Hello all
Iv been working on putting my collection of DVDs on my hard drive for a wile. So far Iv been storing them as imagis and watching them with VLC player. Its nice put the only thing is the DVDs are still like 4.2Gs . Is there anyway to store DVDs so there not so big.




Thanks

If you search, you will find a posting where the poster shows how to compress the video, then uncompress it for viewing. Other than that, you could convert it to divx/xvid, but may get some quality loss..

Just a warning that if you do this, your security scanner programs might scan these all the time and take very long.

I would advise it better to put onto DVD media ie like Verbatim for long term storage granted dvd media can be scratched or broken or warped but you reduce amount of scanning on the HDD for virus or malware. But the reason why they are on DVD are for portablility and flexiablilty. Plus dvd media are inexpensive so spend a little to store your library away. I do this. Also if the HDD goes out or crashes your out of luck to use your HDD. Granted it reduces the amount of lugage you have to carry around that the plus side for HDD. Remember each has a good and bad side to using the HDD or DVD media. So you have to ask your self how portable do you want to be or you watching at home player or computer player??? The reason the media are 4.7G or 8.4G is the amount of extra but compressing it reduces resolution that the scrafice you will take. Granted some programs will reudces but then you loose alot of control of FF or Skip functions related to player functions. VLC has good feature to play just the movies your rip from your media but for me I like to have the full dvd as is and I use WinDVD to play the dvd. I also buy a storage pouch to store all the backup dvd rather then using spindle that you buy the media from the electronics store at that will at least save on tear and wear on the media play surface. So in the end there is alot to factor into going portable and storage of media for longivity to keep enjoying your media for years to come. wheww...maybe other have more to add or edit....to what I said..

I keep all my movies (whether kvcd, dvd, divx) on discs, organized into aluminum cases (the ones they sell at meritline) and indexed with ant movie catalog.

Keeping them on the hard drive is a waste of valuable space. Not to mention, hard drives get slower the more full they get.

i agree....get them off the harddrive...free up space for more movies....
I suggest getting a great burner...and make 2 copies of each...one for viewing and one for backup

The scanning shouldn't be a bit issue if you use an external HD, and only turn it on, when watching movies..

I had always been an advocate of divx/xvid, but now that i have an HDTV, i've found myself going out and procuring DVD copies of all my movies.

The divx files look completely unacceptable on my tv.

There's nothing inherently wrong with DIVX, or any other MPEG-4 format. Given the right bitrate and resolution settings, you shouldn't see any difference at all. Sounds like yours have inadequate bitrates or the wrong resolution for your monitor.

I like this idea the best. If it means a lot to you to have a "consolidated library" of DVD's on your HDD, then this seems to be the best compromise if you're willing to spent a few $. Of course portable HDD's mean that failure chance is increased but you can alwaya have backups too.