DVD Ripping Guide

When I began experimenting with DVD ripping I was totally confused. There were so many terms in use that I didn't understand, and so many programs to choose from.

I would try to rip a DVD and get perfect Video, but no audio.
Or the Audio and Video would not be in sync.
Or the audio and video would be in separate files and not play at the same time.

After months of struggling with the multitude of programs, I discovered that some combinations of tools work better when used in a certain sequence.

Then a friend found a Chart that began to put the whole thing into perspective. I had been trying to create a better quality rip by using a larger setting. What I was actually doing was trying to force DVD quality into a VCD. That can't be done!

DVD's are a special kind of Compact disk that will hold up to eight times as much information as a standard CD. It is much more than a matter of encoding properly, so the only way to record a DVD quality movie is to buy a DVD Writer.

The DVD burners are now within an affordable price range and are getting more and more popular. (More on this later) The other option is to learn to decode from the original DVD into one of the many formats possible.

For our purposes, all you have to know is that DVD's encode their data using VOB files. These are what you will have to work with to encode to another format. Usually it is best to use a program called "Smart Ripper" to load these files to your hard drive.

Smart Ripper has the ability to separate only those VOB files that pertain to the actual movie and throws away those that run all the "extras", such as previews and commercials on the DVD. This way we can make the movie take as little disk space as possible.

This is one of the most common formats to encode the data to. VCD has the capability to play on many "Stand Alone" DVD players, so you can watch these movies on your regular TV, but if you don't have a stand-alone DVD player, that is capable of playing VCD format, they can only be played on a computer that has a CD-Rom Drive.

VCD uses the MPEG1 encoding and usually is in 352 X 240 size. This is the smallest and most lossy video format.

The last stage before burning to a VCD is creating an MPG file, and any computer will play this format.

Once you burn the file as a VCD you will no longer have the Mpeg file on the disk. Instead you will have several folders, the most important named MPEGAV. This is the folder that contains the movie information. Inside this folder is a file with a name similar to whatever you named your Mpeg, but the extension will be .dat. This can also be played on any computer, even if it's not equipped with a DVD player, but you MUST "tell" the computer which program to use to play this Dat file, such as Windows Media Player, or Power DVD. It is usually necessary to browse to the MPEGAV.DAT file, right click and tell it to open with whichever program you choose.

This format has greater playback quality, but it also requires about twice as much space to store the data. In my opinion it is not worth the effort to gain the little extra quality, but if you are really concerned about the highest quality (except for DVD's) then this is the format you need.

Once again, you will work with MPG formats, so if you are not concerned with storage requirements, you can just save the files without burning them to a CD, and view them on any computer.

DivX and Xvid are types of compression Codecs (Compression/Decompression) used usually to compact the data so it requires less space for storage. If you are familiar with the methods used to encode Audio only (music), you could say DivX and Xvid are to a movie file as MP3 is to a Wav file.

To reduce the size of the file, DivX and Xvid throw away parts of the data, exactly as an MP3 discards some quality of the Audio. In fact DivX uses MP3 as it's audio format, where other formats basically use Wav or MPEG Audio.

Two problems with this process are that DVD players won't read DivX or Xvid, so you can only watch them on your computer. They are both forms of AVI which is not compatible with most Stand Alone DVD players. The second problem is that once a file is DivX'd the data is gone for good. It can't be restored if you want to convert the file to VCD, so after re-encoding it so it will play on your DVD player, it will have lower quality than a direct DVD rip.

And the eye is more discriminating than the ear. You may not hear the Quality loss in an MP3, but you WILL see the loss from a DivX or Xvid Movie. Unless you only play it on your computer.

Here's a chart that should help you to understand some of the differences in these formats.

This will tell you the resolution needed for each format, the type of compression to use and many other qualities that are important for successful encoding.

To simplify some of this chart, There are two main standards for encoding Video: NTSC and Pal. NTSC is used in the United States and Japan. Europe uses PAL. Unless you have a DVD that originated in Europe or the UK, you will probably never use the PAL format.

