I have an extremely large DVD collection (approximately 900 titles). The sheer number of cases are starting to get in the way. I've decided that I would like to rip them all and use a home theater PC for playback. I can then simply box the originals up and put them in storage. Given the enormity of the task, I am looking for anything to help me in the process.

I have used DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, and Handbrake for my ripping and encoding in the past. My biggest issue with those tools is the amount of manual effort required. They're pretty good for ripping a few DVDs, but I could spend a year working on my current collection that way.

Is anyone aware of a digital DVD library software tool? Ideally, I would like to have something where I could stick the disc in and have the software rip and re-encode the DVD (something MCE-friendly), download cover art, etc. I understand that this is a lofty goal to say the least, so I will be happy for most anything that will help.

I thought I remembered something from Roxio (or a similar company) recently. My searches in the last two days have not yielded much useful information...

AnyDVD will one click rip to ISO or file structure. If you rip to file structure, seperate folder for each DVD you can then quickly configure media center to recognize them. It's a simple registry change.

I've looked at AnyDVD at your suggestion, but I'm not sure that I see the advantage from the feature list.

I have a few specific questions:
Does it automatically download movie title, album art, etc.?
Does it allow for re-encoding?
Does it allow you to ignore menus, special features, etc.?

I am concerned about re-encoding and ignoring special features for space reasons. I figure that I need to try to get the actual movies down to 2 GB each in order to make storage of my entire collection plausible.

Aside from the HD/BD add on, AnyDVD looks like a pay version of DVD Shrink from the feature list. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

I've tried most combinations of software, both free and commercial. IMO, this is is an easy one, the combination of AnyDVD and CloneDVD2 make ripping DVD's to .ISO about as easy as it gets. CloneDVD allows you to strip menus, bonus features, foreign languages, etc, very easily. You can compress to save space if you want or not if you want to preserve quality.

The only down side right now is it does not work with BlueRays.

Downloading cover art and movie information is a function of the media server that you use to play the ripped DVD, not the DVD ripping software.

Laters,
Jeff

Ok, my recommendation:

DVD Copy Protection: AnyDVD, install it so that your DVDs can be read unencrypted.

Encoding: Handbreak, with AnyDVD you don't need a middle step, just load the DVD up in Handbreak and encode away!

You seem to be running a media center PC...so I would strongly recomend using addons to deal with the content. The default MS interface and data sources...stink.

Once you rip/encode and put the movie on your NAS, I'd point you toward MyMovies which has a VERY good GUI for managing the content and a private high quality database of movie information. Just type in the barcode on the DVD box and 99% of the time you find the perfect match...select the directory the file is in (iso, Video_TS, .mkv, .avi...whatever) and click "Add" and your done. It's just that simple.

It is not great for Episodic disks however, I would look at MyTV which is even /more/ simple to run. Just rip/encode each Episode to it's own file and MyTV will ask you to validate it found the right "Show" then automatically import the season/episode information from www.thetvdb.com.

Links:

MyMovies: http://www.mymovies.dk/home.aspx
MyTV: http://mytv.senseitweb.com/

Tybio,

Thank you for the My Movies recommendation. That is precisely the type of interface I was trying to find. I currently use DVD Profiler for cataloging my DVDs, and I really like that interface. My Movies looks to be very similar. From your post, it sounds like My Movies can work with divx or some other appropriate compressed format. Is this true?

I am getting ready to build a theater PC. I am still open to alternatives at this point...

Thanks!

Tiberius8, do you know that plugin exists for DVDProfiler that will allow you to play your movies right from it? I currently use it to play DVD from my 2 Sony Changers and Ripped Media stored on my NAS. Below is the link

http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=166395