One Tip A Day » DVD

My Movies 3 Launched For Windows 7 Media Center

Tony Williams — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:14:52 +0000

Do you use your PC to watch and play DVDs and Blu-ray movies? Do you burn your disks to your PC or to a server to watch later? If you can answer yes to either of these questions then My Movies 3 is right for you. My Movies 3 is a great free program that helps you manage your movie collection and can also display it on a media center like Windows 7 Media Center with lots of rich information like movie summaries, DVD covers, reviews etc

Collection Management

The My Movies Collection Management product lets you maintain and manage your entire movie collection, letting you add your movies with high-quality meta-data from our online service. You can either manage titles that you have stored on your computer, or home storage device, or you can manage titles you have on the shelf in your home, to bring you in control of which movies you have, including all details about each movie. To add movies to your collection is as easy as entering the movie title or the barcode of the movie which you can even scan with a webcam.

Once the right movie has been selected it is added to the database along with rich movie information including release dates, descriptions, artwork, ratings, cast details etc – all automaticially:

Media Center

If you use Sage TV, XBMX or Windows Media Center then you use the data created by the collection tool to enrich the inbuilt movie libraries. If you use Windows Vista Media Center or Windows 7 Media center, then My Movies 3 has its own great addon for Windows Media Center that allows you to navigate and enjoy your movie collection. You can quickly see what films you haven’t watched, sort by genre, age categories, actors etc and find the latest movies in your collection

My Movies 3 is simply one of the best free Media Center programs available. If you want to learn more, click here.

Best DVD Ripping Tools

Tony Williams — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:51:39 +0000

If you are looking for a great DVD ripper then in my view you can’t go wrong with DVD Fab, and the latest version DVDFab HD Decrypter even lets you rip HD-DVDs (soon to be collectors items!) and Blu-Ray discs.

If you’re looking for alternatives, then the Lifehacker site did a poll to find out what their readers thought were the Best DVD Ripping Tools. My choice of DVDFab was in there, but one that caught my eye was DVD Shrink. This free app not only offers one click DVD ripping, but is also able to compress 8GB dual-layer DVDs so that they fit on a standard DVD disc, which is very handy.

To see what other DVD rippers made the cut, then click here.

Nero DriveSpeed: Slow Down DVD And CD Drives For Quieter Playback

Tony Williams — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:07:32 +0000

I have to admit that it’s rare that I use my DVD drive, as I tend to use USB keys. However, whenever I have to use my DVD drive I hate the loud whirring noise that it makes.

I’ve just followed this advice to install Nero DriveSpeed that allows you to slow your DVD drive down so that it spins slower and makes less noise, when you don’t need it to transfer data as fast as possible. This works great if you are listening to music or watching a movie, and would rather focus on the audio track rather than your DVD’s screeching.

Once installed, Nero DriveSpeed pops up automatically when a disc is inserted and asks you if you want to run in Fast or Silent modes. It’s also possible to set your own custom read speeds.

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Rip DVDs In One Click With DVD Rip

Tony Williams — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:49:50 +0000

Although I’m a big fan of DVDFab, it can be a bit tedious having to click through the same settings every-time I rip a DVD to my hard drive. If you like to optimize every step of your life, then checkout DVD Rip which allows you to rip DVDs in one click.

The service was put together by the clever chappies over at Lifehacker, which is a great read for anyone who wants to make better use of the limited time they have everyday.

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Use DVDFab HD Decrypter To Copy HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Discs

Tony Williams — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:04:51 +0000

Regular readers of this site will know that my favorite app for copying DVDs is DVDFab Decrypter. Will DVDFab has just got even better with the release of DVDFab HD Decrypter, which adds HD-DVD and Blue-Ray support.

Now it’s even easier than before to rip your DVDs to your HDD and to also remove any protection that will stop you playing your films on other PCs or streaming them to media centers.

More: DVDFab HD Decrypter

Rip Music From Movies And DVDs

Tony Williams — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:53:34 +0000

I have a song on a music DVD that is currently my favorite, and I blast it out everyday and I started looking for a way to copy it to mp3.

It didn’t take me long and Martin from gHacks posted the solution today. Free DVD MP3 Ripper allows you to rip music from movies to a mp3 file. Great for your favorite tracks or for creating audiobooks.

Free DVD MP3 Ripper supports vob, dat, mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 movie files which translates to DVDs, (S)VCDs and MPEG movie sources.

More: Free DVD MP3 Ripper

Repair Scratched CDs and DVDs With Toothpaste….

Tony Williams — Wed, 16 May 2007 20:13:47 +0000

I’m posting this tip because I really hope that it works. Apparently a very good way to remove scratches from CDs and DVDs is to use toothpaste – this is not some old wives tale. Just check out the video below to see this in action.

To remove scratches all you have to do is smear toothpaste over the disc, wash it off with running water, and then dry the disc with a soft towel or T-shirt.

