[CompTronicsTec]

Im a huge fan of .ISO format for my videos, i have some avi/divx videos that ive acquired through the years. Some of those avi's i wish i had on ISO...but im finding now that there are also some ISO's i wish i had in AVI.

What ive come to is that my favorite movies, the ones i really want to preserve i want to have in ISO, and movies that i have that may not be the best "quality" or that i dont like as much id like to convert to avi/divx to save space.

Here is where my problem starts. I am having trouble finding a solution for converting my video from either raw DVD to avi or from VOB(s) to avi. I have tried many programs, and either due to the difficulty in the conversion process or my ignorance as to the proper settings to use, they always come out wrong. Either the picture is awful, the sound is awful, aspect ratio is off, dimensions are off, etc.

So far i have tried using 2 programs for combining the VOB's, Magic DVD Ripper (5.3) and Join VOB Files Tool (2.55). Both of these seem to join the VOB's fine, but PowerDVD has trouble with fast forward/skipping ahead in the subsequent VOB file (VLC plays it fine).

Once i have the VOBs combined, i have then tried a program called Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate and AutoGK. XVCU converts, but as i recall the quality of the 1400mb avi was awful. It didnt take up the whole width of the screen full screen and the black borders at top and bottom were not the same as when playing the dvd/vob.

AutoGK produced a better picture at 1400mb (still noticeably worse than the VOB), it got the dimensions right, but the sound was awful crackling at every word said in the movie.

Lastly i also tried using Magic DVD Ripper to just produce an AVI, which it does but the dimensions are always wrong either stretching the picture out vertically or horizontally. Im just not sure what dimensions to plug into it to get the picture the same aspect ratio as the original dvd/vob. Ive tried many combinations, with no success.

Any suggestions on the easiest way to go from DVD to avi would be much appreciated. Im looking for free solutions to do this, but if theres a really good paid app out there feel free to mention it. Thanks.

[jodyn]

Have a look at WinX DVD Ripper

http://www.winxdvd.c...ipper-platinum/


Rip DVD to popular video formats, e.g. DVD to MOV, DVD to AVI, DVD to FLV, DVD to WMV, DVD to MPEG, DVD to MP4, etc
Rip DVD to popular portable devices including DVD to iPhone, DVD to iPod, DVD to PSP, DVD to Zune, DVD to Mobile phone, etc
Rip DVD audio into MP3 music file

[CompTronicsTec]

Have you tried the program yourself, if so what was your experience with it?

[jodyn]

DV-Design, on 08 February 2010 - 08:28 PM, said:

Have you tried the program yourself, if so what was your experience with it?

I use it to convert DVD to MPG and it works great for me, I use the output files on 2 Xbox 360's and a DMA 2200, all used as Media Center Extenders

[GaPony]

I've used Handbrake (Freeware) and DivX Converter Pro (Commercial)... both do a good job.

[CompTronicsTec]

Following Jodyn's recommendation i got WinX DVD Ripper Ultimate. This was by far the easiest app to use and the best result.

Using the default settings i was able to output a .divx file that was aprox the same quality as the VOB, but about 1/3 the size (1.7GB instead of 4.33GB). Also this program only took 45mins to rip+convert (in 1 step) the movie where all the other programs i tried for converting (not including ripping and combining the VOB) took 60-70mins. As if that wasnt good enough it did it without pegging my CPU. I was able to play some music and have a few tabs open in a browser with no noticeable sluggishness. The other programs rendered my computer inoperable while the conversion was going.

It got the aspect ratio/resolution perfect, the sound perfect, and the picture only had noticeable degradation in extremely dark pictures where minor blocking occurred. All in all this was exactly what i wanted to achieve with as little pain as possible. I wont be converting tons of video, only the few DVD/ISO's that maybe arent the retail release or arent that important of a movie to me. Squeezing them down to 1/3 the size makes sense.

Now the typical avi movie gets pushed to about 700mb...idk how well this will do that and im not sure if ill find out. For me 1.7GB is an acceptable compression with minor loss of quality.

[Ran]

I hate answers which start with "why do you want to do that". Everyone has their reasons.

But I would like to point out that 1.7GB instead of 4.33GB is $0.12 vs $0.30 or a savings of $0.17 at $70 a TB meaning if it takes a minute of your time to handle the task you are losing money. You are not losing money to get a better result, but losing money to get a poor result!

I looked at this for myself. Even batch processing 100 files, after organizing everything, would take over an two hours of my time for 100 files to save $30 in disk space (which is going to be $20 of disk real estate in a year)

Tha tis no disrespect to reasons you might have or to the excellent answers you got, but rather a notation of just how cheap disk space is, and how it will get cheaper and cheaper.

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

Personally, I use DVDFab and absolutely love it.

Also, on the quality bit, make sure you *always* use 2-pass encoding or you will get horrible quality. Learned that the hard way.

[CompTronicsTec]

Yea i noticed this program defaults to 2 pass, the others did not.

Ran, your argument is perfectly sound, if you have money to spend on more storage. I however do not at this time. Im finding myself getting closer and closer to filling my hdd's and figured the best thing to do without getting rid of some of my movies is to convert them and cut them down in size. The quality is practically the same, at 1/3rd the size.

Im not converting many movies, and it takes seconds to setup...there is a difference between "your time" being exactly that or having the computer do the work for you so you can walk away and be productive elsewhere. If i had to sit in front of the computer for even 1 hour to convert a movie i simply wouldnt do it. Programs like this arent hands on...you set them and walk away, and with this program my computer was usable while it did the conversion, i was able to use it as if nothing were happening.

