How can DVD content be ripped and remixed?

Q: I finally have some spare time to do a long-delayed project. I want to put together some favorite moments from the DVD movies I have accumulated into their own small movie.

I was shocked to find out that neither my Windows XP nor my Windows Vista Business PCs could even play a DVD without obtaining an additional decoder, though that was fairly easy to resolve.

Can you recommend a reasonably priced solution for extracting and assembling DVD content from a PC into decent-resolution output that can be ripped and played from DVD or movie file?

— Dataman99@hotmail.com

A: Because I'm not a lawyer, I'm just going to assume you don't want to hear about how ripping commercial DVDs to your personal computer is illegal. Actually, it's not the copying of the DVD that is illegal. Rather, it is the bypassing of the copy-protection software on the DVD. If you were asking about the legality of all this and, if I were a lawyer, I'd probably add that the law prohibiting bypassing of the copy protection hasn't been tested in court yet, and it kind of runs against the long-established right to make copies of works for your own use.

So ... how to go about doing it?

As you have discovered, depending on the version of Windows and the media player you're using, you may need to download additional codecs just to be able to play a commercial DVD on your computer. Readers who have this problem can go to www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/faq/codec.mspx.

But playing the DVD is one thing. Copying it to a file you can edit on your computer is another. Just search the Internet for rip0 commercial DVD, and you'll find a number of applications that are capable of decrypting commercial DVDs, copying them to your hard drive in various file formats, and even removing region restrictions on playback. Most of the applications have a price tag of about $30.

Once you've copied all or parts of the DVD to your computer, you can load the files into a video-editing application. If you want to perform only basic editing tasks, you might find Windows Movie Maker up to the job. The program is delivered with Windows Vista and is available for free download if you're running Windows XP.

If you need more powerful tools, you may want to buy a full-featured video-editing program. What are the more powerful tools? While Windows Movie Maker allows you to stitch together videos and apply titles and transitions, it doesn't offer tools for batch processing, lining up multiple audio tracks with video tracks, etc.

Whether you use Windows Movie Maker or a third-party video-editing program, you'll be able to save your edited files in a format capable of being played either on your computer or on a DVD player connected to your television.

Q: After a recent Microsoft One Care backup I noticed that 1,050 files (1.23 gigabytes) were backed up that appear to me to be temporary Internet files. The files in question were obviously downloaded to facilitate the use of Web sites — including JPEG image files. These files were in User/Name/AppData/Local, LocalLow and Roaming folders. These files were not deleted when I ran the Disc Clean-up function, even though the "remove temp Internet" files box was checked. Do I have to manually delete these files before backup?

— Robert Bickart

A: I would not recommend manually deleting files from those folders unless you're prepared for the consequences. Specifically, some of the applications you have installed may no longer work as you expect them to work. Those folders are used by applications other than your Web browser to store data that support roaming user profiles, application data and other purposes.

Questions for Patrick Marshall may be sent by e-mail to pmarshall@seattletimes.com or pgmarshall@pgmarshall.net, or by mail at Q&A/Technology, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists