Dvd rips

After i rip a dvd to my computer, what do i do with the files?

 

Well, that's really up to you. You can burn them to a DVD as a back up and they'll play in your DVD player as long as you use the standard DVD compliant format: an AUDIO_TS folder which is usually empty, an a VIDEO_TS folder which has the .vob and .bup and .ifo files. Or, you can convert the main movie to DivX/XVid format using AutoGordian Knot or Catalencoder. Both are free and here at Major Geeks. I personally haven't used Catalencoder, but I have used AutoGK and it's fairly easy to use. It takes a while for a good quality conversion, even on a fairly high-end PC, so be patient. Once you have the main movie in a Divx/Xvid file, you can then remove the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders if you want. They take up at least 4gb of space per movie; most movie will take up over 7gb of space with the features, documentaries, language tracks, etc. You can then put the Divx/Xvid files on an external drive, burn 'em to CD or DVD, etc. You can buy home DVD players that will play back DivX files. I have a Philips DVP3140 and it was only about $35 new and it plays DivX and XVid files in addition to regular DVD movies. I can fit 5 or 6 movies on a regular DVD-R and watch 'em on the big screen TV.