Right, i'm currently thinking about a HTPC, mainly for movies. Now my dilemma, and this may be a dangerous subject, I'm wanting to basically to have access to my DVD collection via this HTPC. Now I am not fully aware of copyright laws, whether I can legally rip movies to my own PC for personal use and backup. The fact is, what else would I use a HTPC for? Maybe recording telly yeh, but what about all these DVD's I've already purchased? If there is any legal way, what programs do i need for ripping. and can I make them into a viewable format through media center? Cheers Dev
Ripping movies onto your computer for personal use, and not even for burning new discs. I see no reason why it would be illegal. http://www.wikihow.com/Rip-a-DVD
ripping DVDs to your HDD isnt the issue as this is perfectly legal. IT is illegal however to circumvent copywrite protection on a DVD which kinda makes it impossible for it not to be illegal. stupid entertainment industry thinking they still own the disc after you buy it. i do the same as i have my PC hooked upto my TV and a nice 1TB HDD with all my films on, makes it so easy to just watch something plus it saves me alot of space i would need to have my DVDs all on display to get them out easy. There all in boxes packed away in a cupboard
I forgot about DVDshrink, was a little iffy a few year back with not always working. For HTPC solutions i dont think even now there is a perfect solution, its always a little messy even with windows media centre
Seems that it is almost impossible to find a program that creates a file with the ability to natively play in windows. :/ I wouldn't mind paying a small fee, but even trialing a few programs I have found nothing that seems to work. DVDfab seemed ok but to create a WMV you needed 2 products, dvd to dvd and dvd to mobile. which for a 2 year licence was £50. Any other ideas as i seem to be delving into dodgier and dodgier looking programs.
Hey Devolve. I think I've got some solutions for you, but just want to clarify on what you need. You don't want an ISO image, right? I've never really used windows media center, but I assume it doesn't read ISO images. If that's the case, there's 2 options that I personally use: Use Xbox Medic Center for Windows. I tried Windows media center for a bit and gave up. Then I switched to XBMC and have never looked back. It can play ISO images, which means you could make an image of the DVD with any "standard" DVD software, like Nero, etc. Convert the videos to an AVI file (which WMP and media center should be able to play without any problems - just may need to download a codec). You basically run the DVD through 2 programs to convert it over to AVI. The process is a little daunting at first, but trust me - once you do it once or twice, it's super simple to repeat it. If this is what you want to do, let me know. I'll hold off on writing up a guide until you say the word.
i've looked at both ideas, didnt realise XBMC used iso. and i wouldnt mind doing avi, but i hate the bloated codec packs, if theres just an avi codec it would be a beaut. I wouldn't mind knowing the options tho bacon. cheers.
I may be wrong on this, but I believe that AVI's use the DivX/XviD codecs (depending on which one was used to create the video). Most 3rd party apps (like VLC, XBMC, etc. all support it out of the box. WMP & media center might also support AVI already?) As far as converting DVD's to AVI's, here's the general concept. Basically, you'll insert your DVD and open DVD Decrypter (*Note: there may be newer/better software, but this is what I've used for a while and it works.) You'll use this to create an IFO file of the movie (it will strip out the DVD menus, bonus materials, etc.). Then, you'll use AutoGK to convert the IFO file to the desired AVI file. There's obviously a lot more detail that you'd need to do this, and I can't remember for sure, but you may have to download some other supplemental software (maybe the DivX/XviD codecs?) to get everything working. The great thing about this setup is that both apps are free. I'm not sure if they're still supported (I know DVD Decrypter isn't), but like I said - it gets the job done. If you're looking for the "quick and easy" solution, I'd say go with XBMC (which is also free and has some great themes/skins) and ISO images. But ISO's normally take up more room than AVI's, so space may be an issue. There are pros and cons either way.
well im currently testing that theory, made a quick copy of the crow.iso (6.6GB) and am using in XMBC. Next is to try DVDShrink to make a compressed .ISO, see what qual is like. I like the iso cause I do like some menus. Will try autoGK tomos. cheers bacon.
No problem - let me know if you need any more info. And if it helps, I personally keep a full/uncompressed copy of movies I really enjoy, and then an AVI copy of movies that I sort of like, but won't really watch all that often (I just rip them as a convenience, instead of having to go dig out the DVD from my massive collection in my closet).
I'm not 100% sure - I don't watch TV (only DVD's of TV shows), so I've never looked into. A quick search on Google and XBMC.org make it sound like it's possible, but not really part of XBMC's functionality.
You don't need a .iso file for menus; a copied VIDEO_TS folder will work with menus too. Few people know this but windows media centre actually plays video_ts folders like native DVDs. Firstly get the My Movies plugin for media centre, and the anyDVD program. It will basically provide an itunes-like interface for ripping your movies while within media centre, along with a nice thumbnail view of movie posters for viewing. For actually browsing and watching, I prefer the mediaBrowser plugin as it has a more modern interface, lets you put your TV shows alongside it, and also pulls movie, actor and show details off thetvdb.org and themoviedb.org - really is quite a gorgeous thing, I strongly recommend. Then if you want to you can kill the My Movies media centre plugin and rely on the backend app, which allows ripping using a slightly more advanced interface. AnyDVD gives you a completely transparent DVD decryption app, so you don't have to do anything manually - it sits at the driver level and decrypts all css data. There are free alternatives out there, but in all honesty they're _terrible_. http://www.mymovies.dk/ http://www.mediabrowser.tv/ http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html Only payware software there is anyDVD, but they give lifetime updates with a purchase. Just be aware, My Movies rips the entire disc wholesale, extras and everything, so you need about 7GB per disc you're ripping. I had a spare day once and went through my 30ish movies, killing things like extras and non-DTS soundtracks which saved me a fair amount of space, but it's probably not worth your while - just buy a couple TB drives.
ill try anydvd out, but I noticed it was a choice between yearly sub or lifetime. lifetime was at a cost of £54.
yeah it's a bit pricey, but worth it if you need it. they run the occasional promotion so it's probably worth biding your time on pulling the trigger. exchange rates are falling too.
For ripping dvds i'd suggest a combo of DVD43 which removes the copy protection on the fly and then handbrake to encode it hovever you want. It takes a bit of messing around with the settings to get a good balance between size and quality but using the presets is pretty simple.
+1 for AnyDVD, it's well worth it! However, you can use DVD Shrink to rip the filem then AutoGK (Auto Gordian Knot) to encode to xvid/divx .avi in order to save space, however you'll be looking at ~1 hour per film, and it's not exactly automated.
I have to give it to Fod tbh, ANYDVD and My Movies is an excellent combo. Everything works so smoothly. It is almost as smooth as WMP ripping cd's to HDD. Even at the price I would recommend to anyone. Im still keeping DVD shrink, as I can make the not so important films smaller. After DVDShrink the films are about 4-5GB. Then just add title in mymovies, put in barcode, point at video_ts folder and were laughing.
Heh, my movies and mediabrowser are both used extensively by high end av installers supplying htpcs, so there's a reason they're so good Check out mediabrowser now! You will fall in love!
