Topic awaiting preservation: DVD to mpeg

I have some movies, in DVD, legal DVDs, that I would like to convert to mpeg, so they can always be in my computer, easier to access.
Does anyone know how to make such a conversion?
I could use Google to try to learn this stuff but you know, with a head start from an expert :-), it becomes easier.
Thanks.

try this... it is very helpfull.
http://www.dvdrhelp.com

I've been wanting to figure out myself how to import segments of movies (like a 5-10 sec clip) and
create a montage to some music I've created.

Let me know what you come up with!

gl

Hello,

Been successfully using "Super DVD Ripper" to convert dvd to VCDs, AVI or DivX.

You might want to search for a free tool to do this task though.

--
Regards,
Elias

How to convert a DVD to Divx

Step One - Choosing Your Tools:

In order to successfully rip a DVD to AVI (DivX) format, you will need above all else - a DVD Rom
in your computer, without this you cannot read the files contained on a DVD disc.
Secondly, you will need software:

To rip the files from a DVD to your hard drive: Smart Ripper
To do the actual conversion: Flask MPEG
And your all-important Divx Codec: Divx Codec
And you should probably grab this as well: Radium Mp3 Codec

Lastly, make sure you have about six Gigs hard drive space free for the DVD files (.vob).

Step Two - Ripping The DVD:

You start with Smart Ripper - Make sure you have a DVD in your DVD drive, open smart ripper, it will scan your drive
and detect your movie. You will now be brought to this window: Fig.1

1) Movie:
This is where you want to be. This is where you are by default - so please stay there.

2) Input:
This is also a default position, all is selected for you, so that pretty much stays the same as well.

3) Stream processing:
This is the important one. You click into that window, and make sure that you check "Enable Stream Processing"
because this allows you to choose wich audio streams are ripped from the DVD. And as most of us are aware - the
majority of DVDs released have multiple audio channels.Fig.2

In the above image I show that "Enable Stream Processing" is checked off, and in the "Streams" box, I have checked off
only the needed streams, leaving only the 6 Channel audio stream and the video stream selected. (This makes things easier
when working with the .VOB files later)

4) Target:
This is also important, because of the sheer size of raw DVD files (.VOB), I would suggest having at least six Gigs free
hard drive space. Now, choose the destination that your (.VOB) files will be saved. If you don't, you can't go to the
fifth step.

5)Start:
Once you press start, you will get this progress window, from here just sit back and grab something to eat cause
depending on the size of the DVD this should take quite a few mins. (You are transfering a couple Gigs onto your hard
drive, this is normal). What you will see:Fig.3

Once you have finished ripping the .VOB files, you can close Smart Ripper. The easy part is now finished!!!.


Step Three - Convert The .VOB Files To Divx:

1) Open Flask Mpeg. Choose Open File. Go to the directory containing your .VOB files. Select the first .VOB file.
"vts_01_1.vob" and choose OK. You will now get this screen:Fig.4

This means Flask MPEG will read all your .VOB files as one file - the actual movie.

2) Now that your .VOB files are loaded, go to Options, select "Output Format Options"
Under Video - select your video codec (which would be your Divx codec) and press okay.
Leave the Divx codec options "Configure..." at their default position. Fig.5

Now choose your audio codec wich would be your MPEG Layer-3 codec. Choose 128 Kbit/s, 48,000Hz, Stereo 15kb/sec.
This will give you the audio quality of a typical mp3 audio file.

3) Again under options choose "Global Project Options (Export Movie Settings).

Under "Video" (A) choose these settings:Fig.6

As indicated in the image above - make sure your "Time Base (fps)" is set to 29.97 fps. Your iDCT option is set to
"non-MMX fast iDCT" - I find this is the best option to choose and leave your resolution to its default position,
unless you wish to make it higher. Wich I normally don't do, because the end product will be too large.

Under "Post Processing" (B) choose these settings:Fig.7

As indicated in the image above, your going to choose "HQ Basic Filtering (Slowest, Highest Quality) because even though
it says it is the slowest, I find it works at roughly the same speed as Bicubic Filtering, but it improves the image
quality VERY dramatically over Bicubic. So that is the best option to choose.

Now I skipped "Audio" - you should leave all options in there at their default position. And under "Files" - the only
option wich you might want to change is where on your computer you want to save the movie to. There is nothing to change
under "General"

4) This is the final step.
On the main program window, choose the "Run ..." option, and in the sub menu choose "Start Conversion" and this is what you will see (assuming you did everything correctly): Fig.8

Now all you have to do is sit back and let the movie convert to Divx, and you are done. Now, how long it takes to do a
proper conversion depends completely on how powerfull your computer is. On my Athlon 900, and typical movie takes roughly
four hours. On my old AMD K6-2 400, it took about 24 hours to convert a whole movie to divx. So as you can tell,
the faster your CPU - the faster the conversion will go.


Now you are all done. I hope this tutorial was helpfull, and you can now successfully rip a DVD and convert it
to Divx.

This tutorial was written for me about 18 months ago by a friend, soa ll credits go to him for the hard work, i just ported across to the Ozone




[This message has been edited by axleclarkeuk (edited 09-05-2003).]

Wow, thanks a lot axle!
Asylum is getting better than google...

good one there, axleclarkeuk. you should add this to the faq if it isn't in there already

Always a pleasure to help when i have something useful to say