So I have bought a whopping 3 digital movies on Amazon. I have even more recently learned that I don't actually download those movies, I can just access them through Amazon's portal. This leaves me looking at my cabinet of discs and wondering how in the hell am I getting all these on the RV? I kinda want to be able to access them if I'm somewhere that I can't get online.

"Rip them, stupid." says my friend Jen. Of course she does, as she is all up to speed on that sorta stuff. I am clueless.

So what program do I need to rip my discs, store them on an external hard drive, how big a drive would I need, and how do I play them? Easy, right?

I think I used WinX back in the day to rip.
VLC Media player is probably the most versatile player.
Hard drive... depends on the quantity of movies. 1TB SSD at Costco for $119. Hard to heat the price.

HandBrake is a very good free program for ripping.
If you are playing on a computer VLC is a good free program.

How much space you need will depend upon how many discs you have and the quality you decide to rip them at.

If you want to play them on the TV most TVs now have a USB port and will play a large number of files.
My Amazon FireTV and Roku both have USB ports so I just plug in the drive and play from there.

There are a couple ways to do this. Here is my method.
1 Download and purchase AnyDvd. This is a dvd ripper that breaks encryption of your legally owned dvd and makes an exact dvd copy onto your hard drive. The End, sorta.

The resulting file is a digital dvd, meaning you can play it with any windows dvd player, and it acts exactly like a dvd. I currently use PowerDVD. The file is also as big as the original dvd, usually 4-8gb. So depending on how many movies you want, that will tell you your hard drive size.

I have a Western Digital portable external hard drive with 2TB of storage and it's almost full. Several hundred movies. Now if size is your concern or you just want the movie and not the "dvd" you can move on to a program called DVD Shrink. DVD Shrink will open the dvd files and allow you to copy just the movie, eliminating all menus and extras(trailers, behind the scenes etc) and save you anywhere from 1-3gb of data. I do this also, to cram more dvds onto my hard drive.
This file will act exactly as a digital DVD as well, without all the menus and such. When you play the dvd in Power dvd it will just jump right to the start of the movie.

In order to play on a tv in your rv you will need a laptop with an hdmi outlet and a TV with hdmi input. Just connect your laptop with your movie hard drive attached, connect to the hdmi and open your Power dvd player. good to go.

If you don't want to do that there is another step. After you rip your dvd with ANYdvd you can convert it with HandBrake. Handbrake will convert DVD files into an mp4 or mk4v video file which is playable on portable devices. Once you have your movie converted to mp4, the file size will be around 1 gb. You can now transfer that file to an SD card of your choice. Again, size will depend on how many movies you want. I use 3 32gb cards for my kids movies. If you have a smart TV, you pop the SD card into it's slot and it should have a player that can access and play it itself. That's something you will have to research. My 2015 Suburban has a slot and player, so my kids can watch the movies right off the SD card.

That's my whole process so far, for Windows. I think I covered everything, but if it gets confusing let me know.

Edited for links.
https://www.redfox.bz/en/anydvdhd.html

https://dvd-shrink.en.softonic.com/

https://download.cnet.com/Hand...2194_4-10808250.html

I use MakeMKV to rip them, then process with Handbrake to reduce the size. Both programs are free and available for mac and pc.
https://www.macworld.com/artic...v-and-handbrake.html

Jeffxjet....I was just looking at a WD 2TB external hard drive on Amazon. What I'm not sure of is if it's SSD or not. I don't think it is as the price is around $60. The Samsung ones of the same size is around $220. LOL

I THINK I would want SSD since it's going to be spending time in a drawer on an RV that may bounce around. LOL

For those using Macs, MDRP is a great choice. Use MDRP to rip to an ISO, or Mk4, or other choices. You can also use Handbreak to do a more custom compress. On average, each movie comes out to 800-1000 Mb.

WRT size, the quality (resolution/encoding) settings of the ripped media, and the length of the movie will greatly affect the amount of storage required. A quick check of movies on my disk indicate that you should expect to consume from about 2GB to about 5GB per 2 hour movie at typical resolutions and encodings (e.g. 1080p/mp4).

With 4GB thumb drives running about $2.50 ea. when bought in quantities of 10, it does not seem unrealistic to use a movie/stick as a storage strategy.

