DVD copying

[ThinkPad]

I have a few of MY OWN DVDs which I would like to copy onto the computer and save as an avi or mpeg format. Ive been able to copy a DVD via various ripping programs, but the whole thing is around 4 gigs and there about 10 files to the movie, like 4 audio files and 6 video files, so its hard to tell which is which and for what.

What are the steps on first, coping the DVD to computer, then compressing it to a high quality avi or mpeg format?

NOTE: these are my own purchased DVDs and in no way conflicts with copyright protection laws.

[ThinkPad]

Any software recommendations would be great.

[Nolonemo]

If you live in the U.S. you already violated copyright law by cracking the encryption when you ripped the DVDs (fair use doesn't get you off the hook).

But, back to the topic, take a look at the "tools" section of DVDhelp.com for some compression apps. I'm guessing that what you want to do is to encode to DIVX in a .avi wrapper. There will be tutorials for that over there.

[JHEM]

If you live in the U.S. you already violated copyright law by cracking the encryption when you ripped the DVDs (fair use doesn't get you off the hook).

Legality or illegality has yet to be determined as the Supremes haven't ruled on a case.

The present DRMA "laws" are in opposition to archival rights defined and established in pre-existing copyright laws dating back more than 100 years.

It's the old "VCR" and "Betamax" cases revisited. In those cases the Supremes ruled on the side of John Q. Public.

Regards,

James

[Nolonemo]

I just can't resist picking nits, so bear with me.

While the ultimate question of the constitutionality of the law hasn't been determined, there's no question that, as of right now, violation of the law constitutes an illegal act, because the law is presumptively valid unless held to be otherwise. So right now, it's illegal, next year (or whenever) who knows?

BTW and FWIW, I think it's horribly misguided to try to prevent consumers from making backup copies of their properly licensed media content, and I confess to taking some pleasure in flouting this abominable law.

[ThinkPad]

I believe in terms of copyright laws, they pertain more to different monetary factors as opposed to archival and personal uses. For example, I can purchase a DVD and make 3 copies of it. Say one for MY living room, one for MY TV room and one for MY bathroom (?) and I will not be held liable for illegal acts because I purchased rights to use the DVD and I can use it anyway I want for MYSELF.
Now If I was passing these copies out, selling the copies or making any money what so ever off the copies, then yes that is illegal. So long as no one else is involved but yourself, then there is no breach in contract.

Back on topic, I was looking around and found a program called DVD Shrink which seems to be popular for ripping during my search http://www.dvdshrink.org/

[tfflivemb2]

DVDShrink works for ripping the disk to the hard drive, however you will still need a decryptor such as DVD43. DVDShrink will allow you to separate different portions of the DVD to make it smaller.

Personally, for backing up my 3 year old son's DVDs, I use DVD Clone and AnyDVD. I generally make a few copies of his discs, since he plays them in his room on his own. He is generally pretty careful with the discs, but he is still only 3 and things happen.

[dorronto]

I second DVDShrink.....Compresses dvd's and they are still watchable. Then I copy from the hard drive using NERO. Works fine for me.........

Ron

[Nolonemo]

I believe in terms of copyright laws, they pertain more to different monetary factors as opposed to archival and personal uses. For example, I can purchase a DVD and make 3 copies of it. Say one for MY living room, one for MY TV room and one for MY bathroom (?) and I will not be held liable for illegal acts because I purchased rights to use the DVD and I can use it anyway I want for MYSELF.
Now If I was passing these copies out, selling the copies or making any money what so ever off the copies, then yes that is illegal. So long as no one else is involved but yourself, then there is no breach in contract.

Back on topic, I was looking around and found a program called DVD Shrink which seems to be popular for ripping during my search http://www.dvdshrink.org/

Not in U.S., making money off of the copyright "infringement" is not an element of the crime. I recall a case a while ago where some univ student in New England was convicted for copying stuff and distributing it for free.

