Ok, I always backup my original DVDs with CloneDVD+AnyDVD and store them away in my closet & watch the backups.

When I watch the backups, I rip them to my hdd and watch them from there. Is this bad?

The reason I do this is to save wear and tear on the discs and the drive. I have tried DVDIdle, but it never worked right on my system so I started doing it this way.

Peace and Luv,

DJ Mind

It isn't bad, but you are not really saving any wear on the DVD as you probably induce more wear ripping than viewing. Given that you transfer the wear to the HD and hard disks are about the same cost as DVD drives I would say it is your call.

Some people get another optical drive just for ripping, like the Aopen or some Liteon, etc, at cost of under $30, or I use a very old DVD-ROM if I watch DVD-Video on my PC. Don't forget that for playing movies, even 5 years old drive is good, albeit, better to have one that has UDMA and not PIO interface.

If you are worried about the high spin rate of riplock removed drives, then use program like Nero DriveSpeed or similar, works for me too.

I use seperate drives for ripping/viewing & burning.

For ripping/viewing I use my JLMS XJ-HD 166S

For Burning ONLY I use my Nutech DDW-082

I thought that 10 minutes of spinning to rip was better for the disc and the drive than 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours of spinning to view, am I wrong?

Anyone...Anyone??? Bueller...Bueller...Bueller??? Fry...Fry...Fry???

10 min vs. 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours???

I wouldn't worry about wearing out the disk, drive, or HDD.

I appreciate the fact that you wouldn't worry about it, I just want to know which method would be the best.

In my limited experience and what I have read, most drives fail due to electronics and laser failure, not drive motor. In theory, you are right; less time=less wear. The problem is that the moving parts are not what fail and the parts that fail are not moving. I still have a few 1X drives that won't quit.

I would have to say your efforts are a false economizing. A new drive is $50 and it is almost certain that you will want something new before you drive fails through normal use. One heavy user said he found his drives failed, on average, at 15,000 hours of burning. That is 10 years at 4 hours a day. Assuming your drive fails due to wear, reducing wear makes no sense. Your drive will probably fail, if at all, due to something other than wear.

If you do the math it really doesn't make sense to transfer to the HD.

With the prices today of PC DVD-ROM or DVDRW, or the prices of standalone DVD players, no need to worry. Don't forget that standalone DVD players have DVD-ROM drive too