Copying A Video From A Disc To The Hardrive

[FatBoyEric]

I've been given a copy of the British Councils 'Masterclass ELT Teacher Training Videos', which consists of 3 discs. I have been asked to copy the discs onto around 100 student computers so they can improve their English. Of course they'll be eager to switch off their online games & MSN'ing & bore themselves to death by these videos.

Now when I place disc 1 in the slot & fire up a recent version of Win. media player, it works wonderfully well. When I copy the contents of disc 1 into a folder on the h/d, nothing happens ... i don't seem to be able to point the media player at the folder/files.

Any ideas on how I can resolve this one?

I was planning to dump the videos on a server & have the client computers connect & play them via the media player.

[Guest Reimar]

May the CD is copy protected!

To go around create a ISO Image of the CD's and use a program like Virtual CD or some like that to run the clips from your HD!

For to cretae the ISO Image I use Power ISO and later for play I user Virtual CD 7! There is also a Network Version of Virtual CD available and with it you can store the images on the server and let the stations connect to the server and run the clips.

[Crossy]

I assume you have DVD video disks.

If so you need to 'rip' the disks to your hard disk (copying won't work) and then convert to a more compact format such as DivX or XVid.

Do a Google search for 'DVD ripper' or 'DVD to divx', there's loads of software around both free and pay.

I use the ImToo DVD to divX converter, very good but not free.

Please be aware of copyright issues, using these disks in this way may be infringing the usage rules.

[FatBoyEric]

Please be aware of copyright issues, using these disks in this way may be infringing the usage rules.

I'm sure there are copyright issues but what am I to do. They have asked me to do this, and I guess if I declione they'll be miffed. Perhaps enough to terminate my WP.

Seems like an awful lot of work

[Crossy]

Please be aware of copyright issues, using these disks in this way may be infringing the usage rules.

I'm sure there are copyright issues but what am I to do. They have asked me to do this, and I guess if I declione they'll be miffed. Perhaps enough to terminate my WP.

Seems like an awful lot of work

Not really. The pain is in the setup, once it's working it's not an issue.

Where are you? If you're local to BKK / Pathum Thani I can rip and transcode the disks for you, cost you a beer or two

PM me

[malcolmswaine]

Yup - Crossy has the right idea. Rip the DVDs into movie files (I usually go for AVI). You could then share the movie files accross your network rather than having to manually burn 100 DVD copies (nightmare!!)

I haven't done this for a while, so I can't remeber what ripper I used to use, sorry. However to convert the ripped files into avi format I used to use a product (freeware) Virtual Dub. Best thing to do is google for a tutorial on how to go about this. There are commercial tools out there that will automate the whole ripping and conversion procedure making it as easy as a click of a button.

Good luck

[v8tfcorty]

i use either the imtoo ripper or the allock one neither are free, but on demonoid atm they are being seeded with a keygen.

[Simmo]

How are teacher training videos going to help students??

[FatBoyEric]

Thanks for the offer Crossy, I'll give it a go myself first.

How are teacher training videos going to help students??

They aren't teacher training videos. They are a set of classrom shot EL lessons with some bald headed teacher. I spose the kids are expected to use ther

se as supplements to their 50 minutes a week with a real teacher.

[Gumballl]

I know Thailand is a can-do country.... but Crossy is correct... with your actions you more than likely will be violating copyright laws.

Somebody could finger you to the authorities, and then out you go. See if you can get the work-order from your superiors on paper so that in the eventuality the authorities come knocking on your door you will have something to cover your a*s.

[FatBoyEric]

See if you can get the work-order from your superiors on paper so that in the eventuality the authorities come knocking on your door you will have something to cover your a*s.

They'd bust my ass for even making such a request. Government schools eh! Thanks anyway!

[FatBoyEric]

How are teacher training videos going to help students??

Update. Indeed they are teacher training videos, and they aren't going to help the students. After I mentioned this to the school, they took the disks back & gave me a different pack. 'Practise Your Pronunciation', a two disk pack of what appears to be audio files. Then came the order to install these on all student computers. Despite copyright infringements, ripping audio tracks will be much easier.