Storing Movies on Hard Drive

I just finished emptying all the crap that we accumulated out of the coach (RV) over the last 4 years, JEEEEZZ filled up 1 of the bay's of my 4 car garage. While doing this, I counted over 100 DVD's that take up a lot of space.
This got me thinking, ( a lot of smoke coming outa my ears) why not copy all these onto an external hard drive. This to reduce the space that all the movies take up and maybe even all the music I have stored also.
I'm using a Mini Mac at home and a Mac Book Pro to take to the boat. Problem is I'm having a hell of a time finding a good program that is easy to use that will allow me to copy movies onto an external hard drive.


Anyone got a solution?

Thanks"........John

Yes, but it's still a complex process. I use the following, and have created a library of several hundred movies. ll this in on a Mac

1) I use MakeMKV to extract the movies from DVDs and Blurays and turn them into MKV files. The advantage of MakeMKV is that it can process BluRay disks as well as DVDs. One of the trickier parts of running this program is that you have to figure out which of the "tracks" on the disk is the actual movie. Sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes not so much. I usually do this part as a side project while I'm doing something else like web browsing or watch TV.

2) Use Handbrake to convert the MKV files into MV4 files that are playable on iTunes and an Apple TV. You can create a queue of files to process in Handbrake, so I typically collect up all the MKV files that I created during the day, and let Handbrake convert them overnight. It's a slow process.

3) At this point you can import the files into iTunes, but if you take one more step it will create significantly better results. Use iDentify to find all the meta data for each movie, and attach it to the .MV4 file. iDentify searches a variety of Movie databases like IMDB and gathers the correct title, genre, plot synopsys, major actors, artwork, etc. If you do this before importing them into itunes, then all the info will show up in itunes and the movies will be categorized and searchable by genre etc.

It's a tedious process, but it works and the end results are good.

Thanks Twisted!

Am I correct in assuming that these are all separate software or apps?

I may end up PMing you.

John

I use tunebite a software program that copies what is played on the screen. Movies on hard drives is popular here in the Caribbean as space aboard is valuable and for almost all of us there is no TV.

Just as with trading books and music swapping movies on the hard drives is frequent. Legal issues are many.

I use DVDFab. Works a treat and I especially like the fact that I can copy ONLY the main movie in English if I want--skip all the menus, special features, and other languages--which can dramatically reduce the amount of space needed.

If all you are converting are DVDs, then there are a number of alternatives to MakeMKV, and some can eliminate the intermediate processing step with Handbrake. MDRP is an example of a program that will "rip" a DVD and directly create an MV4.

It becomes much more difficult if you want to store BluRay disks on your hard drive since they are encrypted. That's where MakeMKV comes into play. I have yet to find a disk it can't convert.

For a while I was using MDRP for DVDs to avoid the intermediate Handbrake processing step. But after a while I realized it was actually taking me longer than doing the conversion in two steps using MakeMKV + Handbrake. When you process the DVD in a single step, it takes a much longer time that just extracting the data and putting it in an MKV file. I found the fastest way to convert a batch of DVDs was to do the first step quickly with MakeMKV and crank through a bunch of DVDs while watching TV and otherwise vegging in the evening. Then let the long conversion process run automatically overnight by queuing up all the conversions for Handbrake to crunch while I was sleeping.

Bay Pelican said:

I use tunebite a software program that copies what is played on the screen.

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I've heard about programs like that, but never tried them. It would be great to be able to stream and capture a netflix video when you have access to good internet, then play it back later when you don't. Kind of like Tivo, but without it.

How is the video quality?

We almost never watch a movie twice. So we rent and download from iTunes. If we wanted to watch it again, we would rent it again.

drb1025 said:

We almost never watch a movie twice. So we rent and download from iTunes. If we wanted to watch it again, we would rent it again.

Click to expand...

That works great as long as you have sufficient internet. What we've focused on is building up a collection of movies that we can watch when we have no internet, or where it's too slow or metered and impractical for streaming or a download.

twistedtree said:

I've heard about programs like that, but never tried them. It would be great to be able to stream and capture a netflix video when you have access to good internet, then play it back later when you don't. Kind of like Tivo, but without it.

How is the video quality?

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Video is satisfactory. You have several format choices which will vary the size of the file and the quality. Also the format for playback which is important depending on your playback device.

What is better since you are not defeating the copyright protection on the DVD you are not violating the US law against software which neutralizes the copyright protection.

