I have spent over five hours searching this forum for detailed instructions on how to copy movies to a hard drive and then watching on a pc. I am far from being a video expert but can get around pc's pretty well so if the instuctions are complete i will get it done. I just am not familiar at all with video file formats, names, etc. i apologize if it is in the forum already and i can't find it. please direct me there if it is and thank you for that. I am leaving on vacation and am hoping i can copy a dozen or so movies for the kids onto a usb harddrive and not have to carry the dvds. Can this be done? For instance, when copying to a hard drive what format do you use? When i ripped to the harddrive i was left with a bunch of files in the folder i designated but was not able to open and watch. do you have to copy then put into an iso format? tried that too but still can't open to watch. I have programs dvd decrypter, dvdxcopy platinum, folder2iso, nero, windvd 7 to watch. Or anything else i can download i guess if i need something else or specific. using a dell e1505 dual core with winxp and 2gb ram. THANK YOU FOR ANY DIRECTIONS!!!
To get the files on your hard drive you could use DVDDecrypter in IFO mode and rip the movie in one file. Then just open that with your media player. You might be able to fit one or two avi movies in XviD format onto a flash drive but certainly not a dozen. BTW flash drives don't have hard drives, they use flash memory
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I am planning to use an 80gb notebook harddrive in a usb enclosure, not a thumb drive. Is avi or Xvid the format i should rip it to in order to open with windvd or other player? that is really the key question i have - what is the format i should rip the dvd to, and will i end up with one file per movie or one folder with multiple files per movie? adn if multiple files per movie, then how does one play it (which file to you select to play?)? thank you!!
With an 80 gig drive you could put a dozen movies without compressing. Go to the folder that has all of the files that you talked about earlier and find the group of four or more .vob files that are .99 gig each. Then you should be able to just double click on the first one and your player will play them all in sequence. If you have more time you can use one of these programs to convert and compress. That will leave you with one easily identifiable file for each movie.
Ok I used dvd decrypter in ifo mode and it created a folder with several files in it'; one .txt, one .ifo, and five .vob files. I selected the ifo file and it started to play, however it jumps between the movie and the "extra" stuff on the dvd (nemo). how do it do it so it copies ONLY the movie and then plays the movie start to finish in order. Also, the audio track jumped around also, but was not in synch with the video except during the actual movie. In other words, when the movie plays it seemed fine, but when it skipped to other pieces of video the audio did not match. I have no idea what i am doing wrong or how to select just the movie. ANy help is appreciated. thanks.
thank you. i'll try that next and see what happens. will that eliminate the "extra" stuff that is on the dvd but not part of the actual movie? like the behind the scenes stuff about the making of the movie etc.?
Clicking on the first VOB will only play that VOB for me with no chapters, subs etc. Clicking on the VIDEO_TS.IFO is the correct way to play the whole movie. I would assume your problem stemmed from the movie you chose, Disney movies are tough. If in fact you can rip them with DVDDecrypter and open the files in DVDShrink, reauthor and do a movie only. At this time you could choose to save as ISO. A player like VLC will play ISO's directly. Do note that many newer movies will take a lot more work to rip to your HD. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Also, what about dvd's that have multiple smaller titles on them like nickolodeon that has ten or so individual short movies on the dvd. Any instructions on how to copy them - all at once, one at a time, etc. what files to select? how to replay them? Sorry i don't understand this but i don't know the various file names etc. so i am just throwing darts at hte wall at this point. thanks.
to me the easiest way(if you dont care about space) is rip the whole dvd(full Disc) with DVDFab HD or decrypter then if you want to watch them use VLC player, just drag the ripped folder in VLC player and it will play them. you should get about 10 full movies with an 80GB HDD, or just follow this guide(minus the burn part) to get about 20 movies http://webpages.charter.net/bacitup/TheGuides/Back up DVD w fab,vixvts,shrink,imageburn.pdf most of the time you dont have to use FixVTS program. hope this helps
THANK YOU. Your guide was easy to follow and got the job done. One tip for the next newbie, after you run dvd shrink you can delete the files created previously to save space - just keep the last set of files created by dvd shrink. to watch, drag the FOLDER to vlc viewer to watch the entire movie. I have not tried to burn back to dvd because that was not my need. Thanks everyone for your help!!!
