How can I backup my DVDs for quick & easy access?

[jimbo45]

one program that is good for decrypting is any dvd by slysoft

SlySoft Products | Copy Movie DVDs with AnyDVD and CloneDVD
it is a pay program but they do offer a 21 day free trial
it does keep up with current copy protection and can also make a iso of a dvd or
do them in a folder like dvd shrink only thing is any dvd does not do the compression that dvd shrink does

Hi there
Why would you use this when Alcohol 52 is FREE.

Nothing wrong per se with Slysoft but surely a decent FREE program is better.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[JohnnyScience]

one program that is good for decrypting is any dvd by slysoft

SlySoft Products | Copy Movie DVDs with AnyDVD and CloneDVD
it is a pay program but they do offer a 21 day free trial
it does keep up with current copy protection and can also make a iso of a dvd or
do them in a folder like dvd shrink only thing is any dvd does not do the compression that dvd shrink does

Well I got this error when trying to use this program:

Its weird, the dvd looks perfect when you look at it too. I guess I'm SOL at this point.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Ok Magic Ripper worked, kind of.

It at least prompted me to skip the bad sectors & continue to burn.

Now I just have to see if I got enough of the dvd & if it will even play.

Do I need to do anything else to this rip or is it all set now?

You should be all set as long as the whole movie is there, I've never had it ask me skip the bad sectors so make sure the entire movie is there. There may be something wrong with that dvd, that's why you were having problems before.

Why do I have an actual .avi file instead of a bunch of .vob files like when I ripped with DVDshrink?

Is there a way to turn all of the dvds I ripped with dvdshrink that have the .vob extention into a single .avi file?

Would I be better off using Magic Ripper & getting an easy .avi file to click on? (which to me seems easier, but will it play in Media Center?)

Is that a smaller file over all than what DVdshrink would give me?

 

[JohnnyScience]

What file do I click on to make sure that dvdshrink copied the entire dvd properly and I'm good to go?

So even with DVDshrink I need to locate the movie poster online?

Why doesnt it pull all of the posters/images that are on the dvd itself?

Why don't you reecode the files to matroska and x264/aac? The films will be tiny - 300mb+.

How much quality will I really lose? Especially for specialty HD DVD's?

What program would I use to reencode to make smaller?

 

[JohnnyScience]

Any ideas?

 

[lantonel]

Ok, I'm totally new on this, and don't know any of the technical stuff....at all! I just want to copy my DVDs onto my computer so that I can watch them at a later time in Media Center. I am running windows 7. I don't want to spend alot (if any) of money, and definately need step by step help.

Can anyone please help me? I've tried alot of the recommended programs on here, but I know so little, I'm not having any luck. I've been working at it for 2 days on this, and am VERY frustrated.

Can someone PLEASE help me?

Thanks in advance!

Lisa

 

[Gildor]

We need more information. What, exactly have you done and what is happening (or not happening, as the case may be).

You also might want to consider starting your own thread, as video manipulation can get somewhat involved.

 

[derekimo]

Ok, I'm totally new on this, and don't know any of the technical stuff....at all! I just want to copy my DVDs onto my computer so that I can watch them at a later time in Media Center. I am running windows 7. I don't want to spend alot (if any) of money, and definately need step by step help.

Can anyone please help me? I've tried alot of the recommended programs on here, but I know so little, I'm not having any luck. I've been working at it for 2 days on this, and am VERY frustrated.

Can someone PLEASE help me?

Thanks in advance!

Lisa

Welcome Lisa,
You said you've been working on this for two days, What have you tried?
Since this thread is already pretty long, You would get more immediate help if you start your own Here Media Center - Windows 7 Forums There's alot of help here.
Derek

 

[Wishmaster]

Rather than get into all the technicals of decrypting and re-coding/ re-muxing if you do not wish to learn right now,

why not give this a try:
MakeMKV - Make MKV from Blu-ray and DVD


It will take make a single MKV file, from your discs of the main movie, complete with subs, but will be the same size and qaulity as the original source was.
The good thing is:
its one step.
its Lossless
no recode/encoding necc.
fairly quick (depending on your DVD/BD drive speed)

The downside is it will start taking alot more HD space, than a compressed movie will.
especially if your decrypting Blurays which can be upwards of 25-40Gb per film.
4.3-7.5GB for DVDs

If you want to compress them to save space, youll need to to learn some encoding, such as with MeGUI.

