Ripping DVDs

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1. Legal considerations

   It is important that you know your local laws about backing up DVDs.  In many areas it is legal to make backup copies of media that you own - in the U.S. this is referred to as "fair-use".  The problem with this is that many commercial DVDs have copy protectionⁱ on them to combat piracy.  In some areas, and under certain circumstances it may be legal to circumvent this copy protection; however, in other areas it is considered illegal to sell or even use software that can get around copy protection.  Please check the laws in your area before using any of the information found on this page.  Media Center Guides does not promote, encourage, or condone piracy or illegal activity. 

1. Copy protection

   Many commercial DVDs use copy protection that prevents them from being copied onto a computer.  Media Center Guides will not post links to programs that could be illegal in a number of countries.  That said, if you are able to legally circumvent copy protection in your country, you should have no problem finding a software program that helps you with this (just do a Google search for how to copy any dvd). 

   The rest of this guide assumes that there is no copy protection on the DVD that you are backing up.

2. Format options (cost/benefit)

   There are a number of formats that you can use to backup movies to your computer.  Here are several popular options, along with some of the pros & cons of each.

   1. Video_TS
      • This is a straight copy of the files from the original DVD.
      • No quality is lost.
      • Retain DVD menus
      • Retain Subtitles & multiple audio tracks
      • Retain bonus features
      • Large file sizes
      • Can't be played directly from extenders
   2. DVR-MS
      • No quality loss
      • Lose DVD menus
      • Lose bonus features
      • Lose subtitles
      • Large file sizes
      • Can be played by extenders
   3. H.264
      • Some quality loss (still very high-quality)
      • Smaller file sizes
      • Lose DVD menus
      • Lose bonus features
      • Lose subtitles
      • Can't be played by extenders
   4. WMV
      • Some quality loss (still high-quality)
      • Smaller file sizes
      • Lose DVD menus
      • Lose bonus features
      • Lose subtitles
      • Can be played by some extenders
   5. Divx/Xvid
      • Some quality loss (still high-quality)
      • Smaller file sizes
      • Lose DVD menus
      • Lose bonus features
      • Lose subtitles
      • Can be played by some extenders

3. Which Format to Use?

   This is a hotly debated topic, and there is no one right answer.  For this guide our goal is to have the main movie playable on both your Media Center computer, as well as any extender devices that you have.  We want this to work very consistantly, and to give very good quality playback.  We also recognize that storage space is getting cheapers, and therefore we are not going to worry about the size of the files.  For these reasons, this guide is going to use the DVR-MS format.