to a certain degree. The TV you watch it on will determine how goo d or how bad it will look. On a 25" crt it may appear identicall to the original. On 52" DLP it will probably look like crap. The other factor is simply how much degradation are you able to accept. I can accept a very small ammount to none. so the simple answer is that I will not back a DVD up if it requires more than 10-15 compression in Shrink. That is from 100% to 85%

In this hobby you don't have to put up with any loss of quality by purposely goin from a basically excellent format ( DVD ) to a lesser one such as Divx or Xvid unless you simply cannot afford a DVD burner or media and this day they are ridiculously cheap anyway.

Now that I've gotten my biased opinions out of the way, yes, once you rip the DVD to your HD, you can click on the file named VIDEO_TS.IFO and it should trigger your software based DVD player whether it is Power DVD, Win DVD or whatever SW player you happen to have installed. But think about it. Looking at a tiny image on the pc is no fun when compared to your tv in your living room right?

[Planxty]

PLease quench my curiosity. Just why do you want to rip DVD to your HD when you can simply watch them on TV which will look immensely better ( specially on mine )

Yes some divx do look ok till I show you the original side by side.
The main idea behind ripping a DVD to File mode or to ISO is to create a backup. If the movie only file size happens to be the same size as a DVD/R then it can be backed up with NO loss in quality. If you are attempting to keep everything that is normally include ( the stuff I don't watch anyway ) the it will require srinking via Transcoding. This by itself will reduce the visual quality to a certain degree. The TV you watch it on will determine how goo d or how bad it will look. On a 25" crt it may appear identicall to the original. On 52" DLP it will probably look like crap. The other factor is simply how much degradation are you able to accept. I can accept a very small ammount to none. so the simple answer is that I will not back a DVD up if it requires more than 10-15 compression in Shrink. That is from 100% to 85%

In this hobby you don't have to put up with any loss of quality by purposely goin from a basically excellent format ( DVD ) to a lesser one such as Divx or Xvid unless you simply cannot afford a DVD burner or media and this day they are ridiculously cheap anyway.

Now that I've gotten my biased opinions out of the way, yes, once you rip the DVD to your HD, you can click on the file named VIDEO_TS.IFO and it should trigger your software based DVD player whether it is Power DVD, Win DVD or whatever SW player you happen to have installed. But think about it. Looking at a tiny image on the pc is no fun when compared to your tv in your living room right?

thanks very much for that jtoolman!

The reason I just want to rip them to my HD is because, I'm Irish but I'm moving to campus at an English uni in a couple of weeks, and I want to have some entertainment.

Why not just watch the DVDs through my comp you might ask? Because I only own a few DVDs is the answer.

Whereas my best friend has a couple of hundred great ones! So if i rip a good few of them on, it should keep me going

Dont have time to rip and try now.

I'll do it first thing when i get home from work.

Thanks again

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. You are not allowed to rip your friend's DVDs to your computer for your own entertainment elsewhere. As per forum rules, no warez.
/ Moderator lordsmurf

[jtoolman2000]

Perfectly legit reasons. Sorry if I was getting too personal. I only asked for technical reasons. Unlike you young folk, I am an old man who works and basically stay at home screwing around with video most of my spare time.

One possible suggestion though it incvolves two programs, Nero recode and ANY DVD. ANYDVD running in the background will allow you to rip a CSS prtected DVD directly. So does DVD Decrypter and shrink but please hear me out. Since you are viewing on the PC screen you can try this. Load a dvd on your PC drive. Open Nero Recode and chooce the Convert to Nero Digital ( Proprietary MPG4 format simmilar to DVIX or XVID ), or something to that effect. It is the last choice in the opening splash screen. Click on Import DVD and locate the DVD you just loaded such as D:\Star Trek and it will automaticaly choose the movie only. On the lower right choose a custom final file size of around 1400 MB ( this will a good compromize between quality and space used ) file and press NEXT. It will ask here to save the finished movie. Press RUN. It will now process the movie to a file size close to the target you chose and you will have a pretty darn excellent copy of the original all in one single operation. No Ripping and then a separate convertion step. It all happens at once. On my P4 2400 machine it takes about 55 - 60 min.

You can get 3x the movies in the same space that way. Most DVDs will require 7+ gigs if you rip the entire disk or 3-6 gigs for a movie only rip.

Just a seggestion for you to save space, and maximize the movies you can store and still maintain good to very good quality.

Good luck at school. I wish it were me.

[Planxty]

Perfectly legit reasons. Sorry if I was getting too personal. I only asked for technical reasons. Unlike you young folk, I am an old man who works and basically stay at home screwing around with video most of my spare time.

One possible suggestion though it incvolves two programs, Nero recode and ANY DVD. ANYDVD running in the background will allow you to rip a CSS prtected DVD directly. So does DVD Decrypter and shrink but please hear me out. Since you are viewing on the PC screen you can try this. Load a dvd on your PC drive. Open Nero Recode and chooce the Convert to Nero Digital ( Proprietary MPG4 format simmilar to DVIX or XVID ), or something to that effect. It is the last choice in the opening splash screen. Click on Import DVD and locate the DVD you just loaded such as D:\Star Trek and it will automaticaly choose the movie only. On the lower right choose a custom final file size of around 1400 MB ( this will a good compromize between quality and space used ) file and press NEXT. It will ask here to save the finished movie. Press RUN. It will now process the movie to a file size close to the target you chose and you will have a pretty darn excellent copy of the original all in one single operation. No Ripping and then a separate convertion step. It all happens at once. On my P4 2400 machine it takes about 55 - 60 min.

You can get 3x the movies in the same space that way. Most DVDs will require 7+ gigs if you rip the entire disk or 3-6 gigs for a movie only rip.

Just a seggestion for you to save space, and maximize the movies you can store and still maintain good to very good quality.

Good luck at school. I wish it were me.

Hey jtoolman

Thanks for the best wishes. I'm movin over to england on my own so its a bit nerve wrecking. Hopefully it'll be good though.

I'll be doing Multimedia Communication & Electronic Music & a minor in Spanish.

What you described above (in great detail, which newbies love!) sounds perfect.

I definitely dont have space to waste so that space saving is extra perfect.

Only thing that doesnt suit me is that it costs like 100 quid!! I just cant afford that

What would u recommend as the best free alternative for what I wish to do?

[BobK]

Try DVDShrink. It's free. It may reduce the size as much as Recode, but it will cut it to (or close to) 50%. And you can try running it through Shrink twice and see if the quality is still good enough for you.