How to convert DVD/CD to Digital

Sandie01

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Hi
Back in the day I converted loads of camcorder tapes to DVD and CD's, I would now like to convert these to digital so that I can view them anywhere and will not scratch as some appear to have done.

Can anyone advise best free software to do this and if easy as I really need an idiots guide to do this

Thank you for any help
 
Thank you Stearman65,
I have no idea if they are MP4, I will however look at the info you sent over.
Out of interest if I converted them would the menu's also be shown so that when on my external hard drive I wanted to play them, all would appear the same as if putting a DVD in.

Thank you for your help.
 
Just hover your mouse over the file name on the DVD/CD or look in properties, that should give what format they are. Not sure about the menus. I assume you are using W10, depending on the version, there may be a converter in there?
 
If you have menus then they are in DVD format

If you convert them to ISO files then menus and other features will be preserved. You can then use something like VLC or Kodi to play them back, it will be exactly the same as putting a physical disk in your DVD drive. Just select your DVD drive and name of ISO file you want created.

Note: this will not recompress the files or anything so the ISO file will be 5GB.

 
ok so I have transferred a home movie through MakeMKV onto an external hard drive, the video can be played, although no menu is displayed which is a little dissapointing as there are different sections of the DVD.
Is this all I need to do as I have read I need to convert to MP4, stearman65, I have looked at DVD but cannot find any details (my computer knowledge is basic however)
As mentioned the idea is to safely store them and easily watch them.
Thank you for all help
 
ok so I have transferred a home movie through MakeMKV onto an external hard drive, the video can be played, although no menu is displayed which is a little dissapointing as there are different sections of the DVD.
Is this all I need to do as I have read I need to convert to MP4, stearman65, I have looked at DVD but cannot find any details (my computer knowledge is basic however)
As mentioned the idea is to safely store them and easily watch them.
Thank you for all help
MKV do not support menus, the only way that I know off to have menus is to use the ISO method I mentioned in post #5

ISO files are widely supported by most playback software, VLC and Kodi are probably my two favourite ones.
 
Hi Everyone
I am really struggling with this as not really sure what I am doing.
I want to save all my home DVD's of camcorder holidays to a digital format as the DVD's are starting not to play, I have done as suggested, tried to convert it in VLC but if I untick the menu, it just records only the menu on a loop, if I tick it, it does then copy the DVD but not all of it.
I also got confused with the format I should select, i chose convert H265 + MP£ (MP4), there is no mention to convert to an ISO file.
It just isnt giving me what I am after, does anyone know of an idiots guide in how to do this or why it is not working for me.
Thank you for anyone's help, I seem to have spent hours trying to figure this out but no where on the internet is a clear recommendation.
 
VLC is for playback, not converting it.

You can use something like DVD to ISO for converting it,
 
Thank you , understood about VLC now

I do have a trial version of WinX DVD but do I choose

Clone DVD to folder
Clone dvd to ISO image
MP4 Video (programme ticks this as
recommended)

As mentioned I am transferring home videos to digital to protect them and also enable me to view them anywhere

Thanks for anyone’s help
 
As I mention, MP4 does not support menus. Clone DVD to folder or ISO should produce a format that VLC can use.
 
Hi Sandie,

Have you managed it yet? If not, the method I used is to create an ISO file. An ISO is one big container (a single file) which contains the entire DVD inside it. This means when you play it back on the computer, it is identical to the DVD, including menus.

To create an ISO, I use Daemon Tools. Here are some step-by-steps on creating an ISO....

To play the ISO file once you have created it, you need to 'mount' it to your PC. Again, use Daemon Tools to select the ISO file. Daemon Tools then creates a pretend DVD drive with the contents of your ISO available.

Then open up your favourite media player and choose 'open DVD' or however you normally do it. Select the DVD that Daemon Tools has created and it will play the file.

Keep all of your ISO files safe, these are effectively your DVD copies, and just mount the one you want when you want to watch it.

Hope that helps.
 

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