Burn DVD to External Hard drive?

[BajaSteve]

Is there a way to burn a DVD to a Hard drive instead of a MT DVD?
We are trying to cut down on all the DVD's we have. Thank You

 

[George++]

Is there a way to burn a DVD to a Hard drive instead of a MT DVD?
We are trying to cut down on all the DVD's we have. Thank You

Burning a DVD is a term for writing data to a recordable optical disc, you back up a DVD to a HD.

With that said, yes you can back up DVDs to your hard drive, there are two ways to do it:

1. Back up as a file/folder structure
2. Back up as an image file

Do you want the back up to be as close to the original DVD as possible or do you want to strip out un-needed video and/or audio streams so you can save space? You can also compress the output to further save space at a possible visible loss of quality.

Whichever method you want will dictate the tool(s) you need to do the job. The only tool you will NEED is AnyDVD, to remove the protections from the original DVDs. You can back up a DVD using just AnyDVD, AFTER AnyDVD has fully scanned the DVD, either as a file/folder structure (right click the red fox in the notification area and select "Rip Video DVD to Harddisk...") or as an image file (right click and select "Rip to Image..."). The resulting output will be as close to the original disc playback as possible. There are options to remove unwanted menu streams such as copy warnings, just look in the settings window. You set any of these check boxes and any back up made will be affected, even just watching the DVD on your PC.

If you want to remove unwanted audio/video streams and or compress the output you need CloneDVD in addition to AnyDVD. With CloneDVD you can set the output to be either file/folder structure or image file.

Whether you remove unwanted streams, compress and have the output as file/folder or image is up to you. Image files create the least number of files and take up SLIGHTLY less space than files/folders, but the amount of space is not much of a concern.

If you rip to image you need virtual drive software (such as Virtual CloneDrive) to "mount" your images so Windows sees the image as a drive. Virtually all DVD playback software, free or pay, can play back an image as a virtual drive. Not all software can handle files/folders.

 

[George++]

With all the above being said, when I create a back up that I want to store on a HD I back up the DVD as an image without compression using CloneDVD, or occasionally as files/folders using CloneDVD which I then use in Imgburn to create the image.

I remove unwanted audio track stream, video streams and subtitle tracks on virtually every DVD I back up. I rarely compress a dual layer original DVD to single layer size unless after all the unwanted streams have been removed and the compression level is at least 85% or better. Any compression ratio less can result in visible compression artifacts, especially on a large screen TV. What is acceptable compression artifacts is up to you, of course.

I backup to image because I have to deal with (at most) 3 files, the main ISO image file that is the actual DVD, a DVD file that contains the layer break information needed to properly write the layer break for dual layer blank media and an MDS file that Imgburn creates of how the data is to be laid out (not really needed at all). Files/folders output you have to deal with a lot more clutter IMO, and makes for less flexibility when it comes to playback.

 

[tabl10s]

I just backed-up "Ted" to the main HD, but I'm running out of space, so I bought a 4 TB HD save space and have all my movies transferred to. The transfer works fine but not playback. A friend suggested that i install AnyDVD to the HD. Any suggestions?

 

[Ole Eagle Eye]

Can't Get Backup to Work?

:bang:Hey FurryGuy,
Hey Folks - Thank you very much. I got it working. I also downloaded Virtual CloneDrive and can now mount and play the image file from my HDD. I really do appreciate your help.

I also want to simply backup my DVDs to my HDD so I can play them from my HDD and have them function like they do on the DVD. I tried your right click on the Red Fox, after scanning completed, but there were no Rip options on the menu. Any suggestions? I did this in AnyDVD HD. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Adbear]

Did you right click on the fox down by the clock?

 

[wowszer]

When you right click on the icon that icon has to be the one on the lower right of the screen, not the one up on the desktop. The you will get those the menu options. Good luck.