Need help with putting movies onto an external hard drive, is it possible.

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bnlfan

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Aug 9, 2009
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I was wondering, about putting my movies onto an external hard drive.

I have a television in my motorhome that has a hookup for my computer.  Is it possible to transfer my dvd movies onto a stand alone hard drive so I can lighten my load?

Also, will the hook up to the tv from the computer allow sound to come through over the tv as well?  Or, do I have to some how hook up to the rca jacks as well?

I've done a search here but either there is no thread or I am putting in the wrong search terms.
 
There is a wonderful piece of software called DVD Shink, that is free and it will remove the copy protection and allow you to either back up the entire disk as is or just the chapters and extras you want. You can then burn it to a DVD-R or keep it on a hard drive.
 
bnlfan said:
Also, will the hook up to the tv from the computer allow sound to come through over the tv as well?  Or, do I have to some how hook up to the rca jacks as well?
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Yes, if you are connecting your computer to the TV with a HDMI cable.
 
Alaskansnowbirds said:
Yes, if you are connecting your computer to the TV with a HDMI cable.
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He said his TV had a PC connection, I assume he means a standard VGA plus.  My TV and laptop have that and I just hook the TV to my laptop like it was a computer monitor, that type of connection is HD.  I also have a DVI out on the laptop, but it would require a DVI to HDMI adapter (which exists), but since I already had a standard monitor cable, I did not feel like spending money.

Downside of the standard monitor cable is that I still need to bring the sound over, but I go from the headphone jack on the laptop to the sound input on the TV.  HDMI would carry both.

 
seilerbird said:
There is a wonderful piece of software called DVD Shink, that is free and it will remove the copy protection and allow you to either back up the entire disk as is or just the chapters and extras you want. You can then burn it to a DVD-R or keep it on a hard drive.
Click to expand...
Actually, Tom, DVD Shrink will not remove copy protection.  However, DVD Decrypter does (most protection).  DVD Shrink can shrink a movie to fit on a standard 4.3 gig DVD (many if not most DVD movies are recorded on a dual-layer DVD about twice as large).  There is also a retail product that does both and has a few more options called DVDFab.com.  I use it to convert my DVD's to ISO format for storage on my home server and/or USB drives. 
bnlfan said:
Is it possible to transfer my dvd movies onto a stand alone hard drive so I can lighten my load?
Click to expand...
As for lightening your load, unless you plan to take an external drive with you anyway, a good DVD player (built into the TV or not) and a handfull of DVD's won't weight much more (if any) than a several hundred gig external drive - and you won't have to go through your computer to watch a movie.

You may still wish to copy your DVD's so you don't lose or damage your originals  ;) in which case the above software should handle it for you.
 
molaker said:
Actually, Tom, DVD Shrink will not remove copy protection.  However, DVD Decrypter does (most protection).  DVD Shrink can shrink a movie to fit on a standard 4.3 gig DVD (many if not most DVD movies are recorded on a dual-layer DVD about twice as large).  There is also a retail product that does both and has a few more options called DVDFab.com.  I use it to convert my DVD's to ISO format for storage on my home server and/or USB drives.  As for lightening your load, unless you plan to take an external drive with you anyway, a good DVD player (built into the TV or not) and a handfull of DVD's won't weight much more (if any) than a several hundred gig external drive - and you won't have to go through your computer to watch a movie.

You may still wish to copy your DVD's so you don't lose or damage your originals  ;) in which case the above software should handle it for you.
Click to expand...

I have used DVD Shrink to copy hunderds of DVDs with copy protection. DVD Shrink can put a dual layer onto a single disk. It can also copy it to your hard drive without shrinking it.
 
seilerbird said:
I have used DVD Shrink to copy hunderds of DVDs with copy protection. DVD Shrink can put a dual layer onto a single disk. It can also copy it to your hard drive without shrinking it.
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I stand corrected, Tom. The last time I used it, it required DVD Decrypter for encrypted movies so I switched to DVDFab.  That has been a few years now and at the time, there was no indication DVD Shrink would be updated to include decryption.  Live & learn.
 
