Other The free HD Decrypter is all you need ?

[Tom20171]

If you are just ripping your DVDs to ISO (without compression) for use with
a WDTV as cheap movie server, is there any reason to buy the full version?

It seems like the free HD Decrypter paired with ImgBurn will let you make
perfect ISOs of just the main movie.

I would never want to use compression because that degrades the video
quality. If all I want to do is make ISOs of the the main movie uncompressed,
am I missing out on anything from the full version ??

[signals]

To do what you want, it's all you need. Note that fixes for new DVD protection will be delayed from the paid version and Blu-ray decryption is limited.

[GregiBoy]

Signals, don't you need the paid version to create ISO's?

I thought the free version would only rip to folders and you would have to go through a 2 step process?

[Chetwood]

Signals was referring to the OPs combination of free DVDfab and ImgBurn.

[signals]

Correct on all counts.

[Tom20171]

I don't buy Blurays because DVDs are 1/2 the price and look good enough
for me on my plasma so that won't bother me. My PC's drive doesn't work
with Blurays anyway.

So I guess I only miss out in the fact that DVD protection updates are delayed.
Well thanks for the very informative answer.

[signals]

You're welcome. You also miss out on factory support and the powerful Customize mode, which is what I use for almost all discs. Merge mode also, but it is used less frequently by most. You can of course still come here for support even with the free version.

[Tom20171]

You also miss out on factory support and the powerful Customize mode, which is what I use for almost all discs. Merge mode also, but it is used less frequently by most. You can of course still come here for support even with the free version.

If I only rip the main movie to an ISO for play on a WDTV, does customize
mode do anything I would need? I can't imagine ever needing to use merge
mode. Thanks again.

[GregiBoy]

No you won't miss out on anything but the way I understand it with the free version, you will have to rip the main movie to folders first and then create your ISO with ImgBurn as a separate process, a two step process.

IIRC, the WDTV will also play the ripped folders natively.

Also, IMHO, you are really not optimising the facilities and space saving that you could. I have been using media players for about 10 years and for DVD's I store them as MKV's with all the audio/sub streams contained within and around an average of 1Gb per movie and with blind testing, the difference cannot be picked. Something you should consider!