backing up home made video DVD's to HD help please

happyhero

Hi I do not do much with making DVD's so I am not really an expert with them but I am quite good with anything on PC's in general so I usually end up getting lumbered with helping others out with their PC problems and getting them to work again, etc, I But I have done some DVD making so I have some idea what goes on.

A little while back, my friend who is a teacher in a school asked me to make some DVD's from his video tapes, which after a fiddle we managed, not sure exactly how we did it now but we managed it and basically ended up with some home made DVD's with the usual files you get on the DVD's when they are home made, ie VIDEO_TS folder etc.

Hope that all makes sense to someone, anyway now he has bought a big hard drive and is worried about losing his stuff if a DVD gets damged for example and wants to back them up to the HD, but not to watch them on there, just to back them up.......
...........and then importantly also to be able to make a new DVD from this backup if necessary in the future.

How would you do this, I am perfectly capable of transferring the files to a HD but is that the right way to do it?

Could I just make folders up on the HD with a relavent names and copy the files from each DVD to an individual folder, to keep..... .......and then how would I use these files to make a new DVD, surely just copy and pasting the files to a new blank would not work, or would it, can some one advise me please?

I am hoping to transfer the files to the big HD with him and then instruct him how to get the files on to a new DVD's himself if he ever needs to in the future, so I am hoping it is something simple and maybe he can use some freeware etc to do it or if not some cheap but ok software.

Any help appreciated.

nick5466

I am pretty sure that you will be able to just copy the files from the DVD onto the hard drive, if the DVD then gets scratched you will be able to make a new copy from the files you have on the hard drive.

As DVDs are pretty inexpensive now why dont you try copying one of them over, then copy that onto the dvd to see if it works before doing all of them?

In nero you only need to copy the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS files to make a dvd.

EDIT: As for the free software i am unable to search for this at work

Percy1983

What program are you using to burn the DVD's?

If you are using nero, go to burn and select the image writer and make an ISO disk image. This will be one file which can burn burnt at any time, if you wish you can mount the image in a a program like daemon tools and play it back liek a DVD at anytime too.

Hopr this makes some kind of sense.

aliEnRIK

Use IMGBURN to make an ISO image and simply burn that image

Or you can use DVD DECRYPTOR or simlar to put VIDEO_TS files onto your hardrive and use IMGBURN to burn them

(Both ways are perfectly valid and both programs are free)

Marty_J

You shouldn't need DVD Decrypter if they're home-made DVDs, as they won't have any copy protection.

Just copy the VIDEO_TS folder.

happyhero

Thanks for all the help guys, and ISO image and similar are ok but if I want my friend to do it on his own, a person who does not feel very confident with this stuff but can move stuff between drives and copy and paste, wont just copying the VIDEO_TS folder to the new drive be easier for him and will that be ok, ie will that work if he then copied it to a new blank DVD in the future?

Percy1983

In theory as its a homebrew DVD as such just moving the video ts and audio ts (if present) should work fine.

As it is I do actually make DVD for a local school myself, I just find it a lot easier storing as iso's, also its quicker and easier to burn later if in an iso format.

Which every method they are most comfortable with will work.