While there are freeware programs that will do this, I have found them to be mostly challenging to use for non-IT technical folks such as myself.  I purchased a highly rated piece of software called WinX DVD and use it to convert DVDs to any format I want (full screen, small screen for netbook, IPod, BB, etc).  You can also pick the sampling rate if you want to save space (at the expense of sound/video quality).  The nice thing is that it is a completely stand alone tool and also performs all of the decoding for encrypted discs.

Again, I'll pay for the convenience vs. having to "learn" multiple programs.  It was a grand total of $25 online.  I now have about 20 movies for my kids on a single 8GB USB stick (or put more on your hard drive if you wish).
 
molaker said:
I stand corrected, Tom. The last time I used it, it required DVD Decrypter for encrypted movies so I switched to DVDFab.  That has been a few years now and at the time, there was no indication DVD Shrink would be updated to include decryption.  Live & learn.
Click to expand...

My friend Bob told me about DVD Shrink and that it removed encryption and I just did not believe him. I was blown away when I saw it actually did. The best part is that it is absolutely free.
 
Mc2guy said:
While there are freeware programs that will do this, I have found them to be mostly challenging to use for non-IT technical folks such as myself. 
Click to expand...

DVD Shrink could not be any easier to use. Click the Open Disk button and then when it opens click Backup.
 
bnlfan:

Another way to accomplish what you want to do is to buy an Apple TV. I store my movies on a 1TB USB drive that I sync I-Tunes to. It then syncs ATV and voila, I have HDMI movies on our TV.
 
Marc L said:
Downside of the standard monitor cable is that I still need to bring the sound over, but I go from the headphone jack on the laptop to the sound input on the TV.  HDMI would carry both.
Click to expand...

I use the same cable (VGA) to watch hulu.com from my laptop to TV, which I ordered from monoprice.com ... best thing is that they were thinking of this purpose and sell cables that have a 3.5mm stereo plug (for audio) attached to the VGA cable (for video).  Here's is monoprice's page with those types of cables if that's helpful to the OP.

I plan to have HDMI outputs on my next laptop, but for now this works perfectly fine.  It just needs the 1 extra hookup.
 
seilerbird said:
DVD Shrink could not be any easier to use. Click the Open Disk button and then when it opens click Backup.
Click to expand...

I agree, some newer DVD's have protection that it doesn't handle so at times you need to use programs like such as DVDFabDecrypter or AnyDVD.

I buy all my movies but I hate having the commercials, and some of the 'extras' at the beginning of the movie. I like to view my list of movies and then select one and have it start playing.... the best feature is that the originals can be stored away out of harms way. I don't like when the kids unintentionally turn them into coasters.
 
Or, instead of putting the DVDs on a hard drive, store your DVDs in thin-line CD jewel boxes.  They're the same size as a CD and the thin jewel box takes up much less space than the bulky DVD box.
 
I got rid of all my DVD retail boxes a few years ago, and store the discs in a Case Logic holder similar to this one.  Works GREAT for the RV too, I just grab it on the way out of our house (it even has a carrying handle) and have 100+ movies ready to go.  I don't miss the original cases or the liners at all, which usually just amounted to taking up lots of space as mentioned above.  I need to pick up another case sometime soon, as we've accumulated more movies which are starting to fill up the cabinet above our TV at home... or I could just rotate the movie collection I have and get rid of the ones that haven't been watched in 3 years.  ;)
 
Seilerbird, can you post the link to the web site where you downloaded DVD Shrink?  I googled it & I found numerous sites claiming to have it & there seems to be some disagreement about whether or not some versions are scams.  Thanks.
 
ceemike said:
Seilerbird, can you post the link to the web site where you downloaded DVD Shrink?
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That may be better handled via Private Message just to keep any questionable direct links off the public forum (we don't want any members inadvertently downloading any viruses or malware)... but that being said, I too am interested in any known and trusted source for the program.  My PM box is always open.  ;)
 
Softpedia.com.  Just do a search once there for "DVD Shrink".  If concerned, do a Google search on "softpedia safe".  The site itself seems safe enough.  Just use a good anti-virus scan of whatever you download.  Of course, that should be done no matter where you download from.
 
I use my Zune. I convert my dvd's to mp3 and put them on my Zune and then hook it to the tv. When you convert a dvd to a mp3 it compress it. on my 30 gig Zune I can put about 50 full movies on it. plus I keep Band Of Brothers on it all the time Just in case I need my war fix.
 
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