Thanks everyone for the imput. As I suspected, it gets more complicated than just burning a copy. Was sorta hoping that a one software solution was available, guess not.
The intent is to store movies and access them when no Internet is available. I've talked to several people about sat tv reception and it gets spotty the farther north you go along the ICW of Canada, hence the reason for storing movies on a hard drive.
I guess the next question is how much space does a typical movie take up? I've heard from 15-20 meg per hour of movie. So a typical 2 hour movie takes up about 30-40 meg. I'm assuming that is compressed. Is that pretty accurate?

My experience is 700 meg plus per movie.

700meg sounds about right fro standard definition. BlueRay will be about 4gb per movie. But a 3TB drive costs about 5 cents, so it's really no big deal.

DVDs are encrypted too. You need a program that can decode the encryption and put it on your hardrive. The decryption process violates the piracy laws.

An alternative is to get a DVD player program that will play a DVD from a folder. The player sees the folder as a hardware DVD, but the files still have the encryption on them. You can copy these to the hard drive using Windows file explorer. You will get a folder with a bunch of .VOB files in it. There are a number of programs that will play these files as a DVD (e.g. BlazeDVD).

Depending on what you do with the .VOB files may violate the piracy laws. If you keep them for yourself from a disk you bought you are probably ok. If you copy the files from a disk you got from a library, you are in a grey area. If you give the files to anyone else or received them from someone, you are definitely violating the piracy laws.

The average DVD disk will result in a folder size of about 7-9 Gb. A Blue-ray disk can be up to 25Gb.

Be aware that Canadian authorities are on the lookout for these sorts of things (at least at airports). They can confiscate any or all of your electronic devices if they suspect that there is pirated content on them for examination. You may get your stuff back in several weeks if they don't find anything untoward on them. If there is pirated content, well.....

Why not just get one of those large 200 CD carrying cases and put them in it?

Boathooked said:

Why not just get one of those large 200 CD carrying cases and put them in it?

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Space. A cruiser who lives on his boat for months at a time with no access to off boat storage has a continual battle with how much can be brought on board. This is particularly true once you leave the first world countries and have to stock large numbers of spare parts because many things are not available locally.

I admit that I know very little about long term cruising/live aboard (thus why I am on here to learn) but is something that is 14.5 x 12.2 x 5.0 really that hard to find space for??

TekNmotion 320 Disc Case/Organizer, Black - Walmart.com

Bay Pelican said:

Space. A cruiser who lives on his boat for months at a time with no access to off boat storage has a continual battle with how much can be brought on board. This is particularly true once you leave the first world countries and have to stock large numbers of spare parts because many things are not available locally.

Click to expand...

It is a similar mindset for my oldest son in the military. He is returning soon from two years serving in Italy. He sold his car and the balance of his worldly possessions fit into a suitcase, carry on, and 3 well packed duffle bags. He'd make a great cruiser. He also has a 600+ title movie collection. Jewel cases and discs are a waste of space in his world so only purchases electronic copies via iTunes etc.

ssobol said:

An alternative is to get a DVD player program that will play a DVD from a folder. The player sees the folder as a hardware DVD, but the files still have the encryption on them. You can copy these to the hard drive using Windows file explorer. You will get a folder with a bunch of .VOB files in it. There are a number of programs that will play these files as a DVD (e.g. BlazeDVD).

The average DVD disk will result in a folder size of about 7-9 Gb. A Blue-ray disk can be up to 25Gb.

Click to expand...

A program like that would run on a laptop (for example) with the display routed (as with HDMI) to a larger TV screen? A simple copy from DVD to hard drive gets all the necessary files, preserves all the necessary formatting, etc.? Some suggested player program names?

Boathooked said:

Why not just get one of those large 200 CD carrying cases and put them in it?

Click to expand...

Bay Pelican said:

Space. A cruiser who lives on his boat for months at a time with no access to off boat storage has a continual battle with how much can be brought on board. This is particularly true once you leave the first world countries and have to stock large numbers of spare parts because many things are not available locally.

Click to expand...

This is what we do now, without the jewel boxes. Our current folder holds about 100 disks and is the size of a 3" binder. I don't begrudge that amount of space, yet... but then again, 100 is a relatively modest "library" and required space for this approach could become an issue sometimes in our future.


FWIW, there a loooong thread on cruisersforum abou the topic. I haven't seen solutions that don't look like too much work, right now... so that "just play it from a folder" option sounds about the easiest I've heard, so far.

-Chris

Crusty Chief said:

Thanks Twisted!

Am I correct in assuming that these are all separate software or apps?

I may end up PMing you.

John

Click to expand...

Please don't take conversations like this offline. There are others whom benefit from these.

Take the nonsense about "What marina are you in? I'm in <blah>." is the stuff to take offline. This stuff I, for one, am interested in. I'm sure there are others.

