DVD Burning and backup how to?

I'm new to the whole DVD backup thing and would like advice on how to do a couple of things, including some details egarding the differences between ISO's and everything else.

1st: Copy dvd's (when legal of course, like my LOTR which allows one backup copy) directly from disk to disk

2nd: I'm building a small htpc just for fun that I hope to be able to run most of my dvd's off of, and am looking for a way to rip DVD's(when legal) to my PC and play them directly off the PC

3rd: in the case of my htpc, it will only have 1 DL burner and no combo r dvd reader, so I will need to be able to rip to hdd and then Burn in separate processes, so I need to know how to rip something that can later be burned to dvd.

After reading around, I don't believe any of these things are against forum rules, but if I am mistaken, please let me know, as well as if it is in the wrong section. Couldn't find one I thought more appropriate.

Thanks for th advice!!

Also, have Lite On SHM-165H6S DL lightscribe burner and Lite On SOHC-3256V Combo reader.

You'll need to make use of a few programs:

DVD Decrypter: to decode DVDs that have copy-protection, does not compress.

DVD Shrink: This can work to do 2 things you want it to, 1. copy the DVD to an ISO 9.7GB or compress the movie down to a 4.7GB file size for copying to a non dual-layer disc. As dual layer discs are expensive still and I have not seen an dual-layer RWs so I always opt to copy to 4.7GB DVD +RWs as they tend to be VERY reliable and you'll never get a coaster as you can rewrite the disc.

Nero or another program that'll burn ISOs to DVD


If you just want to watch movies off of your hard drive rather than burn to disc then you'll need a fairly large drive as each DVD is 9.7GB. You can use DVDshrink or DVD Decrypter to just extract the Audio TS and Video TS folders which will play off of your hard drive.

There are guides on how to use all these programs over on the forums at afterdawn.com

I second afterdawn.com, lots of info there. I don't think we can talk about this on this forum.

As long as it is legal, as with my LOTR DVD which states that 1 backup is allowed, I believe this is a touchable topic here. I believe... I could be wrong.. it has happened before.