If you are brave enough to try this please let me know!

Remove Scratches From Anything Using Toothpaste – video powered by Metacafe

Ten Things You Should Know Before You Buy An Upscaling DVD Player

Tony Williams — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:38:31 +0000

Amidst all the buzz surrounding HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD players, there are two ways to get more out of your current DVDs to make them look better. If you are comfortable using a screwdriver and installing software you could buy a second-hand Xbox and install a mod chip that allows you to upscale your DVDs and make them look sexier.

However, if you are a mere mortal and want a way to upscale your DVDs without any fuss, then buying a Upscaling DVD Player is probably the best move. You’ll be amazed how much life an Upscaling DVD can add to DVD movies. Upscaling DVD Players are coming down in price every month, and if you are considering buying one here are some questions you should be asking yourself or the retailer:

What resoulutions does it support? The usual suspects are 720p, 1080i and 1080p with 1080p being the best available. However, many people say that unless you have a very big screen you probably won’t be able to tell the difference between the dfferent resolutions. If you can save money by not getting a 1080p DVD player, then you should consider this.

Does your TV support HDMI? Some players that do upscale to 1080i or 1080p only do it over HDMI. If you’ve got an older set with only component cables, then make sure that your DVD player upscales over component cables as well.

Does it have wireless? this can be big boon in a DVD player as it means you can connect it to your home network and stream content. Great if you hate burning DVDs.

For more great tips on buying an Upscaling DVD player, check out this great post.

How to enable the DVD Library in Windows Vista Media Center

Tony Williams — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:59:34 +0000

Iv’e spent a lot of time copying my DVD library to my computer’s Hard Disk to protect my disks and to save having to swap them around everytime I want to watch them. In Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, DVD content that was stored on the hard disk automatically appeared in the My Videos folder, but it didn’t in Windows Vista.

I’ve finally worked out how to get my DVD Library to appear under Windows Vista Media Center and it involves a quick registry change to enable the ‘DVD Gallery’ feature that Microsoft have disabled in the default settings.

Warning: Remember all registry changes are made at your own risk.

Exit Windows Media Center if it is running.
Click StartStart button, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then click regedit in the Programs list.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

In the results pane, right-click ShowGallery, and then click Modify.
Delete the contents that appear in the Value data box, type Gallery in the Value data box, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor

Now all of your DVD titles should appear in the new Vista DVD Gallery, providing easy access.

How To Make Your DVD Player Region Free

Tony Williams — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:36:19 +0000

DVD Region Codes are really annoying. The industry originally said that they were necessary to control distribution of DVD titles, but the real reason was to stop users buying cheaper DVD copies in other countries.

Some DVD players allow you to change the region a set number of times, and although other methods do exist they sometimes can be quite complicated and sometimes risky leaving you with a DVD player that doesn’t work at all.

If you are looking for a way to make your DVD Player Region Free then check out videohelp that contains instructions on how to make 5000 DVD players Region Free. Martin from gHacks followed the instructions for a Samsung DVD player and the instructions were very simple and just involved a few codes that had to be entered via the remote.

Avi2DVD – Burn And Play Your Video Files On DVD For Free

Tony Williams — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 19:36:58 +0000

AVi2DVD is a freeware program that converts AVI video files to ISO files so that they can be burnt to DVD, VCD or SVCD. This means that you can play any video files stored on your PC on a standard DVD player.

Avi2DCD is an All In One tool in order to convert with just few clicks an Avi/Ogm/Mkv/Wmv/Dvd to Dvd/Svcd/Vcd file will be playing in your DVD. It even supports multiple audiostreams and up to three textual external subtitles.

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How To Backup DVDs

Tony Williams — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:19:46 +0000

Backing up DVDs can be vital. I’ve started backing up vital software where I don’t want to risk scratching the originals.

gHacks has put together a list of free software that will help you make copies and get around DRM issues. I tend to use Rip it 4 Me, which is a frontend for DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink which adds ways to those programs to backup a DVD even when it is copy protected. You do need one of the two mentioned programs to be able to use Rip it 4 Me.

Martin also recommends installing FixVTS which allows you to adjust your DVD files into better DVD compliance.

More: gHacks

Easy Way To Copy DVDs

Tony Williams — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:22:25 +0000

Copying DVDs can sometimes be very hard – even if they are yours and you just want to make a backup. If you want to archive your DVDs to your PC without losing any quality at all then try out the great free DVDFab Decrypter.

This great piece of Freeware copies the complete disk including special features, trailers and menus getting around any disc protection. All you have to do is:

Insert the DVD disc
Choose a directory where you want the copy stored
Press ‘Start’

Make sure you have enough storage on your PC as each DVD takes up on average 4GB of storage. If you have a modern PC this shouldn’t be a problem as it should have a big Hard Drive.