Burning/Copying DVD movies

Not sure where to post this so sorry if its wrong. but my question is when i want to copy a dvd movie, i was thinking i could just use alcohol 120%, burn an image to my harddrive, then put in a blank dvd and burn the image to the dvd. would this work? i am new to dvds and burning them, specially with movies. any help would be appreciated thanks

 

Disclaimer: I am offering this advice under the assumption that you are using this to back up personal copies of disks which you already own. I do not endorse piracy in any way, shape or form.

Now, having said that, you could create ISO images of the disks with DVD Shrink (free, unlike Alcohol 120%) and burn them with any program that will burn an ISO to DVD-/+R. DVD Shrink will allow you to create images that will fit on standard 4.7GB DVD recordable media rather than the more expensive Dual Layer media.

 

I'd have to agree with that. DVD Shrink has not been supported for quite some time. As a result a lot of the newer copy protections foil it. Use DVDFab Decrypter to rip the movie, then run it through Shrink.

 

I use CloneDVD along with AnyDVD running in the background. Works great. Again..for backing up personal originals only.

 

i heard a program called dvd decrypter was the best. i dled that. so will that basically rip the dvd then burn it to another blank dvd for me?

 

this is the solution if you're making back ups of DVDs you already legally own...

DVD Shrink + DVD Decrypter. Both are freeware programs. You might have to look around a little to find them, but it's worth it.

DVD Shrink takes the DVD and makes it so that it will all fit onto a 4.7GB DVD disc, then DVD Decrypter burns it so that you can watch it in your DVD player.

This guide should help you get started.

 

Oops. You bring up a very good point that I completely forgot to mention ZaZ. You are totally right. DVD Shrink stopped development over a year ago and some really heavy duty protection has come out in the meantime. Thanks for the add.

 

To which you can use AnyDVD

 

Just to add to this thread, it seems that Circuit City is now offering a service to rip DVD movies for their customers... $10 to rip one DVD, $20 for three, and $30 to rip five DVD's...

guess they're going to test the laws!

Pretty interesting....

 

DVD Decrytper like DVD Shrink is no longer being supported. It was bought by Macrovision one of the copyright protection companies. I would try DVDFab first. It is free and works quite well. They released a new verison a few days ago. AnyDVD and CloneDVD cost money.

 

Not sure where you got the idea that DVD Shrink isn't being supported.

Go here...

http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html

and it certainly seems you can still download DVD Shrink.

I use it and it works great!

 

I think what he means is that although it is still available there has been no active development on DVD Shrink since about 2004, so it hasn't kept up with the latest copy protection schemes.

 

Newer copy protections like Sony's Arccos will not work with Shrink.

 

I actually use Apollo DVD. It has free updates for life after purchasing and has a free 10 try trial to see if it is for you. It works great for me. Very simple and strait to the point. If you live overseas like me it works great for striping the regional coding off of the DVD so you can play them in any player. A litte bit of money to get the full version but well worth it.

 

"support" and "availability" are two different things. example: i can still go buy a ps/2 mouse or keyboard, but no new notebooks come with ps/2 ports.

 

I stand corrected.

However, I've used DVDShrink for months now, and haven't encountered a problem with any DVD.

I also installed dvd43, which unencrypts dvd's. Not sure if DVD43 is why I haven't had any issues using DVDShrink, but I haven't.

Here's the discription of dvd43:

DVD43 is a free decrypter. This site will help you find DVD43 so you don't have to pay money for a decrypter. At the bottom of this page you will find links to several sites which host DVD43, a list of software that works well with DVD43 and a list of DVD copy review sites in case you are looking for a DVD copy program. DVD43.com does not host DVD43 and is not affiliated with the authors of DVD43.

WHAT DOES IT DO?: DVD43 decrypts DVD movies. DVD43 only works on Win2K and WinXP. If you have Win98 or WinME, use DVD Decrypter (use 'Mode' 'File') which allows you to rip all the files of a DVD to your hard drive and then copy with your favorite copy software.

