Ripit4me question

If I rip a dvd in the "full dvd" format, would it be possible to play the dvd straight from my hard drive? I know that if I make an ISO file I can mount it to a virtual drive, but Im not sure about the other format this program uses. Anyone know and/or have anything to add about this program? Thanks in advance.

 

well, if it is a vob file you can play it with cyberlink power dvd

 

is there a special way to be able to play the vob files in power dvd? when i rip it there are many different vob files, do i need to select something special to play them all as 1 dvd?

 

also, is there any way to make it so that the vob files or whatnot, equal the same amount of data that are on the regular dvd disc, for example, a dvd will be 4ish gb on disc, when I rip it, it turns into 7ish gb. Is there anyway to make it 4ish on the hard drive?

 

First of all, a dvd is NOT 4gb ish, most dvd movies you buy today are dual layer DVD which is over 8GB in size, of course depending on the compression and things the studio decides to put on the DVD, they might not use the full disc, and also to prevent burning too close to the edge.
Whatever you ripped to your harddrive is whatever they put on the dvd if you choose full disc.

You can make them into smaller files by compressing it or by deleting extras that you don't want such as extra features. However, compressing your ripped DVD will degrade the quality which to me defeats the purpose in backing up in the first place, since backing up is so that you can restore your dvd if it ever gets damaged. However if you just want your movie on your laptop so you can watch it to kill some time on the road, that's a different story, you can compress it to save space, but remember, compress will degrade quality forever, it's not reversible.

To play your dvd from your harddrive as if you insert your dvd as normal:
Open your folder which you ripped your dvd to, locate the first .IFO usually named, VIDEO_TS.IFO, double click on that if you don't have a program associate with that file, choose PowerDVD in your case and check "always open with this program" option, it will then play it in PowerDVD as if you just put in the dvd disc. Next time you can just double click on that file and it will play it automatically on your powerDVD, or choose open file in PowerDVD and locate VIDEO_TS.IFO of certain movies.

TO compress or edit your dvd file, find and download DVDshrink and you can find a guide for how to use the program here: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvdshrink31-main.htm
do a search on it to find download links for the program.

 

When I double click the VIDEO_TS.IFO file, it opens up PowerDVD but it doesn't play anything. What is the newest version of PowerDVD?

 

To play a DVD ripped to folders (not ISO) with PowerDVD, you have to select: "Open DVD file on hard disc drive." Point to the VIDEO_TS folder and PowerDVD will play your DVD. I don't think PowerDVD will play ISO files, but VLC Media Player does IIRC (meaning you can rip to ISO and still play with VLC).

 

i just looked for the "open dvd file on hard disc drive" thing, and it didnt have it. I did notice that its not "just" powerdvd... its Powerdvd dx.....does this mean it wont work?

 

I suggest ditching whatever Powerdvd you have. Try Media Player Classic or VLC Media Player. Both are freeware and will work to play either DVDs ripped to folders or ripped to ISO files. If neither work, then you've ripped wrong.

 

I've found I can click on the 1st VOB file, right click, open, open with selected program from a list, choose WMP 10... enjoy.