I'm posting here because I'm a newbie at ripping and backing up movies on DVD. I've been able to rip and create a couple movies. I've been working on learning for about 3 weeks and have about 100 hours invested. Someone on another thread said "everyone makes it sound so easy" and what I have found after downloading 20 pieces of software (freeware) and paying for 3 and still having trouble creating a DVD. My system XP 2200, 768 RAM, 160 gigs HD space on 2 drives, sony DU120 DVD+ drive running windows ME. I found my first problem was running windows ME as only Win 2000 and XP allow files greater than 4 gigs due to the FAT32 system. For ripping files in DVDdecrytper that are under 4 gigs, no problem. Read in ISO mode, and Burn in ISO Write mode. NO PROBLEM. After downloading all this software and buying POS software that does nothing but give errors and I'm sure some of the errors are due because of my meddling. I've follwed word for word about 30 different ways from this forum, DrDVDhelp.com and doom9 and I have yet to get to the part where you even get frustrated with making coasters that won't play. All I ever get is errors. I've learned a bit about how to strip out unwanted material in IFOedit and managed to get a movie from 7.5 gigs down to 5 gigs - wow lol. The problem I see out there for newbies is there is no commercial software that does what I want to do and so much freeware that does so many things I don't need and every user seems to have a different "easy as pie" way to copy a movie. I have a copy of "Skulls collectors edition" that I've been working on just to see if I could do it. The software I have is DVDcopyPlus, DVD2AVI, DVDXCopy,flaskmpeg, IMGTool, MakeItEasy, Nero, Pinnacle Impression Pro, SmartRipper, DVD Toolbox, DVDDecrypter, VOBEdit, IFOEdit, TMPGEnc,VoBrator, daemon329,Dcloner, DVD2one,Copy2DVD as well as about 10 others. I know it sounds a little rantish and it's sort of fun trying to see if I can do it but I think to many newbies who are expecting this to be so easy, it's not. And there is no guide that I have found that works with every movie on every system that is an end all solution. I still have a few more pieces of the puzzle to put together and will be installing XP on my second drive to combat the 4 gig minimum as a start. So if you have the time and ambition I'm sure you can finally make a working under 4.7 gig version of your favorite movie. but at this point 35 bucks sounds cheap to get an original.
Use DVD2one and you will have a perfect working copy within the hour. The rippingpart is clear as I read your words. If you want to have a full disk copy (incl menu and extra's) you will need DVD2one 1.1.1 and you need to rip ALL FILES from the original to harddisk (dont forget !) Using one of the earlier versions you rip only the MOVIE FILES to harddisk. Open DVD2one and select (the first one - up) the VIDEO_TS directory where you ripped the DVD. Choose the second select (down) and select the directory you want the final files to be put in. Then choose next and choose the audio and subtitle languages. If you do a full disk copy with the latest version you will not get this screen because you are choosing everything basically. Press Start. Now check the outcome (after about 20min.) in the directory you choose at the second select bar. It will be 4.36 gb. BURN BABY BURN !
I also went down a similar path... dup-dvd, dvd-cloner, dvdwiz, et, et et... untill I came across... dvd2one.... dup-dvd... use to take 12 hours... and then burned less quailty.. dvd2one is wonderfulllllllll superstripper 20 minutes dvd2one......20 burning 30minutes... and have not had one failure todate
Thanks for the info. Yes I agree. If when I had started someone had said "get dvdDecryptor and DVD2one and either nero or dvdcopy plus" I would have been in heaven. However after going through all I went through and reading posts all over the place and learning more about the DVD structure and compression etc I got jaded early. I got too wrapped up into "perfect". That's what I meant by Too much information. As I mentioned, I already bought DVD2one. When I made certain disks (the 6-7 gig movies) with DVD2One, I noticed things like grainy greys in darker scenes that I would have never noticed had I not had too much information. And blurry whites in lighter scenes. And even though some say it doesn't do anything to to Audio, it might be my imagination but the mid bass is more muffled than on the original and the sound FX are sharper but not in a good way. But these are all things I probably would never have noticed had I not gone through my 3 week process. And I haven't even begun to test Pro Scan settings with it as I've only tested 2 DVD's with it.
