Copy 250 DVDs to hard drive

[transporterfan]

Yep. Good idea. But remember that DVDShrink is a very old program. It may not work for newer discs.
When you get time check out VOB2MPG as has been suggested.
There is no conversion. The quality remains the same and the back up process takes only minutes.
You end up with a file that is still compatible with Media Player.

[usually_quiet]

Thanks for all the information.

I have now copied 7 DVDs (seems to take a while). There were 2 that AnyDVD would not copy the whole film - there seemed to be sections missing, but I think that there may be a problem with those disks.

The reason I am using Windows Movie Maker (apart from it being very simple to use) is that it make fims that can be played on Windows Media Player. I honestly don't know what other types of films you can watch on WMP, but WMV file will always work. All laptops (windows) come with free WMP, so this is why I'm using it.

I hoped it would be simpler. eg. That I could just buy a programme that would take off the protection, copy it to my hard drive as a WMV file - with the the files ready to use. But, after spending ages on Goggle and this forum I still can't find anything that will do this. So I am still using AnyDVD to rip the file, DVDShrink to get just the film, WMM to join the files together into a film that can be watch on WMP

It is up to you, but you will be putting a lot of work into converting your DVDs, so you should think carefully about using WMV for this.

WMV video isn't well supported except on Windows PCs. It would be a shame to have converted all your DVDs to video files and then find another device that you want to use to watch them (like a TV with a built-in media player) won't play them. MPEG-2 and H.264 video will play on more devices, as well as Windows Media Player.

Also, Microsoft has already decided that you won't be able to continue using Windows Media Player for playing video on a new PC you buy in the future. Microsoft removed video playback functionality from Windows 8's version of Media Player, making it just a music player. There is a Windows 8 Video app which will play video files, but not DVDs. Also, the Video app only runs at full screen and it isn't as nice as Windows Media Player, plus it is geared mainly towards playing streaming video from the XBox store.

Windows Media Player's abilty to play video files (but not DVDs) can be restored in Windows 8 by upgrading to Windows 8 Pro and buying Windows Media Center. ...but if someone buys Windows Media Center which can play DVDs as well as video files, they will probably use that instead. However in my opinion, Windows 8 users who don't need Windows 8 Pro or Windows Media Center for other reasons are better off finding another video player to replace Windows Media Player. The good news is that are a number of good free video players available. Media Player Classic BE, VLC and Pot Player (already mentioned earlier) are very popular alternatives to Windows Media Player.

[Hoser Rob]

Please, please do not use windows media player. Or any other Microsoft media product. I'm not doctrinarily anti microsoft like a lot of people who use linux. Their media software is just terrible.

For example, wmp will not play .flac audio files without you installing a 3rd party codec pack. Which microsoft specifically advises you not do, with good reason.

Try the above suggested programs for ripping and encoding. For playback I prefer smplayer followed by vlc. They'll play almost anything. DVDfab HD decrypter (the free part) is actually better than dvd shrink at removing copy protection. Dvdshrink hasn't been updated for years. But it's better at compressing to dvd-5 spec.

If you want to shrink the file, not just rip the disc, it's going to take longer. The only way to significantly speed up the encoding process is to buy a new computer.

If you want to not take the time encoding you'll just need a lot more disc space. But that way you won't lose quality either. I'd probably use makemkv for that.

[Steve(MS)]

+ for makemkv and just play the file.
Or use dvdfab, movie only and make sure whichever player you use can deal with dvd folders.
Or use anydvd, running in the background and use a app to copy only the movie part.

Then get a huge hard drive, say a 2tb or bigger to hold all of it.

I stopped doing all that re-encoding a good while back, only now do that for special needs.

[karenlorr]

Thanks for all the advice.

I didn't know Microsoft were taking media player out of their new laptops. That just seems stupid. I use my laptop to play videos all the time and now they are going to make you pay for it. Bit of a scam I think.

Update. What I am doing at the moment is to use AnyDVDripper to put all myDVDs onto an external hard drive - 1st I have to put them onto my laptop and then drag and drop them in explorer, can't work out why, but this is not a big problem.

I will read all the things in this forum and then decide what to do with the files later. I have tried Video to Video to make an MP4 and it seems to work fine. So I'll experiment with lots of different formats.

Thanks again for all the tips and help

[Clockwork]

Yep. Good idea. But remember that DVDShrink is a very old program. It may not work for newer discs.

As long as encryption is bypassed, DVDShrink is still a good, basic follow-up tool.

[usually_quiet]

Thanks for all the advice.

I didn't know Microsoft were taking media player out of their new laptops. That just seems stupid. I use my laptop to play videos all the time and now they are going to make you pay for it. Bit of a scam I think.

I forgot something. Microsoft doesn't have a choice in this matter in the EU. A £331 million fine was levied against Microsoft by the EU a few years ago for bundling Windows Media Player with Windows, which is considered anti-competitive. Part of the settlement required Microsoft to offer a version of Windows without Media Player in the EU, so manufacturers can choose to use the version without Media Player.

Elsewhere in the world... Microsoft has to pay for the technology licenses required to play DVDs and those costs are passed on to customers. They decided that since a fair number of Windows 8 users can't use optical media to watch movies on their laptop or tablet, and other customers want to use a different software player to play DVDs, they should not be forced to pay extra for the DVD playback licenses.