Burning my DVDs to hard disk

[OnMyWay]

I just moved and packed and unpacked all of my U.S. DVDs.  I rarely watch them so I decided I will, as time allows, I will store them on a hard drive and then store away the DVDs, rather than have them all on shelves.

Any recommendations for software to do this?  I downloaded a free one called Freemake, and it seems ok.  It takes about 30 minutes on my slow desktop to make an AVI file from the DVD.

Second question.  What format is best to save them as?  There are many choices and I am not familiar with all of them.  Are some, like MKV, better for BluRay and other HD?  Of course I want to save them in a format compatible with my LG SMART TV, which does play most formats.

[Jollygoodfellow]

What about plain old windows media player or windows media center? 

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

What about plain old windows media player or windows media center? 

Windows 10 media player does not open DVDs.  They have a new DVD player but it only plays.  I don't see media center in W10.

I have VLC media player and it has a save / convert option, but I can't get it to work.  Very convoluted. 

Freemake is super simple.  Just click the type of media you are going to copy, choose it, set a few options like sub-titles, then click on the button for the media type to save to.  I wonder if the pay version might be faster?

[Jollygoodfellow]

I did once hear that Handbrake was a good product but I have no personal experience with such.

 

 https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

[allancomeau]

On 5/24/2016 at 4:42 PM, OnMyWay said:

I want to save them in a format compatible with my LG SMART TV, which does play most formats.

 

First, your are Not burning CD/DVDs - burning is creating a CD/DVD from files (on your PC). You are ripping/copying/transferring them.

Will you have enough HD space? 

For viewing on your TV will you copy to a USB drive?

What formats does your TV support?   

MKV can result is a much smaller file size 

https://lifehacker.com/5893250/whats-the-difference-between-all-these-video-formats-and-which-one-should-i-use

[OnMyWay]

9 minutes ago, allancomeau said:

 

First, your are Not burning CD/DVDs - burning is creating a CD/DVD from files (on your PC). You are ripping/copying/transferring them.

Will you have enough HD space? 

For viewing on your TV will you copy to a USB drive?

What formats does your TV support?   

MKV can result is a much smaller file size 

https://lifehacker.com/5893250/whats-the-difference-between-all-these-video-formats-and-which-one-should-i-use

Well, this is quite old and since then I replaced by desktop computer with a new laptop that does not have a built-in DVD drive.  I still have my desktop computer in the closet so maybe one of these days I will break it out for a DVD ripping marathon.  Maybe I will pay my daughter to do it!

[insite]

I use Handbrake - works well and is fast

[allancomeau]

22 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I still have my desktop computer in the closet

“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.” 
― Robert Burns, Collected Poems of Robert Burns

[Capa]

On 5/24/2016 at 4:42 PM, OnMyWay said:

I just moved and packed and unpacked all of my U.S. DVDs.  I rarely watch them so I decided I will, as time allows, I will store them on a hard drive and then store away the DVDs, rather than have them all on shelves.

Any recommendations for software to do this? 

Second question.  What format is best to save them as?  There are many choices and I am not familiar with all of them.

No need for any ripping software at all! Open the DVD, right click on the VIDEO_TS file, copy to hard drive! As far as format, I like .avi ot .mp4, .mkv seems slow when trying to search or fast forward. I hope this helps!