How to Save Your DVDs From the Kids by Ripping Them to Your Computer

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With the kids constantly losing, scratching, or breaking DVDs, I've been looking into building a home media center for a while. I'll get my DVD's, copy them to the computer, and play them from there (kind of like Hulu or Netflix on-demand). If you think that sounds like a great idea, check this out:

Are you looking to for a way to play your media DVDs without rifling through your collection and swapping discs? Today we’ll take a look at ripping a DVD to your hard drive and playing it with some popular media players.

There are some easy tools available for copying DVDs to your computer

This doesn't go into the particulars of how to build a good machine or hook it to a TV, but it's a great start for the software side of it. They recommend some software that costs money, but there are always alternatives or if it's good enough, it might be worth the money anyway.