easy question: watching DVDs and hard drive!!!

[igmolinav]

Hi !!!

I will be buying a laptop with a combo drive. I have my favorite DVDs from "The Godfather" and "Star Wars" that I will want to watch with it.

However, if I take around my DVDs while on a plane or at school, chances are that they may get scratched or damaged.

I don´t want to damage my DVDs by taking them around. I wonder if one can transfer the information from the DVDs, (the movies), to the hard drive, and then watch it.

Thank you very much for your time and kind attention to this question.

ignacio molina
igmolinav.

 

[Frisco]

Yes that is easy to do. You'll need a 3rd party program, such as MacTheRipper

 

[itsbetteronamac]

Yeah, before I ever go on a plane, I rip the movie I want to the hard drive. I use mac the ripper, its so easy, and just works. Also, by using the hard drive you save tone of battery life. I have found I can watch a movie and a half on a single charge. (2hour movies). Just to note once you rip the movie. In order to play it you have to choose "open media" from the DVD PLAYER file menu. And then choose the appropriet folder. Also of worth noting, full DVD quality movies take up A LOT of space. I don't keep my movies on my computer after my flight usually.

Nice little hint. (I know theoretically it's illegal, but I doing the best I can). If you rent a movie from blockbuster, rip it, take a trip, delete it when done, and return video. You can have any movie you want with you, for only $3. DON'T STEAL MOVIES, IT'S JUST NOT COOL!

 

[igmolinav]

Thanks to everyone for their help !!!

Thanks to everyone for their kind response !!!

I have an additional question:

When one "rips" a movie into one´s hard drive, how much time does it take to "rip", how much battery-time does it consume from the total battery-time ???

Thank you very much again,

ignacio molina.
igmolinav.

 

[witness]

When one "rips" a movie into one´s hard drive, how much time does it take to "rip", how much battery-time does it consume from the total battery-time ???

My PowerBook 1.67Ghz takes between 20 and 30 minutes depending on the length of the film. I usually do it with the power connected, so I can't tell you how it affects the battery, but the computer is working quite hard so I imagine that it would deplete your battery quite quickly.

 

[Pine-Tree]

I do exactly what you guys are describing, and highly recommend the app matinee, it does everything you need, combine that with mac the ripper and you have an awesome way to watch ripped dvd's! (of course keep it legal...)

http://matinee.dizandat.com/

 

[After G]

Do you really need an app to do this?

Can't you just make a disk image with Disk Utility from a DVD?

 

[northernleitz]

Do you really need an app to do this?

Can't you just make a disk image with Disk Utility from a DVD?

You really need the app. Mac the Ripper breaks the anti-pirating code on the DVD and installs the audio/video_ts files onto your hard drive. Of course, if you are dealing with a DVD with no protections on it, you could simply drag the video_ts folder onto your hard drive. Then open DVD Player, click file, and open DVD media.

There's also a great program out there called DVD2OneX that allows you to compress DVD files to a specified size and eliminate features such as additional audio tracks and menus to preserve picture quality.