Completely New

[ndphotoguy]

Hello all. I have been reading through the forums but am frustrated by my lack of knowledge. My girlfriend and I recently purchased this computer for my bedroom. We'd like to make copies of our DVD collection for either house, but I have no idea where to begin. I've read many of the guides, but they assume a level of (presumably) basic computer knowledge that I lack. So if anyone would be able to even put me on the right track, we would be extremely grateful.
Thank you for your time.

[echooff]

Welcome to the forum.

My girlfriend and I recently purchased this computer for my bedroom.

Do you have one for every room?:p Just kidding. On to more serious matters. Do you want to make dvd's, xvids, divx, vcd's, or svcd's. For dvd there is dvdshrink. Ideal for newbies(anyone really). For xvid there is Autogk, another excellent piece of software. Both of these relatively easy for people who are as yet knowledge challenged in this field. I reccomend you spend the time to read the DVD Basics under the guides section located here. (http://www.doom9.org/) Trust me, you are going to need this knowledge.

[ndphotoguy]

Echooff,
Thanks for the response. Perhaps I should have been a little clearer. I would like to copy some of our DVDs onto my computer to watch or copy some of my DVDs to take to her place to watch (on her DVD player).
Thank you for pointing that link out to me. I have been reading the forums, but didn't even think to look outside the forum for help *shrug*. Trees for the forest, so they say...
And no, I don't have one for each room, though that'd be nice!

[unskinnyboy]

Hi, If your purpose is just to copy the DVDs onto your hard disk (if you have the space), then you can use DVDDecrypter (http://www.overfiles.com/xoops/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?cid=40&lid=473&PHPSESSID=3f46df597120f0371d73459c253a8207) .

[ndphotoguy]

Okay, so I've been tinkering around with Star Wars 1 and have successfully ripped it and was able to view it from my computer without the DVD. First part of the problem down!
I tried to make a copy of it using RecordNow! which came with this computer. Unfortunately the file I got when I ripped the DVD was too big (7.8Gb or so) to fit onto the blank 4.7Gb DVD I picked up. I don't recall seeing any 7.8Gb blank DVDs, so is there some way I can trim the file or shrink it down?
Thanks again for the help!

[ammck55]

DVDShrink is a good place for you to start. Take a look at some of these guides; although it may seem confusing at first, they are well-written and provide a step-by-step approach that you can follow without pulling your hair out.

ddlooping's DVDShrink Guides (http://www.dvdshrink.info/index.php)
Doom9's DVDShrink Guide (http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvdshrink31-main.htm)

ammck55

[CWR03]

I recommend CloneDVD2 - it's fairly simple to use, seems to work with any burner and supports dual-layer. If you just want back-ups of the movie, without the menus and extras, it'll do it with little or no loss of quality. You only have to select the main movie files to copy. Backing up an entire DVD that's 7.8 GB requires either a dual-layer burner (the blank discs are still $10 each) or some compression - you can lose a lot of quality.

[ndphotoguy]

This afternoon I made my first DVD and amazingly it worked in my girlfriend's player without a hitch. I was a little worried about compressing the movie file, but when we watched it, the quality was still far superior to recorded VCR tapes.
Thanks to everyone for their helpful advice!