Ripping DVDs

Yeah, the blanks hold less than the production ones for some reason.

 

If you do it right, follow the guide, VLC will rip it in about half the time it takes to watch it. That happens when you turn the option to view it off.


If you are just wanting to copy dvds from one to a blank, there are faster ways. For that, use imgburn. http://www.imgburn.com/ Use this free program to make an image of the DVD (.iso) file. Then put a blank in and use imgburn to burn the .iso file to the blank. (Of course the standard disclaimer come into play here, this is only legal if you own the original disk.) This way you get all the menus and extra features and not just the movie like you do when you use a ripper. I prefer ripping because I like to leave all my DVDs at home, and keep my movies on my hard drive. I have enough #### on my truck as it is.



Another tip:
After you rip with VLC, or any other ripper for that matter, you're left with a huge mpg file. You can use yet another free program, DrDivx, http://labs.divx.com/DrDivXDownload to slim them down. DrDivx does require you to have the Divx codec installed. You can get that here: http://www.divx.com Use DrDivx to slim that file down to 700 megabytes, and put it in an AVI format. With that 700 megabyte file you can burn it to one standard CD, or put six movies on one blank DVD. The big advantage to doing this is, if you head down to Best Buy or Walmart, go to the TV section, you'll notice some of the DVD players being sold this day have the Divx logo on them. They really don't cost that much more than the ones that don't. They will play the CDs and DVDs made with DrDivx on your tv, with no need to drag out your computer. Simply put the disk in and hit play. If you put a DVD with 6 Divx movies on it, hit "next track" on the remote and the next movie starts up. It's really cool.

 

You have to buy the DUAL-LAYER DVDs, they hold about 7.5 GB.

 

No.."Standard Legal Disclaimer": They all consider copying the DVD to be theft (even if you own the Original DVD) and they way they got around the "Fair Use" laws is, the FEDS made it ILLEGAL to circumvent the COPY PROTECTION.

 

Yeah, the RIAA, MPAA, etc., all got together and bought all the existing laws. They own the music, the artists, the retailers, and you. Do whatever you want, just don't get caught.

 

That's why I make copies...of stolen copies

 

I normally shrink mine down with DrDivx and put 6 on a DVD. 60 movies on a ten pack box of dvds occupies a lot less space than 60 dvd cases do. I was just throwing the way to copy them outright out there, in case anyone is interested.

I had to take a job that sends me across the Canadian border on occasion, I had to stash most of my movies at home. A lot of my movies are ripped from VHS tapes, I bought a cheap capture device to get that done. But, if the Canadian customs find just about anything labeled with a Sharpie pen, word is they will take all your gear and/or fine you. As I write this, I have a ten pack of DVDs loaded with movies in my laptop bag, all copies of DVDs I have at home, if they send me across, I'll just stash them at the terminal in Detroit, or if nothing else, toss them in the garbage. It's not worth the $8 to replace ten blanks.

 

I have 2.5 Tb of movies on 3 external Hdd, I use XBMC as the front end and can watch the movies on either the TV in the Family room or on any computer in the house. I use DVDshrink as my primary tool and with XBMC you do not need to do anything but put the dvdshrink output into its own folder. If you put a JPG image of the dvd cover named "folder" in the folder also it will display the dvd cover. It is all free and pretty user-friendly. I have another utility that I bought, but am not by that computer and can't remember what it is called, it works out the encryption issues in 99% of all the movies I copied.

"Fair Use" allows you to make one "Archive" copy of intellectual properties. You just can't copy the movie and then sell it or return it to netflix afterward legally.

 

It seems to me I found another way. I keep all movies on external (1 TB) hard drive. I bought player that can play from USB Flash Drive. And when I need to play something I making copy to flash drive (4 GB) and play it on that player

 

Western Digital makes an interface that allows you to rip movies, music or pictures onto an external USB hard drive and then plugs into the RCA inputs on your tv and you have access via remote control to all the data on the drive (max of 2 at a time). It works well and I have used it for the kids in the car on trips and it is a simple interface that works as advertised. It is not a highly optioned media server but does a good job at getting the media to the screen.