***This is assuming, of course, you own the DVD and that other legal stuff***

First you need either DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter. Once you've got either (I recommend both), get a copy of Daemon Tools.

What you want to do from here is use either DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter to copy the DVD to your hard drive in in one big ISO image. Basically, an ISO image is a direct image of a CD or DVD that can be stored on your hard drive or any other form of storage media. If you want to learn more about ISO images, Google is your friend.

Ok, now you've got an ISO image that's around 4.7gb in size on your hard drive. Next, you want to install Daemon Tools. Once youv'e done that, you'll see the Daemon Tools icon in your taskbar. If you right click on that, then select "Mount Image", and then point it to where the DVD image you just created is located, then it basically tricks windows into thinking you have another DVD-ROM installed on the computer, and the DVD whose image you pointed to is in it. Once the image is mounted, you can then play the DVD on the computer using your favorite DVD playing software.

Just thought I'd share in case some people would like to do this. Only problem is, those ISO images can eat up HD space pretty quick. Other than that, enjoy.

 

man I sooo needed this info a few weeks ago when I was going to Hawaii. Damn 5 hr flight sucked when I couldn't finish watching my dvd If I had this I could have copied the damn movie on my laptop and use the 2nd battery for more juice... grrr

Good to know though

 

I have several movies and muchos episodes of family guy I downloaded with limewire.. still have alot of space..

 

its easier if you encrypt the dvd to divx format. that way a full lenght movie turns out to be abot 750M. check out www.divx.com for more info

 

chris, is that in response to me or to churnd?

 

Depends on the format those movies are in. ISO images are direct replicas (in most cases) of the CD or DVD they replicated. However, if those videos you have are in .avi or .mpeg(#) format, then they're compressed a lot to save space. Space wise, that's a better way to go for sure. Read more about it at www.doom9.org.

 

yup, i use dvd shrink and decrypter to "backup" dvds.

 

so explane to me how a comercial dual layer dvd rips to 4.7 gig on a harddrive and not ~8 gig.

 

It's compressed to ~4.7 gigs. That's a lot of compression, but you won't notice much loss in quality, if any.

 

Man I love Red Box!

 

Yep, just about all DVD movies are dual layer and 8 GB or more.
I use the Shrink to make copies of any DVD I buy, and I can not tell the difference in playback quality.
Reason is the original ones get scratched when you have a son borrowing them and forgetting to return them, so they get backed up.

I also keep the files on my external drive, and I can use Power DVD to view them without having to use Daemon.

I might have to try out Daemon though just to experiment with it.

 

www.doom9.org

 

Daemon is useful for so much more than just playing DVD's. It'll mount any ISO image you can throw it's way, so what you use it for is entirely up to you.

 

Like Corey I use Power DVD to view the ISO files also. Another good tool is Nero, with all of the free upgrades and plug-ins. You can use it to watch the movie image also. but DVD Shrink is a must especially since you can make the file smaller by deselecting all of the extras like subtitles, foreign laguages, and unused audio encoding. Divix is good for compressing just the movie file if you don't want the menu's and so forth. I have a seperate 200 gig HD to store all of my movies, music, and recorded TV shows on.

 

I've been using a program called "Mac The Ripper" to load DVD's on my PowerBook hardrive for a couple years or so. It doesn't shrink them, but since HD mechanisms are more efficient, I can get more play time after loading them on the HD. Plus when you travel, you can load several favorites for a little down time.

 

use nero recode, or dr. divx and convert them, you don't need 4gb+ on your hd for movies.

 

It's not a problem. I don't keep them forever. I put an 80 gb Travelstar in it years ago. Great hard drive; quiet, fairly fast, never failed in 3.5 years use.

 

I mainly posted this for those who don't have converters and want another temporarily available option that's free.

Also, keep in mind the quality from doing this will be much better than using a more compressed format.