Anyway for the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the illegal act is the act of decryption itself, the reason for makaing the copies is irrelevant. Note that we are only talking about protected (i.e. encrypted) content here. That's why the DMCA is so controversial - its effect is to gut the concept of "fair use" with regard to protected content, since even if the use would normally come under "fair use," the act of copying is illegal per se.

[dsvochak]

For example, I can purchase a DVD and make 3 copies of it. Say one for MY living room, one for MY TV room and one for MY bathroom (?) and I will not be held liable for illegal acts because I purchased rights to use the DVD and I can use it anyway I want for MYSELF.

Not necessarily.

As Nolonemo and JHEM pointed out, this is an area of the law that is in flux. The key word in JHEM's comments regarding the vcr and betamax cases is "old". Given the changes in the Supreme Court, it's difficult to predict how they may rule on a case presenting these issues. And that means, as a practical matter, you don't really want to be the guy who gets to appeal this issue to the Supreme Court.

[daeojkim]

DVD shrink works very very well for ripping DVDs. It is not only to store it in your HD but once you rip it you can just copy it into a DVD and get a pretty good quality movie.

THe good part is that you can select features that you want. For example if you do not want DTS you can always unselect it and give more room for better picture quality.

Also if you plan to use a double layer DVD to back up then you can choose that in your option in DVDshrink and it nothing will be compressed and have a original quality DVD.

I have yet to come across a DVD that DVDshrink can't duplicate. AFAIK it is not illegal to duplicate your own DVD/CD for back up purposes.

JK

[Nolonemo]

I was so busy pontificating about copyright law, that I forgot to mention my tools of choice:

DVD Decryptor (freeware) to rip:
Clone DVD (shareware) to select features, shrink, burn/write to HD.

DVDShrink got a lot of good press on the dvdhelp.com forums too.

[Nolonemo]

AFAIK it is not illegal to duplicate your own DVD/CD for back up purposes.

More nits here. First, would depend on the license, of course. I don't think there's anything to prevent the licensor of the content (or software) to absolutely prohibit copying of the physical medium for any reason.

But back to DVDs.

The problem with the DMCA is that, although it may not be illegal to make a back up of your DVD for backup purposes under the fair use doctrine, it IS illegal to first break the copy protection, which you need to do in able to be able to make the backup, because you can't make a bit for bit copy of an encrypted DVD with a computer DVD reader/burner. (In theory, you could make a bit for bit copy of the original without violating the DMCA because you're not cracking the encryption.)

Of course, if your DVD is not copy protected, then there's no problem, because you're not breaking any encryption, so there's no violation of the DMCA, and the act of COPYING falls within fair use.

That's why in order to use DVD copy programs like Clone DVD or DVDShrink, you have to first use a separate program to rip the DVD to your hard drive. The copy programs don't include that feature because providing a took to crack the encryption would violate the DMCA.

Remembery Studio123, which sold the all-in-one DVDXCopy program? They lost in federal court on the DMCA/fair use issue and had to stop selling the product.

To summarize:
CRACKING = violation of DMCA
COPYING = fair use

[ThinkPad]

Thanks for the software recommendations. I dont plan on burning onto DVD I just want to copy it on the HD.

I want a software that compiles the dvd into a single .avi or .mpg file under a gig.

After its copied there are all these .vob files, .iso, I would like just one movie files.

[Nolonemo]

I want a software that compiles the dvd into a single .avi or .mpg file under a gig.

You can lead a horse to water....

Like I said, the answer to your question will be found in the Tools section here:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=30#30

The site also has tutorials for using said tools.

Having said that, considering that a commercial DVD will usually have 6 or 7 GB of movie on it, you're going to take a significant quality hit by going down to 1 gig. Most 2-disk VCDs come out at over a Gig, and they look pretty crappy compared to DVDs, IMO.

I think your best bet is to use the tools described earlier in the thread and compress to 4GB. Plus, that way you won't have to reencode to another format, which can take quite a while. However, to each his own.