Making digital backups of DVDs

[KneesUp]

I' m sorting out our attic at the moment, and have discovered a load of DVDs I'd forgotten we own. I have a harddrive thing at home that I can play files from using DLNA via the telly, and it had loads of spare space, so I thought I might rip them to that so I can watch them without cluttering up the front room with more stuff (i.e I can shove the box back in the corner of the attic).

Sadly neither the "Smart" TV nor the DVD player can work with ISO files, so I need to rip them into mp4 of MKV - I just wondered if anyone has any experience of this, and can give me some pros and cons before I start ripping. I'm using Handbrake, and it seems to take ages per DVD (it went up to 5 hours on the 'test' one, but I think it may have been because it was scratched) I am running Handbrake under Windows because I couldn't get it to work under Kubuntu, and WinFF under Kubuntu ripped with no sound, so clearly there are driver issues there that I couldn't be bothered to troubleshoot

Any pitfalls to look out for, or faster ways of doing it much appreciated.

 

[Markymark]

Probably quicker to download it and if anyone asks to prove you have the originals, show them!

 

[accountantpete]

With Linux I use makeMKV - it's a beta type software for Linux so you get a months free usage and with a special key you can take it for a more permanent test for free whilst it is in beta (it's been in beta for years!)

http://www.makemkv.com/

 

[fossyant]

And get a vpn before you download the copy.

 

[KneesUp]

I don't fancy going to the bother of getting a VPN or downloading pirate copies for stuff I already own! I suppose in years to come the idea of owning a physical copy of something or having the file locally will seem ridiculous!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Have a look at Acid Rip and DVD Rip

 

[chriswoody]

I've made digital copies of all of my films and store them on my NAS drive in the cellar. Ive kept them in MKV Format mostly because I play them on my smart TV using Kodi running on a raspberry pi.

The same as accountantpete, above, I use makemkv on my windows pc to make the initial conversion. Then if I need an mp4 Copy, I use handbrake to do it.

I've always found handbrake fiddly to use, it has a lot of settings you can play with and they can drastically alter the amount of time it takes to convert.

My friend always uses handbrake to rip his DVD's and seems to have no issues, however I've found it can struggle to crack the DRM sometimes. Which is why I go through the slightly more long winded process of creating an MKV File first

 

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 4928844, member: 259"]Us too. We run it on a VM on the Mac and on the NAS and it's really reliable.[/QUOTE]
Why run it in a VM when there's a native Mac OS version?

 

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 4929190, member: 259"]I had problems with some rips with the Mac version and I'm a bit anal about keeping all my Linux stuff in a VM. I run a couple of Windows progs, and I run them in a VM as well[/QUOTE]
Fair enough!