You will also need the proper splitters to watch a MKV file. Such as in Shark007s codec pack .. Haali Splitter.

 

[Arc]

Ok, I'm totally new on this, and don't know any of the technical stuff....at all! I just want to copy my DVDs onto my computer so that I can watch them at a later time in Media Center. I am running windows 7. I don't want to spend alot (if any) of money, and definately need step by step help.

Can anyone please help me? I've tried alot of the recommended programs on here, but I know so little, I'm not having any luck. I've been working at it for 2 days on this, and am VERY frustrated.

Can someone PLEASE help me?

Thanks in advance!

Lisa

Read the page 2 and page 3 of this thread , I told Johney about handbrake (though he was reluctant to use it). HandBrake is a very good program to rip dvds into avi or mkv with almost minimum quality loss, comes free to use.

It will reduce your hdd cost as well, coz a dvdrip is much smaller than a dvd. There is a guideline to arrange media center movie library (in page 2 and 3), too. Try it, if still it is a problem, just inform, "step by step help" will be provided.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Rather than get into all the technicals of decrypting and re-coding/ re-muxing if you do not wish to learn right now,

why not give this a try:
MakeMKV - Make MKV from Blu-ray and DVD


It will take make a single MKV file, from your discs of the main movie, complete with subs, but will be the same size and qaulity as the original source was.
The good thing is:
its one step.
its Lossless
no recode/encoding necc.
fairly quick (depending on your DVD/BD drive speed)

The downside is it will start taking alot more HD space, than a compressed movie will.
especially if your decrypting Blurays which can be upwards of 25-40Gb per film.
4.3-7.5GB for DVDs

If you want to compress them to save space, youll need to to learn some encoding, such as with MeGUI.

You will also need the proper splitters to watch a MKV file. Such as in Shark007s codec pack .. Haali Splitter.

Honestly DVD Shrink is all in one step & pretty easy.

But I'm wondering how much quality loss happens when doing the suggested method that Frostmourne mentioned about reecode the files to matroska and x264/aac? The films will be tiny - 300mb+.

Obviously saving space would be nice along with getting a single file, but at what kind of quality loss?

 

[Wishmaster]

Any time recode a video theres ALWAYS quality loss. No way around it.
x264 is by far the best compression codec.

If you want to compress them, How much quality loss depends on bitrate/settings/file size.
x264 compresses by basically throwing away bits of information the human eye generally can not detect.
Therefore, if set properly, & high enough bit rates the quality loss will seem transparent.
Too low of settings, and this becomes apparent as you will see it..

MKV with AAC/AC3 or MP4 with AAC are both good choices.

If you are taking a DVD movie @ say 1hr45min, & keeping the 720x480 resolution,
300MB will be too small, and will show artifacting.
Will take some experimenting to find where it looks and sounds good to you.

For example, a 1hr45min film :
@ 1500 video bitrate and AAC stereo 192bitrate (around 1.2GB)
@ 1750 video bitrate and AAC 5.1 384bitrate (around 1.5GB)
VS 4-7GB original

Again this all depends greatly on a few factors.
Orginal Source
(some DVD/Bluray compress better than others,,depending how compressed it already is. Results will vary)
what the target resolution is
stereo or surround sound
Target Size


I recommend MeGUI. Also based on the x264 codec.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Any time recode a video theres ALWAYS quality loss. No way around it.
x264 is by far the best compression codec.

If you want to compress them, How much quality loss depends on bitrate/settings/file size.
x264 compresses by basically throwing away bits of information the human eye generally can not detect.
Therefore, if set properly, & high enough bit rates the quality loss will seem transparent.
Too low of settings, and this becomes apparent as you will see it..

MKV with AAC/AC3 or MP4 with AAC are both good choices.

If you are taking a DVD movie @ say 1hr45min, & keeping the 720x480 resolution,
300MB will be too small, and will show artifacting.
Will take some experimenting to find where it looks and sounds good to you.

For example, a 1hr45min film :
@ 1500 video bitrate and AAC stereo 192bitrate (around 1.2GB)
@ 1750 video bitrate and AAC 5.1 384bitrate (around 1.5GB)
VS 4-7GB original

Again this all depends greatly on a few factors.
Orginal Source
(some DVD/Bluray compress better than others,,depending how compressed it already is. Results will vary)
what the target resolution is
stereo or surround sound
Target Size


I recommend MeGUI. Also based on the x264 codec.

