# Back-up Station



## FNG212 (May 31, 2009)

What programs do you use to backup your movies? Do you rip them from discs? Do you download them somewhere? Have studios started releasing digital copies of movies for download instead of disc purchase?

I want to start backing up my DVDs either to Hard Drive or copy them to other discs since my is now able to "play" with them if unsupervised for more than 10 sec. I guess kids love shiny things. Is each movie really 4.7GB?

Thanks.


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## Hunter844 (Apr 22, 2007)

FNG212 said:


> What programs do you use to backup your movies? Do you rip them from discs? Do you download them somewhere? Have studios started releasing digital copies of movies for download instead of disc purchase?
> 
> I want to start backing up my DVDs either to Hard Drive or copy them to other discs since my is now able to "play" with them if unsupervised for more than 10 sec. I guess kids love shiny things. Is each movie really 4.7GB?
> 
> Thanks.


Try FairUseWizard

Google AVI, DIVX, XVID 


Not that I would know anything about that sort of thing. :devil:


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## Harpmaker (Oct 28, 2007)

FNG212 said:


> What programs do you use to backup your movies? Do you rip them from discs? Do you download them somewhere? Have studios started releasing digital copies of movies for download instead of disc purchase?
> 
> I want to start backing up my DVDs either to Hard Drive or copy them to other discs since my is now able to "play" with them if unsupervised for more than 10 sec. I guess kids love shiny things. Is each movie really 4.7GB?
> 
> Thanks.


First off, copying commercial digital media is in kind of a gray area due mainly to the Digital Millennium Copyright act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act). Many feel this act goes too far and, as usually happens, the matter has been, and continues to be, taken to court. There have been wins and loses for both sides. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org/) is a good source of info on the "rights war".

If you own the media (have legally purchased the media) the general feeling (but still being legally contended) is that under the "fair use" doctrine we (the "owners" of the media, but not the content) can make a backup for our personal use. Many are backing up their video and audio collections and storing them on hard drives so they can be played back without constantly swapping out DVD's or CD's (a so-called "media jukebox) - or in the case of CD's (mostly) converting content to a compressed format so more music can fit on a single CD or DVD. Again, the feeling is that if you own the media you are on pretty solid moral ground to make such backups. If however; you don't own the media being backed up, or are downloading such media without the copyright holders permission, most agree that you are breaking the law. This latter type of activity is not sanctioned here at HTS. The tools for backing up media can be used legally or illegally - that is up to the user.

There are many legal sources for free, or low cost, versions of video and audio and many services that now stream such content so that no physical media is involved. 

Most commercial DVD's are larger than 4.7 GB in size. Depending on the software you use to backup the DVD some will re-encode to make the DVD fit on a standard 4.7 GB DVD. This will result in lower image quality from the backup. Some software will also allow the user to even change the format of the content being backed up, such as MP3 for audio and Divx for video. This conversion will take longer to do than a simple bit-for-bit backup and it will also lose audio and video quality, many times a LOT of quality (think YouTube video vs a standard DVD). 

As for software, there are many programs that pretty much do the same thing; just use a search engine to find one that does what you need it to do.


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## FNG212 (May 31, 2009)

Harpmaker:

Thank you. I own all my own discs so I'm not concerned there. Just wondering what are the best methods for ripping if I decide to create a media server to feed my movies instead of swapping discs, or, futuristicly, allows the kid's bedrooms to call the movies to their rooms without the discs.


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## Harpmaker (Oct 28, 2007)

Two favorite DVD ripping programs are *DVD Decrypter* and *DVD Shrink*. These are older programs so they won't backup some DVD's. As the name implies, DVD Shrink will shrink a DVD larger than 4.7GB so the disc will fit on a standard 4.7GB disc. Both programs will rip to an .ISO file that can be played on a PC (I'm using VLC as a player and I love it) and a growing number of set-top players.


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