Basic Dvd question

[David25]

Hello everyone, it's been almost a year since my last post, where i found that many were willing to contribute their knowledge towards my hard drive problem.
So now have another and hopefully i'll get some contribution, if not it's fine.

So bought a new laptop, dual core 1.66 ghz, 1 gig ram, 100 gb. It also includes a dvd burner.
It's my first time having one so i was trying to learn how to use it. All i want is to make a copy of dvd's onto my hardrive so i can watch them on my computer. So i read some topics here and a couple of guides and i ended up downloading DVDFAB and FAIRUSE. DVDFAB didn't seem to do what i wanted it to do, all it did was just rip the dvd. Fairuse kindof converted the dvd to dvix but it wouldn't play the video, and it took around 3 hours to complete. Is this normal?

Anyways, i was hoping to get suggestions on which program will allow me to easily convert dvd's to high quality files so i can watch them on my computer.

[grossjamesh]

Try ripit4me.
This will get the dvd files on your HD.

[redwudz]

That's all DVD Fab Decrypter does is rip the video, removing copyright protection. I'm not sure what you mean by Fairuse wouldn't play the video. I use VLC or Zoom most of the time for playing videos.

But you can try AutoGK or avi.Net. They both can convert a DVD to Xvid or Divx. I use FairUse as it's easy and does a good job for converting DVDs to Xvids to play on my laptop during trips. Either way, you would have to rip your DVD if you need to remove encryption. You can also try RipIt4Me, as it has quite a few options that DVD Fab Decrypter doesn't.

[normcar]

The other question you have about the length of time to convert the DVD files to divx with your computer and (I assume because you have a laptop) you only have 1 harddrive. Conversion from 1 harddrive to another should decrease conversion time. You may be able to decrease the conversion time by purchasing an external harddrive, but that MAY not decrease the time because of the limitations of USB2 throughput, but it may be worth a try if you have one available. They are now very cheap (Staples has 200GB external on sale for $99.99).