Maybe you guys can help

[toohuge]

Gents,

I have asked in the computer forum but no one seems very interested

Anyway, I have been into home theatre for a while now and the idea of DVD's stored on a hard disk somewhere in the house that is accessible by multi sources is very appealing.

I am familiar with networking and the appropriate interfaces that I would want but I have one problem that I am trying to solve as quickly as possible.

Essentially what I would want to do is backup my DVD collection onto harddisk but retain all the menu interaction and special features. My reasons for this are varied and geeky but I am a little unsure how to do such a thing. My initial reaction is that I need to make an image of the DVD, an ISO file, then mount this in a virtual drive to watch the film.

I use Apple based machinery but have access to Windows too, so all help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Chris

[Jinx]

There are little programs out there for free that will mount an ISO image as a normal drive (in windows) - can't remember the name of the one I use I'll post a link when I get home.

[TonyRPH]

There is some streaming software out there (WiZD IIRC) that will stream iso images with the menus intact.

In fact there is also a couple of others, but the names escape me right now.

If I remember, I'll return and edit this post.

[Gingerbread Man]

I have been looking to build a media centre. To back up all my films and music to it and stream it through my amp. I was going to build in the storage as I only need access to the media at one point. If you need access at a few points, could you go for a network area storage setup with a media centre/ apple TV front end to access it from a few different places?

[toohuge]

Gingerbread Man said:

I have been looking to build a media centre. To back up all my films and music to it and stream it through my amp. I was going to build in the storage as I only need access to the media at one point. If you need access at a few points, could you go for a network area storage setup with a media centre/ apple TV front end to access it from a few different places?

yes, thank you for your reply.

I am not worried about the multiple access around the house, I am just concerned about creating a DVD iso or whether there are copyright issues to get around. I am confident with mounting an ISO on a virtual disc but I was hoping for some advice about creating an ISO.

Thanks,
Chris

[Gingerbread Man]

I used to rip a few DVD's in the past. DVD's do have copyright protection on them yes. I used to use a program called dvd decrypter which would bypass the security. I think there are a few out there.

As long as you are only backing up the DVD's you own, I don't think this is illegal, but we'll see how a mod sees it?

[Jinx]

Virtual clone drive http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html