Copying a Real DVD to HD: How?

[WinstonSmith6079]

I bought a copy of A Bridge Too Far on DVD (from a Virgin Superstore for the low price of $14.95US+Sales Tax and it was the last copy--a real bargain! hehehehe).

I wanna dump the whole thing to my HD: all menus; all languages, spoken and texted; (especially) all "partial" subtitles; etc.--EVERYTHING!

I'm not picky about the file(s)-format, but I would need it in a format that can be (later) exactly copied to DVDs and playable on DVD players. Smaller file-size would be nice but is not the highest priority. Audio & video quality reproduction is.

So how is this done? ???

[kluelos]

Taking you at your precise word, this is disgustingly simple.

Install AnyDVD or something like it, just so region encoding and copy protection doesn't get in your way.

Now open Windows Explorer and copy the contents of the disk from the DVD drive to a folder on your hard disk. That's it.

When you want to make a copy, tell your burner that you want to make a DATA dvd, like you'd make a backup of your unfinished novel's MSWord files. Then add the contents of that folder to it, and burn away.

This leaves out the part that actually watching the files from your HD is another step, but you've got the DVD to watch anyway.

[WinstonSmith6079]

This leaves out the part that actually watching the files from your HD is another step, but you've got the DVD to watch anyway.

Oops! I forgot that I would also like to be able to watch it from the HD with like PowerDVD. I think I'm gonna seed this before giving it a test burn.

And as far as the burning, will blank CD-R/Ws do? Or must I have blank DVD-R/Ws? And if so, any particular kind (for example, the movie itself is longer than 2hrs., if that matters)?

[The UnUsual Suspect]

You will find your commercial dvd is about 8gb in size, and a standard dvdr disc is 4.38gb.

You can buy double layer dvdr discs, but they are expensive, and don't work in all dvd players.

and easy (and free) solution is DVD Shrink. It will rip a dvd disc, and compress it to fit a dvdr.

I have yet to hear of anyone that can see the quality loss in compression.

You also have the option of removing unwanted audio tracks, special features, languages, subtitles etc... (so that it requires less compression)

Some discs that can't be ripped you might need DVD decrypter (used to be free, but is available in torrents)

DVD shrink will also let you save the disc as an .iso, then you can "mount" it in a virtual drive with Alcohol or deamon tools, so you can watch it from your hard drive.

Suspect

There are many "one step" programs to do this too, but I find Decrypter and Shrink to be the best.

[kluelos]

The question I have about DVDShrink is whether it will faithfully reproduce the disk intact when you want to make duplicates, and I don't think it will. Not sure, but don't think so. You said you wanted everything from the original

You don't have a choice about the size of disk when you're doing this, so you must use dual-layer if that's what the original was. Yes, you can rip it down and compress it and fit it on a single layer or a VCD, but that's not what you said you wanted to do. Check the size of the data from Windows Explorer. If the total content is 4.7 GB or less, a regular DVD will do. If it's over that, even a little, it will have to be dual-layer.

As for format, I wouldn't waste the extra $ on R/W, because why would you need to rewrite the copy? I'd suggest DVD-R for best compatibility. (Some players just don't like +R's).

[Dark_Shroud]

AnyDVD is the best route and it tells you if the disk is duel layer or not and it tells you the exact size. Boot up AnyDVD and use it's basic ripping tool or use your choice of program to copy it into an iso. Most programs work for 1:1 copies.

If you want to transcode then use:

DVD Shrink - I don't recommend as it's transcodeing is old.

Nero Recode - An ok program. It's an updated version of DVD Shrink since Nero hired the guy to write for them. Just remember to use two passes to keep the quality decent.

CloneDVD2 -Very easy to use with an transcodeing engine that is updated every few months.

Do not transcode anything lower than 80%, you can go as low as 75% but it will start to look like a VHS. And if you have a larger screen TV you will really notice the difference.

[kluelos]

As for watching the HD content, what you'll have is the normal DVD disk structure on your hard disk. You'll have a VIDEO_TS folder, and in it several IFO , BUP and VOB files with unhelpful names.

You can use VLC to watch the VOB files, though you'll have to figure out which one(s) are the actual movie. If the movie spans more than one file, you'll have to manually open the others, it won't do this automatically like a DVD player would.