Two other settings are possible in NTSC format. These are the frame rate settings. You will have to choose from only two possibilities: 23.976 and the more common 29.97. If this video were actually a strip of film, these numbers indicate how many frames or pictures pass in front of the lens in one second. The more Frames per Second (FPS), the better the quality. In this case, if there is not a lot of fast action on the screen, 23.976 should be satisfactory. If the movie has a lot of high speed camera changes and actions (chase scenes, etc.) then you will probably want the higher 29.97 fps.

An MPEG1 or MPEG 2 file created with a frame rate of 29.97 can in many cases be burned to a DVD, if you have the proper mastering software, and the resulting file can be played on almost any Stand-alone DVD player.

Each has several resolutions to choose from. We will only concern ourselves with NTSC

720 x 480 is for DVD quality
480 x 480 is for SVCD quality
352 x 240 is VCD quality
DivX and Xvid will work in almost any size

These refer to the amount of screen space required for the display. The smaller settings take less storage space but will display in a smaller window. As a general rule, the larger the resolution settings, the better the display will be, but it also limits which format can be used.

Knowing these details will help prevent you from wasting time trying to encode a 720 x 480 file to VCD format. It can't be done and it's a waste of time to try it.

Converting Downloaded Movies

With the abundance of Movies available to be downloaded from various internet sources I felt it was necessary to add a page for the treatment of these movies.

Downloaded Movies can be in many formats. AVI, Mpeg, and Image files are the most common forms. Though standard AVI and Mpeg are the most common these may be rendered in several different forms with many different Codec's. This means you must be able to read all the most common codec's and many of the more obscure ones, such as Xvid and AC3 Audio.

These can create problems if you wish to view these movies on a viewer other than your computer. I prefer two specific formats, VCD so I can watch them on my stand-alone DVD player. I recommend getting the cheapest DVD player you can find. These usually play all formats including PAL (European) format DVD's. I also prefer to keep a good AVI version for future reference such as later burning to full DVD.

Many of the downloaded movies come encoded with codec's that make re-encoding difficult which is another reason for the AVI rendering I do. While these codec's make a wonderful movie for viewing on the computer, they often are an incorrect size for saving to CD.

The main tools (Programs) I use are;

Dr. DivX
TMPGEnc
VirtualDub
ISO Buster
ACE Codec Pack

Your main sources for these downloaded Movies are the
Newsgroups (requires Forte Agent, Newsbin Pro, NewsLeecher or a similar News Reader)
Kazaa (requires a program to access their file Sharing)
Bit Torrent (requires a small downloaded program)

REMEMBER: Downloading Movies from these sources may be a violation of applicable copyright laws and you could be subject to large fines or even imprisonment.

Click here to get started.

Converting DVD to VCD

Now let's see how to rip and encode a DVD to VCD format, creating a disk that will play in almost all stand-alone DVD players. The tools I have found to work best are:

Smart Ripper
Virtual Dub
Dr. DivX
TMPGEnc
Nero Burning Rom

Smart Ripper will rip the VOB files to your hard drive
Dr. DivX will encode the Audio and Video files required
TMPGEnc will convert these files to a single MPEG file.
TMPGEnc will split this Mpeg into sizes that can be burned to a CD.
Nero Burning Rom will burn the files to a CD as a VCD file.

Rather than re-invent the Wheel, I'll now send you to a link where this is explained.

DVD to VCD

Converting to SVCD

SVCD uses MPEG2 conversion at 640 X 480 size. It's just a little different than VCD and takes up a lot more space, but I'll include it for those of you who want the highest quality except for DVD.

DVD to SVCD

Converting to DivX Format

This page wouldn't be complete without referencing how to convert to DivX format. Remember that DivX will discard some data, lowering the quality. It's main function is reducing the size so the finished file is easier to send electronically via email or posting to websites or newsgroups.

You'll find all you need to know at this link.

DVD to DivX

Download Codec's and other items, directly from the Authorized DivX Site

Several of the above tutorials are on the site of DVD Rip Guides and are linked without permission.

Guess that's about it. There are a multitude of other programs out there, but these are the ones I have had to most success with.

Don't be in too much of a hurry!! There is a high learning curve involved in Movie File Conversion and rushing through the steps will only lead to lost time and redoing the files.

If you encounter any problems with this page, or have any suggestions
email the author, Click here