Ripping DVDs to hard drive

Slinkie · 4 Oct 2009 at 23:33

hi folks, I have a media centre that I mainly use for recording freeview and watching Blu rays. I want to rip a few of my DVDs to a hard drive (mainly episodes like friends and family guy)

What software do I need, how best do I organise them using vista media centre etc and what codecs do I need?

Thanks all

Skeeter · 5 Oct 2009 at 00:00

My Movies is a good bet for Media Centre.

http://www.mymovies.dk/

Slinkie · 5 Oct 2009 at 06:16

Thanks!

What is the best software to rip the dvds to the HDD?

jbloggs · 5 Oct 2009 at 09:48

What is the best software to rip the dvds to the HDD?

DVD Decrypter - Doesn't always handle the latest DVDs...

DVDFab HD Decrypter

Jed Shields · 5 Oct 2009 at 10:53

jbloggs said:
DVD Decrypter - Doesn't always handle the latest DVDs...

DVDFab HD Decrypter

As above. I'd use DVD Decrypter first as it rips the episodes in one, rather than DVD Fab splitting into 1Gb chunks.

I rip each episode as a VOB file and label them as Friends S01E01, Friends S01E02 etc so that things like MyTVShows etc knows what they are. the S01 refers to Season 1, E01 Episode 1 etc.

Whn using DVD Decrypter select IFO mode so that you can choose the individual chapters.

When using DVD Fab you'll need to join the seperate vobs together - I'm using a freebie called JoinVobFiles that's really simple.

Here's a link to show you what the front end can look like:

http://www.projecthtpc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=551

Slinkie · 5 Oct 2009 at 11:07

Can these VOB files be played in Vista Media centre or does it deffinately need a plugin etc?

Jed Shields · 5 Oct 2009 at 11:18

Aha ... now that's a good question. From a quick internet search it seems like My Movies can handle vobs. However, I don't know how My Movies handle TV shows. I'm using MediaPortal, not VMC. MediaPortal has a plugin called MyTVSeries that sorts the TV shows, as shown in my previous link. I'm sure there's something similar for VMC, but I'm not familiar with it. Can anyone else out there help?

Slinkie · 5 Oct 2009 at 11:26

Hi,

I think I may need to rip them to .avi or .wmv or something like that. I did try media portal but didn't get on with it, Vista media centre now has a great integration with Powerdvd so I can play my blu rays and hd dvds in it. Plus I use it for TV recording which is also good. The only thing I don't like about VMC is the lack of skins and themes etc.

I tried windows 7 as you can configure the media centre but for some reason it kept crashing so I'm sticking with Vista since it is rock solid for me.

Jed Shields · 5 Oct 2009 at 11:28

Can you still play HD DVDs with PowerDVD? I've had major problems with my copy of 7.3. They finally gave me a copy of 9.0, but that hasn't got HD-DVD playback :/

Slinkie · 5 Oct 2009 at 11:39

I could play them with version 8 (the version you get free with the bd drive ) but have 9 installed now but didn't even check about HD-DVDs, I might have to go back to version 8 if that is the case although I don't know if that properly integrates with VMC!