getting a DVD onto a memory stick

[SileneOliveira]

I have come across an old DVD featuring my kids from about 10 years ago. Some of their friends are in the DVD too and their parents would like a copy. How do I get the content of a DVD onto a memory stick?

I don't have a DVD player on my laptop. This isn't something i'm likely to want to do regularly, so don't want to be shelling out for software, cables and so on.

DVD isn't copyrighted either.

You'll need to use a computer with a CD drive to get the video off the DVD - is there a friend/neighbour/family member with one? Otherwise your only option is to purchase an external one you plug in.

Once that's sorted, you can CTRL+C to copy the DVD file onto, say, the desktop window, then from there you can either drag the file onto the (open) memory stick window, or do CTRL+C again to copy it, and then CTRL+V to paste it into the memory stick window.

Or, depending on the file size, once the video is on the computer, it could be emailed to the parents, so there's no worry about losing the memory stick.

OK great, I did wonder if that would work but teenage DS who thinks he is the next Steve Jobs is talking about ripping software or something.

What kind of software? I'm guessing either a video player, or a program that can compress the file size (hopefully not compromising on video quality). It might be something to consider, but not necessary.

Most memory sticks have quite a small memory so it may be the file size he's thinking about - if it turns out that the file size is a bit larger, you can always use an external hard-drive instead. I bought two 1TB external hard-drives from Amazon for large files, but you won't need one that big! A memory stick will usually be under 5GB, so you could look for something that stores 10GB and up.

We fired up an old laptop last night with a disc drive but the DVD wouldn't play. Although it works fine in the Xbox. When you go to file explorer, the CD appears empty - no files listed.

Not sure what's going on. Doesn't have to be onto a memory stick - I could upload it to something like Dropbox and allow access to others. In fact that would be better as one of the parents is now living overseas and I wouldn't have to mail a memory stick out to her.

you should be able to use the xbox to copy from the DVD to USB stick, its under System - Settings - Storage. Haven't done it for ages, but google is your friend.

will have a fiddle about later. If we can get it onto a memory stick then we're sorted - the rest of it is easy.

thanks.

It sounds like your old laptop only has a CD drive. It needs a DVD drive to read the DVD. Whilst they appear similar and DVD drives can read CDs, a CD drive cannot read a DVD.

Do any libraries nearby have pc's you can pay to use? I think it's 20p a minute or so at my local one.