I personally prefer .ISO, for many reasons some of which you touched on..but in certain situations im willing to give up some of the less important reasons so that i can save space.

[Ran]

DV Design,

I understand, I do know everyone's situation is different.

I just know that when everyone was using DVD shrink five years ago to compress, I was using it to cut and span any >4GB films to two disks and never compress. That was five years go when I had an sd TV, but I am really glad I did.

I didn't want to interfere with your question but rather point out how cheap hd space has become.

(I haven got money either -- that is why my WHS is on a $135 SS4200!)

By the way if you are married, get that Shakespeare in Love, English Patient etc on the server, it will significantly up your wife acceptance factor, and it may help you slip that new drive by her, it did for me!

[GaPony]

DV-Design, on 10 February 2010 - 03:46 AM, said:

Yea i noticed this program defaults to 2 pass, the others did not.

Ran, your argument is perfectly sound, if you have money to spend on more storage. I however do not at this time. Im finding myself getting closer and closer to filling my hdd's and figured the best thing to do without getting rid of some of my movies is to convert them and cut them down in size. The quality is practically the same, at 1/3rd the size.

I understand exactly why you want to convert to save some size. I'm starting to feel like I live in a harddrive warehouse around here. http://forum.wegotserved.com/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

One thing to keep in mind... If you're going to convert your movies down to xvid/.avi, be sure to make the conversion from the original rip, not from a compressed rip. In other words, for a DVD, do your conversion from the original 8gb rip and not from a 4.3gb copy. The difference in the final quality is like night and day.

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but I thought it worth mentioning.

[CompTronicsTec]

Thats exactly what im doing, however the DVD is natively 4.33GB, its a Sherlock Holmes "screener" copy, which is why im not worried about preserving anything other than the movie...mainly because thats all there is :)

Like i said im big on ISO, but movies that arent "perfect" condition like screeners or movies i simply dont care about/like that much i feel im better served converting to avi/divx to conserve space.

[darkenedsoul]

Drashna (WGS), on 09 February 2010 - 08:02 PM, said:

Personally, I use DVDFab and absolutely love it.

Also, on the quality bit, make sure you *always* use 2-pass encoding or you will get horrible quality. Learned that the hard way.

Ok, I just took a quick look at DVDFab and didn't find this 2-pass encoding option. Where is this? I want to make sure it is set to that for default. I am also just ripping the main movie, not entire disc to put onto my WHS after I run the vobs thru VOBMerge to make one large VOB file and put in its own subdirectory in my video directory share.

Thanks,

Mike

[GaPony]

When you use the DVD to Mobile app, select "to AVI" or to "MP4"... or whatever. Then select the file you want to convert, then look down at the bottom for "Profile" and click the "Edit" button... there you will see the "Encoding Method" which defaults to "Fast Encoding (1 Pass)"... just change it to "High Quality Encoding (2 Pass)".

[Ran]

DV-Design, on 11 February 2010 - 01:30 AM, said:

Thats exactly what im doing, however the DVD is natively 4.33GB, its a Sherlock Holmes "screener" copy, which is why im not worried about preserving anything other than the movie...mainly because thats all there is :)

Like i said im big on ISO, but movies that arent "perfect" condition like screeners or movies i simply dont care about/like that much i feel im better served converting to avi/divx to conserve space.

Yeah, most main movies are about 4 to 4.5GB on SD once you remove needed audio tracks

[Drashna Jaelre (WGS)]

GaPony, on 12 February 2010 - 05:40 AM, said:

When you use the DVD to Mobile app, select "to AVI" or to "MP4"... or whatever. Then select the file you want to convert, then look down at the bottom for "Profile" and click the "Edit" button... there you will see the "Encoding Method" which defaults to "Fast Encoding (1 Pass)"... just change it to "High Quality Encoding (2 Pass)".

Or any of the "dvd to mobile" options. I've been ripping to WMV, and using that. I also recommend setting the volume to 150%, that way you can *actually* hear the audio.

But any program that lets you rip into xvid, divx, wmv, or the like allows you to mess with these settings and more. Generally allow you to set the final file size. Bigger means less compression and better quality over all, but generally if you have it doing 2-pass encoding, 1GB is the largest you should go.

[wpappas]

a little info...clonedvd2 , once thats done i change all to 2 gig avi, using autogk...
im up to 850 movies on my 10, 1000 gig drives, with whs streaming to 4 set top boxes

[GaPony]

Just out of curosity... Why do you use a 2-step process for making a 2gb .avi file? Double encoding might be better for speed, but has to effect quality to some degree.... beyond what a single process would be.

[zuz242]

i want to add another aspect: i want dolby sourround sound in my final videos, even dual audio tracks ..
so i´m looking for a tool that handles 5.1 dolby sourround (ac3), maybe without encoding the audio-part.

tmegenc xpress seems to be able to work with multiple sourround streams, do you know of other tools?

[GaPony]

I also use a program called 1Click DVD Converter ($49.00). I initally used it to convert my DVDs for the various mobile devices around here, but found that it also does a good job at converting a DVD to dixv files and retain the AC3 DD5.1 audio. You can select the quality level, volume level and aspect ration. Its got a free trial, so you can check it out before buying. It also works great with AnyDVD rips.

I find that 2gb .avi output looks almost as good as an 8gb original DVD, and it only takes about 20 minutes to make that conversion from an original disc in the DVD burner. Much less time if its already been ripped to HHD with AnyDVD.

I think I've used a few hundred different programs to come up with a short list of programs that effectively do the various conversions that I wish to make, without it taking forever, jumping through too many hoops, and still ending up with a good quality result.
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