Transferring DVD to PC

[James Henry]

I'd be interested in any advice on how to transfer DVDs to an external hard drive, as I'm experiencing difficulties.

I'm attempting to transfer my collection of Mini DV tapes to my external hard-drive for long-term keeping. As my PC (Dell Inspiron using Windows 7) doesn't have a Firewire port, I've transferred the tapes to DVD (DVD-R) using a DVD recorder but I'm now having problems transferring the DVDs to the PC.

When I insert the DVD in the PC, it shows up as 'Logical Volume Identifier' on the 'Computer' page but there doesn't appear to be any way to save the DVD. Is it possible to save the DVD to the PC at this stage?

If I drag the Logical Volume Identifier icon over to my external hard drive, then BUP, IFO and VOB files are listed. If I click on the right VOB file, then the video shows up in Windows Live Movie Maker and it's possible to save the video as a wmv file. The difficulty is that it appears I can save only a minority of clips from the DVDs by this method. Clicking on most of the VOB files and simply leads to an exclamation mark on Windows Live Movie Maker.

I've looked to see what software is available (eg. Pinnacle) but this seems to focus on transferring tapes to DVD, which I've already done.

Any advice gratefully received! Thanks in advance.

 

[axiomprime]

I think Handbrake can convert to mp4 from an unprotected DVD. You lose quality every time you convert something though. If it's already been though the ringer once you might want to keep it as an MP2 using something like vob2mpg.

 

[senu]

I'd be interested in any advice on how to transfer DVDs to an external hard drive, as I'm experiencing difficulties.

I'm attempting to transfer my collection of Mini DV tapes to my external hard-drive for long-term keeping. As my PC (Dell Inspiron using Windows 7) doesn't have a Firewire port, I've transferred the tapes to DVD (DVD-R) using a DVD recorder but I'm now having problems transferring the DVDs to the PC.

When I insert the DVD in the PC, it shows up as 'Logical Volume Identifier' on the 'Computer' page but there doesn't appear to be any way to save the DVD. Is it possible to save the DVD to the PC at this stage?

If I drag the Logical Volume Identifier icon over to my external hard drive, then BUP, IFO and VOB files are listed. If I click on the right VOB file, then the video shows up in Windows Live Movie Maker and it's possible to save the video as a wmv file. The difficulty is that it appears I can save only a minority of clips from the DVDs by this method. Clicking on most of the VOB files and simply leads to an exclamation mark on Windows Live Movie Maker.

I've looked to see what software is available (eg. Pinnacle) but this seems to focus on transferring tapes to DVD, which I've already done.

Any advice gratefully received! Thanks in advance.

I assume these are non copy protected
Im quite curious as to why the contents are hard to copy
You can try copying them using imgburn , nero ( image recorder)
Using DVD Shrink and then creating an ISO file or DVD folder is an option but really should not be necessary
If you want to import the DVd contents You cold try Sony Vegas Movie Studio trial as opposed to WMM
Can you post up a screenshot of what happens in " My computer? windows explorer page?

 

[James Henry]

Thanks, senu.



The DVDs are not copy protected - I have been able to copy some video clips but not most. For the ones which I can’t copy, Windows Movie Maker simply shows an exclamation mark. (Rather intriguingly, the time shown for these videos is always 7.00 minutes, although not sure how relevant that is).

The ‘My Computer’ page simply shows a DVD icon and says: DVD RW Drive (D LOGICAL VOLUME IDENTIFIER

I think the answer may lie in buying software (and thanks to you and axiomprime for your recommendations). Most of the software I’ve looked at previously seems to be about transferring tape to DVD (rather than to PC) and offers a lot of editing functions I probably won’t use much. I’ll have to look into it further.

 

[senu]

Be careful to buy quality discs too
Good luck