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
Jeffxjet....I was just looking at a WD 2TB external hard drive on Amazon. What I'm not sure of is if it's SSD or not. I don't think it is as the price is around $60. The Samsung ones of the same size is around $220. LOL

I THINK I would want SSD since it's going to be spending time in a drawer on an RV that may bounce around. LOL

Good point, that's definitely non ssd. I leave my portable one inside it's safety packaging. I cut a hole for the cable to poke out so it will survive jostling. You will pay more for less storage on an SSD drive. But it will be safer so it's your choice. I also have a 220gb microsd card for my computer which is good for a bunch of movies in dvd form or about 220 movies in handbrake form. They are pretty cheap and micro, so no space to take up.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
WRT size, the quality (resolution/encoding) settings of the ripped media, and the length of the movie will greatly affect the amount of storage required. A quick check of movies on my disk indicate that you should expect to consume from about 2GB to about 5GB per 2 hour movie at typical resolutions and encodings (e.g. 1080p/mp4).



With 4GB thumb drives running about $2.50 ea. when bought in quantities of 10, it does not seem unrealistic to use a movie/stick as a storage strategy.

While not unrealistic, you will now have hundreds(in my case) of usb drives to manage. Label, store, not lose track of. A far better solution is a 200+gb micro sd card.
https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=m...ure_two_browse-bin_6

Movies especially high resolution and Blu Ray movies can take up a LOT of space so plan your storage accordingly.

All this codex/compression/etc. etc. is gonna take some learning. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
All this codex/compression/etc. etc. is gonna take some learning. LOL

It's not a very steep learning curve once you get going. Let the software do the work.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
I use MakeMKV to rip them, then process with Handbrake to reduce the size. Both programs are free and available for mac and pc.

That is exactly the same method I use. I keep the .mkv files on a long term storage drive, and the reduced size .mp4 files available on DAS to play.

I ripped movies to a laptop hard drive in a portable enclosure. I'm fairly sure the laptop drives have some built in protection from vibration and shock. I used the same method as jeffxjet.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
I use MakeMKV to rip them, then process with Handbrake to reduce the size. Both programs are free and available for mac and pc.

That is exactly the same method I use. I keep the .mkv files on a long term storage drive, and the reduced size .mp4 files available on DAS to play.

Piling on here as I do the exact same thing. I took the next step and installed a Plex server on the computer my external storage is connected to. I've got Roku's on every TV in the house so we can stream any movie in the Plex server to any TV in the house via the Plex app on Roku.

I'm ripping 2 DVDs as I type this.

MakeMKV is the easiest, quickest that I have found, and it's free.
win10 recognizes mkv natively, but windows media player won't play it without a codec pack installed. I use MPC-HC as a player anyway.

4-5 clicks & I'm ripping.
I use MediaCenterMaster to rename, download cover art & movie info.
Then I use Plex as a server to firestick clients.
I compress DVDs & BluRays to h.265 with handbrake to save space. My server has 10TB of drives, it's about half full. Mediacentermaster just told me I have 1792 movies saved to HDD.

quote:

Originally posted by 1gkek:

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
I use MakeMKV to rip them, then process with Handbrake to reduce the size. Both programs are free and available for mac and pc.

That is exactly the same method I use. I keep the .mkv files on a long term storage drive, and the reduced size .mp4 files available on DAS to play.

Piling on here as I do the exact same thing. I took the next step and installed a Plex server on the computer my external storage is connected to. I've got Roku's on every TV in the house so we can stream any movie in the Plex server to any TV in the house via the Plex app on Roku.

Plex can automate this so you don't have duplicates. The 'sync' feature for phones/tablets is awesome.

Even going from compressed h.265 to h.264 is fine since you're reducing screen size. I put a bunch of movies on my phone when I travel & can use it as a local server for a firestick at the inlaws or play direct on the phone on the airplane.

Okay, so what I'm getting is this....

HandBrake and MakeMKV is probably what I should go with software-wise. MakeMKV to pull the info off the discs, HandBrake to manipulate the format for viewing (more or less).

I can use a regular HD, and considering it'll essentially be in the "house", I don't need the durability of an SSD. Maybe something around 4TB.

Sound about right?

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
Okay, so what I'm getting is this....

HandBrake and MakeMKV is probably what I should go with software-wise. MakeMKV to pull the info off the discs, HandBrake to manipulate the format for viewing (more or less).

I can use a regular HD, and considering it'll essentially be in the "house", I don't need the durability of an SSD. Maybe something around 4TB.

Sound about right?

Yes. The .mkv files are quite large, being an exact copy of the DVD. But you can play the .mkv files as is, if you have the storage space for them. Processing them through Handbrake makes a smaller .mp4 file. I get anywhere from 2:1 to 6:1 reduction in size when using Handbrake to process the .mkv file. You can play around with your Handbrake settings to make smaller or larger files from the .mkv.