HOW TO INSTALL: Run the setup file which installs DVD43 and leaves a happy face icon on your task bar. DVD43 will run in the background and decrypt movies on the fly.
HOW TO USE DVD43: Insert the DVD you want to copy and wait for DVD43 to detect it (smiley face turns green). Start your DVD copy software and copy your movie.

 

Bump and a new question.

Can I rip the video files minus the menus and previews and other junk (I just want the movie) and then convert it into an .iso without burning it to a disk? I have a harddrive library set up and use a virtual dvd drive to play them.

Yes, I own the movies, but don't want to take the discs to college and don't want to fill up my harddrive with worthless previews and extra features.

 

First, a .iso file is an exact digital copy of a DVD, which can be stored on your hard drive, and used to create an exact duplicate of the original DVD.

So... asking if you can create a .iso without the menus and previews is (I believe, I may be mistaken) a contradiction....

dvdshrink will decode your dvd movies, delete menus and previews and create a file with ONLY the movie on it. This is great for storing on your hard drive... the movies come in at around 600 - 900 MB, or thereabouts... way down from most DVD's, which are usually over 4 GB.

I believe you can download and demo dvdShrink....

 

If you want to just store them on your harddrive for watching purposes, it might be better to convert them to AVI (XviD) to save on HDD space. You can get close to DVD quality if you encode your AVI properly.

If you want to create a backup set of your DVDs (with just the movie and not the movie) and if your original DVDs are dual layer, a very good option is to re-encode your video (instead of using DVD Shrink which just TRANSCODES your video). You will ultimately get considerably better video quality if your copy. While recoding may not be necessary if the compression in DVDShrink is around 80-90%, if it is any less, a recode will almost always produce better results. I personally use DVD Rebulider Pro (free version also available), and it has produced obviously better quality copies than DVDShrink even on minimal size reductions.

 

Yea, I know the .iso is an exact copy, but can I rip the .vob files and then change them to .iso format? I want to keep these on the hard drive because its more convenient if I'm going to a friends house or something to carry 50 movies on a HD rather than 50 DVDs. I've tried the DVD DL backups, but I had write errors like crazy and essentially threw away those discs...they cost 2$ a piece so I wasn't happy w/ that.

@ramian:

how would I "encode [my] AVI properly". And is XviD the program that does it? Its free? I think I have it with my k-lite codec pack...but I'm not sure. What is Transcoding in comparison to encoding? And, as for the quality, if I encode, I won't notice the difference if I'm just watching it on a laptop? How much does the quality fluctuate?

Thx.

 

Encoding your AVI properly means choosing the correct bit rate for the movie length and setting up the multiple encode passes correctly.

XviD is a codec which allows encoding/decoding of video files in the AVI container. You can also use DivX, but I personally use XviD due to it being completely free (for encoding and decoding). If you did the default install from the full version of K-Lite Codec Pack, it should be sufficient for your encoding needs.

Transcoding in short, results in the loss of data (similar to what happens when you rip a CD to MP3). Re-encoding the video generally provides better better quality. If you're not compressing more than 80%, you may not notice much of an improvement with DVD Rebulider, but in cases when you need to compress at greater ratios, then re-encoding the video will provide better results.
Interesting things to read:
Blind Test - DVD-RB vs other one clicks
DVD Rebulider page at VideoHelp.com

Anyway, transcoding/re-encoding is only necessary when you want to backup your DVD from a dual-layer source to standard single-layer DVDRs. If you're just watching it one your laptop, then ripping the DVD to an avi would be more than enough. Programs which you can use to achieve that are
AutoGordianKnot
Avi.NET
FairUseWizard

If you want to find out more about video conversions, I suggest you should visit VideoHelp. You should have all your questions and more answered with much greater detail than what I've provided here.

cheers!

 

thanks! for even more than the 10 characters i have to enter.