Software to Backup my DVD's?

[kronovan]

This weekend the center spindle mount on 1 of my DVD's from an anime series got cracked badly enough that I'm now hesitant to play it. That's the 2nd time and for both of them the replacement cost of a single volume is more than half of what I payed for the entire series!   Meanwhile, all of the DVD burning software I have does not allow me to copy a video DVD. That's got me looking for software that will allow me to at least rip a DVD. If I could do that I could burn them once and then just play those 2 volumes from my entertainment PC which is hooked up to my HDTV.

The 3 big box retailers I went to inquire about something have come up short. One of those visits even included something close to a stern lecture from an employee about how it's illegal, is pirating and that I should just buy a new replacement volume. That led to me to a verbal chewing-out of his Manager and my vowing to never shop there again!    The manager, who did apologize, claimed it's taboo for them to even discuss or comment on such software. Having worked in the software biz for years I can understand the sensitivity around copy protection and pirating, but this seems completely out of line and WTF to me. My intention is only to backup 2 DVD's from the almost 200 I've payed my hard earned $ for, not to engage in some illegal activity  - God I'd like to know what group is responsible for this current state of things.
 
If anyone can suggest some software that will allow me do create a backup DVD volume or at least copy it to my harddisk, I'd greatly appreciate it. I should probably mention I'm running WinXP w/SP3 on my entertainment PC.

[deadzone]

I would say a combination of AnyDVD plus DVD De-Cryptor.  I have used this for a long time now to backup all of my DVD's that I have.  At least I think this is what I use.  I will check when I get home.  The bad thing is that this stuff may be hard to find to download.  I have copies of this stuff that I can lay on you though.  

It's important to note that this software is shareware or freeware so that no one gets worked up about Piracy issues.  

Anyway, let me check when I get home, it's been a while since I have used it since my DVD purchasing has pretty much been next to nothing for a while now since Blu-Ray took over.  (I have yet to get a Blu-Ray player, I am so sad...)  

If you have questions or something, feel free to PM me.  

[kronovan]

I appreciate it Deadzone, anything you can do to help me out on this would be great. Meanwhile I'll try to track down those freeware names you listed.

[Brendan]

If you're trying to rip them into some other video format, rather than "clone" them (by just copying the entire thing as an ISO or VOBs), you should just try Handbrake.  It's free, reasonably fast, and reasonably comprehensible:  http://handbrake.fr/

There's a number of preset profiles that you can try depending on your tolerance for lower bit rates (or whether you intend to transfer the videos to a phone/device/whatever).

[deadzone]

Oh yeah, that is definitely an option too.  Handbrake is great from what I hear.  I'll still get that information for you obviously. 

[Kevin Grey]

Since setting up a HTPC and Windows Server a month or so ago I've been embarking on the extensive process of backing up my entire DVD collection to the server.

 If you just want straight up ISOs then it really doesn't get any friendlier or easier than DVD Decrypter.  Free, quick, with no muss, no fuss.  I agree with the Handbrake recommendation if you want to convert them to another format but I've ultimately found it much easier to leave them as ISOs and guarantee that nothing is lost in the process.  Takes up a lot more space though (I'm over 4 Gigs so far and I've got at least a gig or two more to go).  

[Brendan]

I hope you mean terabytes instead of gigs as each individual movie ISO is probably 4-7 gigs.

If you mostly care about the movie rather than the menus/extras, I would recommend ripping to another format - DVDs are not particularly high resolution, and you can maintain the image quality in about a gig a movie or less.

[Kevin Grey]

I hope you mean terabytes instead of gigs as each individual movie ISO is probably 4-7 gigs.

Heh, yep that's what I meant

If you mostly care about the movie rather than the menus/extras, I would recommend ripping to another format - DVDs are not particularly high resolution, and you can maintain the image quality in about a gig a movie or less.

I started off doing that but I stopped for a couple of reasons (it should be noted that the bulk of my collection is TV on DVD so these wouldn't be a big deal if your collection is mainly movies):

1) It takes much, much longer to rip to another format.  It takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes for me to rip a DVD to ISO but it takes an hour to mp4 or mkv using recommended settings in Handbrake.  So it was already faster to rip first to ISO just to get it on the drive so I could queue up a bunch of files in Handbrake to run for 8-12 hours. 

2) This is very particular to using scrapers in XBMC but I found it a pain in the butt to have to assign each individual video file the specific name for it to be scraped properly.  Not only was file renaming cumbersome on an episode by episode basis but it took even longer because I had to verify that the Chapter on the DVD I was selecting corresponded to the to episode in question.  For some videos it was easy and obvious, for others not so much.  Much easier to deal with ISOs where I can just slap all of the episode numbers into the filename so it will work right with scrapers. 

3) I initially thought I wouldn't care much about special features (after I can always pull out the DVDs if I really want them).  But then I started second guessing myself.  So I decided to put commentaries on their if they existed.  And I have a fair amount of anime and in those cases I wanted all of the language tracks since sometimes I watch dubs and sometimes subs.  Again, it made setting all of it up in Handbrake more cumbersome. 

Ultimately I decided that space was cheap enough to just stick with ISOs.  Made the whole process much easier. 

[kronovan]

All great info everyone, and many thanks for posting. I will most definitely check into handbrake as well. I think if my goal is to be able to play my 2 anime volumes on demand I'm going to have to make them MP4's or some similar format - right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have to burn an ISO image or restore it to a folder before it's playable; i.e. there's nothing that will do that real time such as a decoder?

[Kevin Grey]

All great info everyone, and many thanks for posting. I will most definitely check into handbrake as well. I think if my goal is to be able to play my 2 anime volumes on demand I'm going to have to make them MP4's or some similar format - right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have to burn an ISO image or restore it to a folder before it's playable; i.e. there's nothing that will do that real timefly such as a decoder?

If you are using a PC to play the files through a direct connection to the TV/monitor then there are a bunch of different programs you can use like VLC to launch ISOs directly with no conversion needed .  

You only have to convert them to another format if you are going to stream them over a network since network streaming doesn't support ISOs.  

For me I use my HTPC (using XBMC as my interface) to read ISOs directly from my Windows Server and it works flawlessly.  

[deadzone]

I actually am using RipIt4Me along with DVD Decryptor.  It's pretty much a one click solution if you want to make a 1:1 copy of a DVD.  Good suggestions for you though all around. 

You should be able to find these 2 programs for download but if not, I can get them to you.