Ok, update on DVD2one. I just copied the Terminator. Original was 7.5 gigs. I used this one because it had a lot of dark scenes. I have to say that it was no where near the original in terms of quality. Very grainy and pixelated. It also brought the files down to 3.4 gigs. I have the original on VHS and also original on DVD and I have to say the VHS looks much better than the DVD copy I made with DVD2One. Not horrible by any means and very watchable if you aren't looking for flaws. Then again I was looking for flaws on the VHS and even after 10 or so playings saw very few and none on the origianl DVD. Blacks were black and not dark grey and pixelated on both originals.
rawhead, Give this guide a go and burn at 1x. Your video should be amazing. http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=8e1f7017dd365d1f9df0d34683409e76&threadid=62671 Shoey
So I am in the same exact situation rawhead is in, although he seems to be a few days ahead of me. I just learned that on ME, I can't handle fiels larger than 4GB. Is there any way to change that? I do not want to lose quality, spend time going through files and eliminating subtitles or the portugese audio track. I want to change my computer. Is there any way to do it and keep ME or do I have to upgrade to XP? Thanks,
Get the trial version of Pinnacle's InstantCopy 7 M8, for DVDs it's a FULL VERSION. Run your terminator through that, and I'll bet you want to buy it ! I will agree with those that say it takes a long time, it does. But you don't have to stand there winding a handle or anything, I do something else. I've run a copy down to 30%, and you still couldn't tell. It has a built in quality assessor, if it cannot do it GOOD, it won't do it at all. As you try more things, you will find the limitations of DVD2One and DVD95Copy, similar products as regards what they cannot do. Good luck M8, and keep learning.
For the guy who wants to create files larger than 3.99 gigs on WinME, I did see a program out there but not freeware and I just got a new drive installed XP on one partition. There are a many older movies that are less than 4.7 gigs and dvd decrypter works fine just extracting and decrypting the ISO file. For me, XP was an upgrade that I was going to do anyway, so it was not a big deal. If you're thinking of upgrading your current drive which has ME/98 - you might want to find out if a simple upgrade over your current OS will be able to incorporate the NTFS file system. I don't know. You may run into the same problems without a clean format/install. Too much information. Well, I bought DVD2One based on a few other posters I respected on other boards. And now on this thread alone, posters mention 2 other pieces of software they feel are better. I'm not disagreeing as I don't know. What I do know is they both cost money. I'm guessing since this is relativly new to most consumers, there has been and will be new payware poping up all over the place. So do I just go out and buy every program? Right now with DVD2One, it makes great copies of drama and comedy movies- basically movies that don't have a lot of dark and bright contrast in the scene- ie- action stuff with explosions and fires etc. I copied "Misery" and it came out almost undetectable execpt for the very end. Some guy here posted a link which said to get DVD Maestro which there is no trial available. He is a Moderator however I don't care if can make me popcorn while burning my DVD, I will not pay for software with no trial unless it's an operating system. I learned my lesson a long time ago. But I will download it from limewire if I can find it and if they are lucky, I will pay them.
Does all this mean that I can't just buy some deal and connect my dvd player to it to make back up copies?!? I read through the link mentioned in this thread and it sounded like it made sense. Now I need a better computer and a dvd burner. All I want to do is copy movies. What is the easiest and cheapest way to do this and still keep quality as high as the origninal? Any chance of getting something that will just attach to my dvd player? Thanks for your help.
You can probably by 2 stand alone DVD recorders and get the job done. You hit the nail on the head when you said Cheapest. It's by far not the cheapest way. I think DVD ripping has 2 sides and a middle. One side which are cheap people who don't want to fork out the bucks to buy the disk, and the other side which are techies who just want to see if they can do it. Most of us are probably in the middle. Anyone who is a little tech savvy can get caught up in trying to do it just because it pisses them off that they can't.
