Tips & Tricks, Tutorials, Hacking, Troubleshooting,

If you recently purchased a Blu-ray player or getting one soon, one thing you might want to do is backup your current DVD collection. Here we take a look at how to rip and convert your DVD collection to ISO images using free tools with Windows 7.

1. First download and install DVDFab if you don’t have it already. Put your DVD in the drive and launch DVDFab. It’s not free but they do offer a free 30 day trial, and you can always use the DVD Decoder feature for free. DVDFab will open the DVD and pull out it’s information.

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2. There are a few things you need to setup before starting the encoding process. Open the Copy DVD section, select Main Movie or Full Disc, and make sure you have a output target setup for the ripped VOB files. Also, an interesting feature is you can preview individual chapters in the lower left corner.

In this example we’re backing up a Frasier DVD so were selecting Main Movie to get all the episodes on it.

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3. Under DVD Copy – Main Movie make sure the chapter with the longest time is selected as shown below and click Next.

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4. In the next screen you can create your own Volume Label or go with what it defaults to…if you need to make any changes you can always go back and select different chapters. If everything looks correct click on Start.

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5. You can view the progress while the process completes and when it’s done, you’ll get a popup message indicating it completed successfully. Click OK and Finish to close out of DVDFab. Notice it only took 14 minutes to complete which is one reason we like this app.

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6. To verify the encoding process was successful, navigate to the location of the ripped VOB files from the DVD. In this example it’s in our Target Output folder which is in C:\Users\i3Geek\Documents\DVDFab…but you can use whatever directory that is convenient for you. In that directory open the Main Movie folder.

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7. Then the Volume Label folder.

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8. Then the VIDEO_TS folder.

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9. In this folder you’ll find the VOB files from the DVD.

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10. You should be able to view them in VLC or any media player that plays VOB files like Windows Media Player.

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11. It’s always a good idea to take this step so you can verify you ripped what you wanted and the files play successfully.

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12. Now it’s time to turn the VOB files into a single ISO image. Download and install ImgBurn if you don’t have it already – installation is easy just follow the wizard and accept the defaults. One thing to point out though is you probably will want to uncheck the boxes when the installer offers to install the Ask Toolbar – unless you want it for some reason.

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13. After you have it installed launch ImgBurn. You will see two screens, one is the main control panel and the other is a log screen so you can view the conversion process and check for any errors.

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14. From the main control panel click on Create Image file from files/folders.

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15. In the next screen under Source click the folder icon to browse for the VOB files.

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16. Then browse to the folder you saved the ripped DVD files.

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17. Then click on the folder icon under destination to store the ISO image.

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18. Browse to a convenient location to save the ISO image and click Save.

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19. So here we have the source folder selected and a destination for the ISO. If everything looks good click on the build button to start creating the image.

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20. If you didn’t create a Volume Label you’ll get the following message asking if you want to use the one it generated for you…click Yes.

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21. You’ll then get an overview of the details and specs for the ISO image. If everything looks correct click OK.

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22. Now wait while the image is created. You’ll see the progress while it’s being written and the ImgBurn Log. While the image is being created under Label you might want to check the Close Program box. Otherwise you’ll get a loud annoying sound and message letting you know it completed.

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23. After ImgBurn is done creating the ISO image of the DVD, navigate to the location where you saved it and you can start using it. You can watch it with VLC, mount it on a virtual disc drive, or burn it to a blank DVD.

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That’s all there is to it! It may seem like a lot of steps, but once you do it a couple times you’ll be converting your DVD collection to ISO files quickly. One thing to keep in mind is when converting a DVD to and ISO, the size is usually going to be 4GB, so make sure you have plenty of disc space if you’re converting a lot.

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