Ehh I'll think about trying it, it sounds like a little project just to figure out how to do it with all the tweaking etc. I've got the room, I'll just keep ripping them like normal for now.

But would I be better off using Magic Ripper & getting an easy single .avi file to click on? (which to me seems easier than a bunch of .vob files, but will it play in Media Center?)

Is that a smaller file over all than what DVdshrink would give me?

I just dont understand why DvdShrink isnt pulling the pictures/posters etc?

 

[Wishmaster]

That will work sure.

But if its using the Xvid codec, it will be, ... blurred so to speak or softer VS the x264 codec, which some actually prefer.
But in the end, if you like the results, then thats all that matters.


Any "one-click" software that just does everything for you will not be as good as a good encoder can do.regardless what codec you choose.
They just require some manualy configuring.

If you want to try MeGUI Id be happy to give you a quick tutorial to get you started for DVD encoding

Completely up to you.

Either way, you may need something like Sharks codec package, and enable ffdshow codec in direct show players.
Youll get better encode results regardless which program you choose.

 

[JohnnyScience]

That will work sure.

But if its using the Xvid codec, it will be, ... blurred so to speak or softer VS the x264 codec, which some actually prefer.
But in the end, if you like the results, then thats all that matters.


Any "one-click" software that just does everything for you will not be as good as a good encoder can do.regardless what codec you choose.
They just require some manualy configuring.

If you want to try MeGUI Id be happy to give you a quick tutorial to get you started for DVD encoding

Completely up to you.

Either way, you may need something like Sharks codec package, and enable ffdshow codec in direct show players.
Youll get better encode results regardless which program you choose.

So how do I tell if DVDShrink is using the Xvid codec and is going to give me blurring?

But would I be better off using Magic Ripper & getting an easy single .avi file to click on? (which to me seems easier than a bunch of .vob files, but will it play in Media Center?)

Is that a smaller file over all than what DVdshrink would give me?

I just dont understand why DvdShrink isnt pulling the pictures/posters etc?

 

[Pikey]

I just dont understand why DvdShrink isnt pulling the pictures/posters etc?

That's not part of it's functionality , never has been!

I think your worrying too much about nothing in particular .. you copy your DVD to your hard drive with DVDShrink .. you store away the master DVD for safe keeping!

It doesn't get much easier than that ...

 

[JohnnyScience]

I just dont understand why DvdShrink isnt pulling the pictures/posters etc?

That's not part of it's functionality , never has been!

I think your worrying too much about nothing in particular .. you copy your DVD to your hard drive with DVDShrink .. you store away the master DVD for safe keeping!

It doesn't get much easier than that ...

Yeah but I'd like it to pull the artwork so it shows up in Media center instead of a big green poster or something.

Will Handbrake pull the artwork?

 

[derekimo]

That's not part of it's functionality , never has been!

I think your worrying too much about nothing in particular .. you copy your DVD to your hard drive with DVDShrink .. you store away the master DVD for safe keeping!

It doesn't get much easier than that ...

Yeah but I'd like it to pull the artwork so it shows up in Media center instead of a big green poster or something.

Will Handbrake pull the artwork?

I think you want something like this mikinhosoft: Yammm - Yet Another Media Meta Manager This isn't the updated version but it still works.
Here is a good tutorial to help you get it up and running,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11232-media-center-setup-movie-library.html
This is what I use, every time I add a movie to my collection, YAMMM automatically adds the artwork and metadata. Don't forget to add the file2folder.bat in with your movies folder and use the recommended YAMMM settings in the tutorial and your library can look like this.

 

[Wishmaster]

Along with what derekimo has suggested theres a few others that good as well for managing your library in WMC.

myMovies is a automated one (not particularly fond of this one personally)

theres also MetaBrowser which will fetch all the artwork, actors etc and can be used alongside MediaBrowser.

Lots of info on all of these in the Media Center Setion of these forums.

Although all a bit different, they do the exact same thing, depending on which one suits your needs/preferences the best.

 

[Arc]

Yeah but I'd like it to pull the artwork so it shows up in Media center instead of a big green poster or something.

Will Handbrake pull the artwork?

No copying/encoding software can pull the movie artwork. Either you have to install a media manager in your media center (as wishmaster suggested), or you may download them manually (what I do).

I obtain the movie posters from google search, and place them in a folder where the movie is located, rename the poster as Folder.jpg, and thats all.