DVD Archives

[Rennhack]

People have asked me how to archive their DVD's.  Here are some links to some suggested sites:

First: DVD Decrypter is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC's hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX. Advanced functionality can be found in the context menus.
(Note:  You may have to change the 'Mode' setting from 'ISO' to 'File')

Then: DVD Shrink overcomes the problem of fitting "big" DVD's onto "small" DVD's by compressing or "shrinking" the data from your original DVD.  DVD Shrink also allows you to re-author your DVD. You can make your own compilation from one or more source DVDs, or select only the parts of a DVD which you intend to view, thus preserving more space on your backup for the highest quality viewing.


Lastly:  Nero, a comprehensive disk burning program, is my favorite software to burn it to a new DVD.

[Atomic_Punk]

DVD43free is a cool ripper program that that removes the CSS protection on most comercially released DVDs.  Great for making backups of your movies for the kids to enjoy/destroy.  Just download it and it runs in the background once it's installed.  Best of all, it's free! Go to:  www.afterdawn.com.  It's seems to work well with the DVDShrink program as well.

[JnyMac]

DVD Shrink works great and if you need to make it real.  cdcovers.cc is an excellet place to make the covers.

[Rennhack]

My original post is out of date.  My new process is rip to hard drive from DVD or BluRay with AnyDVD HD.
http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html

Then I converty it to MP4 with HandBrake:
http://handbrake.fr/

Then I add album art with:  MetaX
http://www.danhinsley.com/

Those programs handle 99% of my needs.  Once in a while, I use FreeMake to cover other conversions.  It's also exceptionally good at compressing 7 DVD's into one DVD for viewing in the car.
http://www.freemake.com/