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From the Wikipedia, a DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. While a DVD works well as a storage device, so does a hard drive.
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Having movies on a hard drive is more of a convince than a necessity. You could take your notebook on trips and watch several movies without packing or worrying about the DVDs. You could watch a movie series from your computer outputted to your TV without getting up to switch out DVDs. Yup, convince - or lazinesses. But to achieve this convince, you must do a little work - funny how that works. You have to transfer the data on the DVD to your hard drive - which is unfortunately harder than just copy and paste.

After searching Yahoo , I found two software programs that seem to do the trick. DVD Decrypter to copy the DVD contents to your hard drive and DVD Shrink to trim and optionally compress the data. And they are both freeware.

DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0 does not seem to have their own home page, so snag from Doom9.net or search Yahoo for.
DVD Shrink 3.2

First launch DVD Decrypter. DVD Decrypter is necessary as some DVDs are encrypted - hence the programs name.

DVD Decrypter settings - General
The default settings work well. I set the Default Destination for convenience.

DVD Decrypter settings - File Mode

DVD Decrypter settings - IFO Mode

DVD Decrypter settings - ISO Read Mode

DVD Decrypter settings - ISO Write Mode

DVD Decrypter settings - CSS

DVD Decrypter settings - Events

DVD Decrypter settings - Stream Processing

DVD Decrypter settings - Sounds

DVD Decrypter settings - Registry

DVD Decrypter settings - Device

DVD Decrypter settings - IO
Yup, lots of options - more is usually good. Again, the defaults work well.

After configuring the software, you are ready to go. Insert a DVD. If the DVD has encryption, then you may see this dialog. Choose your region.

The right side pane show all the files on the DVD.
From FILExt:
.VOB (Video OBject) contains several streams multiplexed together: Video, Audio and Subtitles
.IFO consists of control and playback information for associated .VOB
.BUP is a a backup of the .IFO

Click the green arrow to start copying the DVD files to your hard drive.

And the process beigns. The Total Time Remaining is fairly accurate.

The copy process is mainly disk I/O intensive.

Without too much fanfare, you are done copying the DVD files to your hard drive.

Now launch DVD Shrink. DVD Shrink will allow you combine the DVD files into one DVD video file ie .VOB. You can remove DVD features which you may not need or want and you can optionally compress the video file - thus you can shrink the DVD using DVD Shrink.

DVD Shrink settings - Preferences
You can set the target size of the DVD video file, if for some reason you wanted to record the video back onto a DVD - weird but this setting does help you manage your disk space.

DVD Shrink settings - Preview

DVD Shrink settings - Output Files
The default settings are sufficient.

DVD Shrink settings - Stream Selections
Choose your language to default data selection.

DVD Shrink settings - File I/O
Enabled Overlap I/O did not make much difference for me. If you have Nero installed, you can burn the resulting DVD video files back onto a DVD or CD.

Now to process the DVD files you copied using DVD Decrypter, click Open Files.
Yes, you can bypass using DVD Decrypter and just use DVD Shrink to copy files from the DVD. However, since some DVDs are encrypted, you will have to use DVD Decrypter for those DVDs. By having the DVD files already copied to your hard drive, it is faster to use and test settings using DVD Shrink. Also, you will save some wear and tear on your DVD reader as DVD Decrypter is much faster than DVD Shrink as it is only copying the DVD files.

The first time you open the DVD files, they will be analyzed to optimize the optional compression. This should only take a minute or two, so let it finish. The analysis will not occur again as the results are stored in C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\DVD Shrink\\

On the left is the movie, the menu, and any extras. On the right, you can select or de-select features you may or may not want.

Clicking on Re-author allows you to further remove items you may not want - such as the menus and extras. Drag items you want from the right side to the left side. You can further edit the videos by selecting the video file on the left and then by selecting the two opposing arrows ie resize button. If you are planning on compressing the video, you may want to remove the movies ending credits.

Click on the compression settings. The automatic settings will give you a smaller and quality video with minimal if any noticeable artifacts. You can also enter a lower or higher compression setting to fit your needs. The green bar lets you visually know how close you are to your target size set in the settings. I choose to use no compression since I am planning on leaving the video files on the hard drive. Hard drive space is fairly plentiful and cheap.

Now click on Backup to commit your selections and start the process of creating a single video file. You will be presented with a few more options first.
DVD Shrink Backup options - Target Device

DVD Shrink Backup options - Region

DVD Shrink Backup options - Quality Settings
These settings will be disable if you already performed an analysis of the DVD files.

DVD Shrink Backup options - Options
You can run the Backup process in low priority which would allow you to use your computer for other tasks. The Backup process does not take too long - 10 to 15 minutes depending on your movie and computer.

DVD Shrink Backup options - Burn Settings
If you wanted to burn your DVD onto a DVD or CD - and had Nero installed.Click OK to start the Backup process. The program window will change to a progress meter with a preview of the movie. The time remaining is not very accurate. Expect about 10 to 15 minutes, which is not too bad.

Combining the DVD files and filtering out unwanted features requires a little bit or CPU use, but nothing too bad. Disabling the video preview may help speed up the Backup process on older computers.

Your done shrinking the movie.

Go to the directory where you shrinked the movie. Now you need a media player that can play .VOB files. Video Lan and BSplayer are both good and free media players than can play .VOB files. Once you have installed either media player, double click on the .VOB file and your shoud see ...

.. your movie. You should now be able to enjoy your movie when and how you want. So for about 30 minutes of work you gain a little more convince - and laziness. Yes!

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