Hey Some of my older dvds are really starting to show there age and Im worried about losing them so I need away of backing them up and storing them on a portable harddrive, anyone got any idea what sought of software to use? Preferably I would like them to be saved in a format that will work on my pc along with my tv. Any advice is much appreciated thanks
dvdshrink has always worked for me for homemade DVD's I own (apparently it works with all DVD's but that's not allowed to be discussed on here).
To add another to the mix, MakeMKV has become my favourite. It's free and encodes everything into one .MKV file, perfect for playback with VLC media player or a streaming device like the Popcorn Hour or Western Digital TV Live.
Make them into ISO files. A lot of media players will play directly from ISO files and you will always have a backup of the original DVD in case you wish to burn a physical copy. Of course, you will have to get around the DRM (ahem) on the DVD's but at least one of the products mentioned above can do that. Ironically, this is one of those applications of "fair use" that allows you to bypass the DRM to enable you to backup the physical media you have purchased, despite big film & music not wanted you to.
I've just started using DVD Decrypter to get stuff onto my MP3 player. Seems to work very well. You can rip to VOB or ISO, and a bunch of other stuff. I've been ripping to VOB then converting to avi. Lets you pick what you want to rip, so you don't have to rip all the foreign subtitles if you don't want them.