How do I store dvds on my harddrive?

[catmandu57]

I've got a stack sitting here that I'd like to store on my drive instead of getting them out and loading everytime, I know how to put cds on, but I'd like to put dvds on as well.

[democracyindanger]

1. Not an easy thing to do.

There are some commercial programs that supposedly let you do it, but I think the studios have cracked down on all of them. Check here: http://www.videohelp.com

And be aware that converting your DVDs into mpeg/quicktime/whatever files and putting it on your hard drive is going to eat up a ton of space. Waaaay more trouble than it's worth, IMO.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Studios have cracked down ...

It is still incredibly easy to do with the right tools. The key here is, if you can read a DVD, you can archive it.

I could give a step-by-step guide for a Linux system, but I won't bore anyone unless someone specifically wants it.

Windoze can be a tad more difficult, but not much. The link you offered has better instructions than I could give since I've never actually done it myself on a Windoze machine. But I have seen it done.

As for whether it is worth it, it depends. I copy most DVD's I buy onto my hard drive using the DivX codec to try to maintain as much quality as I can. I then shrink them to CD sized (~700MB) for anything up to about 1.5 hours or two CDs for anything over that. Yeah, it takes up quite a bit of space, but I have a 320GB drive dedicated to this purpose. My computer has a better sound system than my television, and the organization is much more efficient. When I want to watch a movie, I just open up a small menu system I created, decide what movie I want to watch, and direct the output to the video-out going to my television. I don't have to mess with finding the DVD and swapping them out of the player. I just click, sit back, and watch, and I'm not degrading the original disc by handling it nor risking having it break accidentally.

To each his own, though. I might get bored with doing it eventually, but I sorta have my own theater with the setup I have now, and I like it.

[democracyindanger]

3. YMMV, that's for sure

It's certainly an interesting project, and the setup you have sounds cool. But I liken it to the time when my friend built a 'keggerator.' He bought an old fridge and spent a weekend drilling holes and running lines to transform it into a beer keg cooler complete with tap and CO2. Me, I'm perfectly happy buying bottles at the cornershop, but I respect the effort. ;)

[RoyGBiv]

4. I want one ...

Thank you. I now have a project for my next vacation. :-)

Seriously, though, on a related subject, the one reason I still use Windoze is that it is just easier to play games using it. To some people, getting Quake 4 working on Linux is part of the fun. To me, I just paid $50 for this sucker and had to buy a new graphics card, and I don't want to mess with it just to get it to work.

If you're not a habitual archiver (read - packrat) and videophile like me, ripping a DVD to your hard drive is a bit pointless. (Well, if you're a pirate, I suppose there's a purpose, but I'm not, and I don't recommend it.) It's not like ripping a CD so you can make a mix CD for your car. Besides specific setups like mine, the only real reason to do it is to preserve the original. I have a couple hard-to-find movies I finally found on DVD, and I immediately ripped them and burned a full DVD copy as a backup.

[hobbit709]

5. If you got the hard drive space

I use DVD Decrypter to rip them to my drive. It lets your DVD player on the computer play them on the hard drive just like they would as a DVD. And its freeware