Shrew,
I'm an old fart and not very IT smart. I prefer a phone conversation over a lengthy back and forth Text like my kids and Grandkids. Since I haven't actually PMed Twisted yet, my intent wasent to prevent a viable discussion within the context of this forum, but nearly help me understand the process verbally with someone who has done it.
I have often gone to the Genius Bar at the outlets and come away frustrated as a 20 something young buck has a difficult time explaining to this old fart how it's done.
A lot of very good suggestions from many members so far and many more to come I hope. After all that's what this forum is all about.
Sorry if it appeared that I was circumventing the thread as that wasent my intent, and your point is well taken.
John

ranger42c said:

A program like that would run on a laptop (for example) with the display routed (as with HDMI) to a larger TV screen? A simple copy from DVD to hard drive gets all the necessary files, preserves all the necessary formatting, etc.? Some suggested player program names?

Click to expand...

There are too many players to list. Search for "DVD Player Software". Some are free, some cost a reasonable amount of money. If you do Windows, Windows Media Player may be good enough.

You can play on or from a laptop or a tablet (if it has HDMI out) to a larger screen. A laptop may be better than a tablet because of more storage space available.

Some TVs now will play videos from USB sticks or SD cards. You could have a bunch of movies on a handful of memory devices (which would not take much space).

ssobol said:

There are too many players to list. Search for "DVD Player Software". Some are free, some cost a reasonable amount of money. If you do Windows, Windows Media Player may be good enough.

You can play on or from a laptop or a tablet (if it has HDMI out) to a larger screen. A laptop may be better than a tablet because of more storage space available.

Some TVs now will play videos from USB sticks or SD cards. You could have a bunch of movies on a handful of memory devices (which would not take much space).

Click to expand...

Fair enough, I can search.

I've played DVDs on our laptop, displayed on the TV via HDMI out from the laptop... and that's straightforward... but that was a real DVD, not a copied DVD from something like an external 3TB hard drive or whatever.

I think there's maybe a Western Digital stand-alone hard drive that might be designed for stuff like this, but haven't really looked into it...

-Chris

Run the external hard drive through your laptop connected to the TV via the HDMI cable for the same result.

CPseudonym said:

Run the external hard drive through your laptop connected to the TV via the HDMI cable for the same result.

Click to expand...

Yep, sounds like it. Have to admit, I never tried to copy a DVD, after once looking at the file structure and not being able to make mush of it. I didn't bother to educate myself much about the various components, file types, etc... since the DVD folder/binder thing has worked so far.

-Chris

Be cautious about how you are going to play the movies on your TV. There are different formats for movies, e.g. wmv or avi. The first is Windows Media player. I don't know what the second one stands for. Anyway the Western Digital player I bought would play avi but not wmv. My LG DVD player will play wmv off a hard drive but not avi.

Suggestion get your player first and make copies after you have determined the correct format.

Having tried a number of ways of doing this I prefer my $65 LG DVD player with a 2 TB hard drive hooked up to it. I have a universal remote which runs the DVD player and the TV.

Thanks everyone for the help.
I have a short term solution, my son will fill up a hard drive for me!!!!
Maybe he can show me how it's done. But if not...I'll get him a bigger hard drive and get more movies.
Thanks again, John

Boathooked said:

I admit that I know very little about long term cruising/live aboard (thus why I am on here to learn) but is something that is 14.5 x 12.2 x 5.0 really that hard to find space for??

TekNmotion 320 Disc Case/Organizer, Black - Walmart.com

Click to expand...

A friend had one of those and frankly I didn't like it. Any time he wanted a movie you had to flip through page after page (four DVDs per) to find what you were looking for. It disturbed my sense of organization.

I'm still in the dark ages with cases, sorted in alphabetical order. It's not the best and I would prefer the hard-drive option. At this point I don't have a TV though I do have a 12-volt (automobile) DVD player that works well.

Being able to store a plethora of movies sounds great however with the 100 or so movies I have, I tend to watch and re-watch them. There's enough variety.

And when I get tired of a movie I either resell it on Buy , Sell , Search Textbooks , Music , Movies & Games Online at Half.com or pass it along at a marina with a swap shelf.

Side note for the economical: Half charges $3 shipping for the first DVD (Amazon nicks you for $4) and if you buy from the same seller, additional movies are just $2 shipping per... something to consider anyway.

Based on this thread, i just bought the Audials Tunebite 12 Platinum for all of $33.

With my 5 cent only 2 TB external drive that is just collecting dust, I think I'm Good to Go (a sidebar, a great book by the way)

thanks all