Copy DVD to hard drive or flash drive

I'm looking for a good, easy to use, and preferably free tool that would allow me to copy my copyright-protected DVD disks (mostly Disney movies for the kids) to thumb drives/flash cards? I'm not looking to pirate anything; I just purchased the Asus 1000H and want to take it on the trip with us for the kids to watch their cartoons on the plane. Since the 1000H doesn't have the optical drive, I need to figure out a way top copy those disks on to flash media of some sort, or maybe even directly on the hard drive. Any advise would be appreciated.

P.S. I tried Google and downloaded a couple of free programs that are supposed to do it, but both of them either keep locking up, or simply don't do anything on all 3 of my PCs. I'm not "computer challenged", but I can't figure out why they aren't working.

You have to first knock out protection encodings. Download and use DVD shrink to whack the encoding, saving the file (audio_ts and video_ts) to your HDD.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-D...rink.shtml

Then simply add the video_ts and audio_ts files to your thumb drive. Open it with Asus's DVD Player.

Best tool by far is AnyDVD, but it's not free. Many of the free programs don't work anymore because the studios are constantly adding new and different copy protection mechanisms. The result is that any copying program requires constant updates to keep up.

As Mot49 suggested, DVDShrink is an excellent freeware tool. However, it hasn't been updated and cannot remove newer types of encryption. If DVDShrink does not work on your movies, use DVD HD Fab DECRYPTER (freeware) [dvdfab.com] to decrypt your DVD's and copy them to your hard drive. Then use DVDShrink to compress the extracted files so as to minimize the HDD space used.

More info here:
http://www.doom9.org/

Thanks for the links so far. There is so much new terminology that I simply can't keep up with what they are talking about.

I downloaded the DVDShrink and ran a DVD through it. It created 2 folders - AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. The "AUDIO_TS" folder is empty, and the "VIDEO_TS" folder now has several files in it. Total size of the "VIDEO_TS" folder is around 3.8Gb (which makes sense I guess). My question is, what do I do now with those files? I can't seem to be able to open them, nor can I see any options in the DVDShrink to convert those to some other file format (AVI, MPEG, etc.). Do I need to use some other tool to do that? Or am I just missing something?

Quote from akgem1 : I downloaded the DVDShrink and ran a DVD through it. It created 2 folders - AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. The "AUDIO_TS" folder is empty, and the "VIDEO_TS" folder now has several files in it. Total size of the "VIDEO_TS" folder is around 3.8Gb (which makes sense I guess). My question is, what do I do now with those files? I can't seem to be able to open them, nor can I see any options in the DVDShrink to convert those to some other file format (AVI, MPEG, etc.). Do I need to use some other tool to do that? Or am I just missing something?

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/...ayback.htm

You can use VideoLAN to play them. VideoLAN can open a folder and play it like a DVD, wherever you stored it on the hard drive. It's free too.

http://www.videolan.org/

If you use the above mentioned tools, you can copy the DVD as an ISO IMAGE and use a program like Daemon tools to mount said ISO image in a virtual DVD rom drive to function as though the DVD were there already.

Quote from akgem1 : Thanks for the links so far. There is so much new terminology that I simply can't keep up with what they are talking about. I downloaded the DVDShrink and ran a DVD through it. It created 2 folders - AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. The "AUDIO_TS" folder is empty, and the "VIDEO_TS" folder now has several files in it. Total size of the "VIDEO_TS" folder is around 3.8Gb (which makes sense I guess). My question is, what do I do now with those files? I can't seem to be able to open them, nor can I see any options in the DVDShrink to convert those to some other file format (AVI, MPEG, etc.). Do I need to use some other tool to do that? Or am I just missing something?

You need DVD player program to open it. Open your DVD player program, then start/load from file containing your movie name. It's not AVI, MPEG, the two folders are exact copy of your DVD. You can burn it with DVDR drive on a DVD, and it works just like a regular DVD as well.

Quote from M0T49 : You need DVD player program to open it. Open your DVD player program, then start/load from file containing your movie name. It's not AVI, MPEG, the two folders are exact copy of your DVD. You can burn it with DVDR drive on a DVD, and it works just like a regular DVD as well.

I tried the DVD player that came with my HP (HP QuickPlay) and it didn't recognize the files and couldn't play them. But I downloaded the VideoLAN from the link above and it was able to play it.

Ripping the DVDs as ISO images also sounds like a good idea, so I'll have to try that. I'm just wondering if it will be possible to only include the movie itself in the ISO and not the entire disk because they include a bunch of crap that I don't want (previews, extras, etc.)

Yes, DVD Shrink can take just the movie.

Quote from akgem1 : ...I'm just wondering if it will be possible to only include the movie itself in the ISO and not the entire disk because they include a bunch of crap that I don't want (previews, extras, etc.)

Yes, it is possible -- this is what DVDShrink does best -- you can selectively re-author your movie rip, and edit out and unwanted previews, menus, extra features, other langiages, etc., even clip off the opening and ending credits of the movie.

If you are looking for ease of use, I'd recommend DVDFab5. it uses DVDFab decrypter to decrypt the movies and will automatically convert them to DivX format. I use it to convert movies and tv shows we own (tons of spongebob) for my Archos 605WiFi as well as for playback on my HTPC. There are a bunch of profiles pre-configured and you can modify any of them to suit your needs. A few clicks and they are converted to .AVI files. There is a cost associated with it but it is WELL worth paying so that you don't have to take 5 or 10 steps to have the movies converted.

http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd-fab-mobile.htm

they currently have a coupon today for 20% off

I used to play the game of decrypt, then convert, then do any necessary audio fixing... but it takes too long. I have no problems paying for a product that saves me time.

~SB

Old version of Nero should do it