Copying DVD to Avi

[m1lky]

Hi everyone,

I bought married with children on DVD. But it's 32 discs and quite frustrating (discs are just stacked). My Samsung allows me to plug my external into it and scroll through shows with the remote. Is there free and easy software to rip it for my own use (in nz format changing is not illegal so there's no issues there), preferably one episode per file.

Thanks

[DAKSTER]

I do a lot of video editing. Firstly, the discs will be copy protected. Since you are only creating a copy for your convenience, copyright infringement is a gray area at best, so personally I have no problem with breaking the code and copying it to file.

You have a few free options for removing the copy protection, the tried and true are DVD shrink and DVD decrypter. DVD shrink will also burn to disc, and has a better GUI. DVD decrypter is more effective and reliable, but doesnt shrink the files.
DVD shrink is useful if you want to burn another disc, as it removes a lot of the extra stuff and makes a bought DVD9 disc fit onto a blank normal DVD5 (smaller capacity) disc.

These will then create a DVD folder which will contain VOB files. Each DVD folder will be over 4GB in size though, if you have the disc space thats ok, you can just store them like that. To play them, I prefer the free GOM player, just open the first VOB file and it will continue through the lot of them, just like playing a DVD.

If disc space is an issue, there are a multitude of free converters to convert VOB to the smaller AVI format. None of these work reliably, usually because they have issues with sound sync.

I use a bought program called DVD FAB, it removes the copy protection and converts to AVI reliably. Unfortunately, you have to pay for both parts of this program that you are going to need to do it with... the 'Copy' function and the 'Convert' function are considered separate programs. Its sold in with one year, 2 year or lifetime licences, from memory the lifetime license is about $60 for each of those 2 components.. of course the other options are cheaper. You could maybe only buy the converter, and use the free DVD shrink to create the DVD folders in the first place.

I stress that making copies and distributing them takes you out of the gray area and directly into clearly illegal behaviour though. Changing the format is not illegal anywhere, its copying the copy protected disc and redistributing it that is illegal, or redistributing the new file, and that will include NZ.

[m1lky]

Thanks for the writeup. I really don't want to have to pay. Already bought the discs. Disc space isn't an issue but the tv can only decide xvid and divx.

Distributing it is illegal and I won't be doing that. I can't see how it's any different to buying a cd and copying it to mp3 for your own iPod or whatever which is legal. But it is a bit grey if I must bypass copyright protection.

[scouser king]

Iam just in the middle of backing up my DvD collection (500+) on to a portable hard drive all in AVI/DIVX format so they dont get damaged.Alot of them are from the uk and dont play over here.Anyway i use a program called WinX DVD Ripper Platinum it is a pay for program(iam bad a have a cracked copy).I have backed up 180 odd DVDs so far and it's the best ripper i have come a cross in years,dead easy to use.Just pop your DvD in your pc choose your format and hit rip thats and it.

[DAKSTER]

Its really no different at all to copying music. Copyright exists on music too, and if you copy it to your iPod you are in the same gray area. I've never heard of anyone being prosecuted for it though. I have run into the occasional CD which has copyright protection too, but since music is so easy to get I have never bothered discovering how to copy those discs.

Of course, any kind of copyright protection is beatable on anything that can be played.. all you have to do is capture the signal as its being played ! That means you have to copy in real time though, obviously slower.

There is a lot of debate on this subject.. at what point do you break copyright? Recently I have heard of someone being prosecuted for a large digital video library, but it was thousands of .avi files downloaded, and no originals... not just a copy of a DVD that you already own.

You can decode your videos into VOB files using the free program DVD decrypter. Just do one DVD first, so you can experiment. Then you can google 'convert VOB to AVI freeware' and try a few of the many programs out there, you might get lucky and find one that works well

[ephect]

Use handbrake, it's free and works wonders

Others that I have paid for are total video converter and amisoft video converter

[fuzzy2308]

ive been useing old clonedvd

[skappascrap]

Iam just in the middle of backing up my DvD collection (500+) on to a portable hard drive all in AVI/DIVX format so they dont get damaged.Alot of them are from the uk and dont play over here.Anyway i use a program called WinX DVD Ripper Platinum it is a pay for program(iam bad a have a cracked copy).I have backed up 180 odd DVDs so far and it's the best ripper i have come a cross in years,dead easy to use.Just pop your DvD in your pc choose your format and hit rip thats and it.

I'll vouch for WinX DVD Ripper Platinum, good result and only took 25 minutes on my laptop.