Total beginner - be gentle with me please :)

[gordies]

hi everyone,

have taken the plunge, installed Win 7 and now want to shift loads of my DVD's on to hard drive in order to use Media Center.

I need something that is easy to use to copy the DVD's over to the Hard Drive.

Compression is not priority as I have 8TB of drive storage.

any advice is most welcome. thank you.

[elootos]

(02-28-2011 12:09 PM)gordies Wrote:  hi everyone,

have taken the plunge, installed Win 7 and now want to shift loads of my DVD's on to hard drive in order to use Media Center.

I need something that is easy to use to copy the DVD's over to the Hard Drive.

Compression is not priority as I have 8TB of drive storage.

any advice is most welcome. thank you.

Hello and welcome

The preferred tools of choice for most users is to use one of these:

• AnyDVD
• MakeMKV
• DVDFab
  

There is a free version of DVDFab so probably the best option to get your feet wet.

I have AnyDVD just because of habit, but that rips the whole disc so others prefer MakeMKV and the space you can free up by only ripping sections you actually want of the film.

All 3 software require an hour or so of use to get used to them but they are straightforward enough even for the most entry-level of user.

Let us know how you get on.

[gordies]

hello again,

gave it a go but Media Center does not seem to like the .vob that are created and all I get is a blue screen with the slider timer bar moving along the bottom but no video at all.

I was reading that you can play .iso in Media Center as well using Virtual Clone Drive, is this something worth trying?

cheers again.

[tonyc]

(02-28-2011 07:52 PM)gordies Wrote:  hello again,

gave it a go but Media Center does not seem to like the .vob that are created and all I get is a blue screen with the slider timer bar moving along the bottom but no video at all.

I was reading that you can play .iso in Media Center as well using Virtual Clone Drive, is this something worth trying?

cheers again.

I use DVDFAB for normal DVD's which you can back up to a folder and rename i.e. 127 Hours. The files stored are standard DVD files and with DVDFAB you can just store the main movie as opposed to all the other chuff on there. When you set your folders via WMC7, they will appear and by selecting the folder, plays just the movie.

With Blu-Ray, I use ANYDVD HD, and back-up as an ISO, then using AnyDVD running in the background, it removes the copy protection and use Virtual Clone Drive to mount the ISO for Blu-Ray movies. This all runs within WMC7. Bit fiddly to start but once it's up and running, it's a dream. Check out Elootos' guides within the forum for further info on how to back up DVD's and Blu-Ray. All running within Media Browser. Another nice piece of software you can try when you are up and running backing up your DVD's. Also worth noting is I also use Total MediaTheatre 3 to play the Blu-Ray movies, again this can also be incorporated within WMC7. It takes a little longer to play Blu-Ray's as AnyDVD scans the film in the background, then TMT3 loads, so around 20 seconds on average. I just need to suss out how to just rip the Blu-Ray movie as opposed to the whole disc due to the amount of space they take (around 25-45gb).

[gordies]

hi guys, well finally got my DVD's copied to Hard Drive, thank you for all the advice. Now I have another problem that I would be happy to get some advice on.

I have an ATI video card with HDMI to feed direct to LCD TV. I picked an ATI card as they have an onboard audio chip and Native HDMI. However, Win Media Center advises there is no audio present and will not playback any DVD's.

Am I snookered and will need to buy an audio card or is it a driver issue?

cheers, Gordie

[elootos]

(03-02-2011 07:54 PM)gordies Wrote:  hi guys, well finally got my DVD's copied to Hard Drive, thank you for all the advice. Now I have another problem that I would be happy to get some advice on.

I have an ATI video card with HDMI to feed direct to LCD TV. I picked an ATI card as they have an onboard audio chip and Native HDMI. However, Win Media Center advises there is no audio present and will not playback any DVD's.

Am I snookered and will need to buy an audio card or is it a driver issue?

cheers, Gordie

Do you have the full ATi driver package installed?

If so, then in Windows Control Panel under sound, you should see the HDMI output as an available option. Right click on it and select as default device.