Playing a DVD from the hard drive
 

I have a user with a Dell Latitude D430. The only DVD player/software installed is the Dell branded Power-DVD. This user would like to play a specific DVD on her laptop, but she doesn't want to carry the media-base (she travels a lot). I tried to copy the files from the DVD and put them on her hard drive, but they will not play that way.

The Dell branded version of PowerDVD is very scaled back, and doesn't provide any options for selecting file locations, etc. It's simply power up and play.

Is there a way to get this DVD burned/ripped/copied to her hard drive so that she can view it while on the road?

She can use nero.
download the trial version
Nero – Free downloads - latest updates and trial versions

It is best to create a seperate file for her DVDs
then open nero and select the DVD format and then choose to copy disc.
the window will open and show the reading drive and also a destination option. Change the destination option to the new folder and click burn and set back and let it do its work.

Keep in mind that a regular DVD movie will require aproximately 4 to 6 gigs of free space. Some a little more and some a bit less...but 4>6 is a pretty fair average!

Once it is burned to the drive...she can use nero to view it or choose any other DVD player.

NOTE****** there are some videos that just can't be copied due to protective rights management programs. There are ways around this but cannot be discussed in this forum!

To rip the dvd's to the hard drive use DVDShrink from here...

DVDShrink DVD Shrink freeware download

Go here and get Media Player Classic, it does not install so you will need to put it somewhere and run a shortcut to the Desktop.

Open MPC / go to File / Open File then browse to VTS_01_0.IFO in the Video_TS folder of the dvd you have copied to her hard drive. Then click OK.

Free-Codecs.com :: Download Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1 : Media Player Classic is an enhanced version of Media Player 6.4