Backing up DVDs to HDD

[240PP]

I'm looking to ditch all my hard copies of movies and have them all on a HDD. I've found various bits of software that will rip the movies but it looks like that's all they do, so how does that work with menu/chapter selection screens etc?

Is there anything out there that will just replicate it all and work it from a USB etc? Don't mind paying a bit for a decent, clean solution..

[Jobbo]

I'm pretty certain it's still illegal to do this, ridiculously. Also, I don't think rippers do anything but rip the video tracks to a playable format; you could take an ISO image of the disc but that's a waste of space and unplayable on most streaming devices.

It's also all SD format so you'd be better off not bothering, I'd say. The selection screens of DVDs are pretty rubbish anyway and that's the only thing you'd miss by simply downloading hooky HD copies of the films.

[Marv]

I used Auto Gordian Knot in the past for DVD to file ripping, haven't used it for years though. Think you can still download it. Probably better ripping programmes out there now.

[DeskJockey]

Handbrake was good too. Not bothered for years and at the moment I'd rather the kids broke a DVD than mess up the media centre.

[Ascender]

I used Handbrake back in the day to rip the movies and occasional extras I really wanted to keep, but you do end up with just a bunch of files in that case. Which is fine, you can still index them appropriately so they appear in some sort of order in your media system.

I guess it depends how badly you want to digitise all the contents of the discs. Its pretty quick to put a DVD in and rip the main feature, but when you start to look at extras, you could have 10s of different files to encode and split out, rename etc.

[JonMad]

I've got the freebie version of Media Monkey which I've used successfully for audio CDs (does it to Flac and I can then bulk convert to mp3).
We've just borrowed a DVD from a neighbour for the kids so I might try ripping it with Media Monkey, see what happens. Not bothered about any bonus features or suchlike.

[Jimexpl]

You surely need a proper disc vault -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/233566341041?c ... gI4VvD_BwE

I sold/installed a few of these when I was doing AV and their menu and catalogue system has still not been bettered by FireTV/Apple TV etc.
It brings all of your stored DVDs into the same catalogue as your Kaleidescape online purchases and when you search for one fime it automatically gathers other films around it on the screen based on Director, lead actor, genre etc.

I've sure the kit linked sold for about £7 new...

[Richard]

Save yourself the time and just download a pirated version

[simon_g]

MakeMKV will keep chapters and alternate audio (commentary, etc) intact. Have to use something else for subtitles if you need them.

FWIW, I did mine years ago and haven’t watched any of them.

[mr_jon]

Save yourself the time and just download a pirated version

This. I laugh at our friends houses with bookcases proudly displaying their dvd collection.

[240PP]

I guess I’m not that bothered about menus and extras etc, just thought there might be something on the market that could do all that.

I’ll try MakeMKV and see how that goes. Otherwise it’ll be a load of MP4s on a USB stick.