ripping dvds

i want to rip all my dvds to hdd.

does any one know any good bits of software that is free that will convert dvd to mpeg.

i've tried a few tonight that i've found. any they been crap.

Is mpeg the best format to use, or should i use avi?

Using something like Divx will save you alot of space without too noticable loss in quality.

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Originally Posted by ChrisH

Using something like Divx will save you alot of space without too noticable loss in quality.

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thats great as long as media portal software can playback divx.

i'll look into that.

Would only really consider xvid/divx

I rip the DVD's with DVD Decrypter and then convert to xvid with Auto Gordian Knot

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Originally Posted by sidewinder

Would only really consider xvid/divx

I rip the DVD's with DVD Decrypter and then convert to xvid with Auto Gordian Knot

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i've got all the dvd files using dvd decrypter.
I've now had a go with auto gk.

out put, it wont let me select divx. only avi is selected and greyed out.
i'm using divx codec. is this right???

This probably isn't the place for this sort of stuff...

A more appropriate forum is doom9.net - I'm sure you'll find your answers there

I've used DVDx in the past, converts DVDs to MPEG/AVI all in one go.

I use Clad DVD and AVI.Net. Both are free and do excellent jobs. You can choose Bit rate settings, audio etc before converting the DVD.
I do this to all DVDs before placing them on our media server.
I don't think Clad DVD is used much anymore though. Check out

http://www.clonead.co.uk/

For more details.

www.videohelp.com and www.doom9.org are the 2 best sites, they give you tutorials on just about anything video related, with free utils / tools etc.

It is worth pointing out that AVI is not a specific file format, it is just a wrapper. Making a file an AVI tells the system that the file is a video file. An AVI could use any codec whether it be divx, MPEG2, H264, xvid, indeo, quicktime or whatever.

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Originally Posted by Goodhead

out put, it wont let me select divx. only avi is selected and greyed out.
i'm using divx codec. is this right???

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It sounds to me that you don't have a divx encoder installed. One is available with the K-lite mega codec, try installing that

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Originally Posted by Norphy

It is worth pointing out that AVI is not a specific file format, it is just a wrapper. Making a file an AVI tells the system that the file is a video file. An AVI could use any codec whether it be divx, MPEG2, H264, xvid, indeo, quicktime or whatever.

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Originally Posted by Goodhead

out put, it wont let me select divx. only avi is selected and greyed out.
i'm using divx codec. is this right???

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It sounds to me that you don't have a divx encoder installed. One is available with the K-lite mega codec, try installing that

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Just to add to that , you got it half right but you are guessing when you say it sounds like ....

Just get gspot :

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/download.html

quick start guide :

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/quick_start.html

That will help you identifiy if it is a movie file , if its the correct size, what its encoded using etc and from there you can establish what codecs you require and get them and install them :)

i've installed a divx codec and it now gives me the option.
I got it all working yestoday.
I used the one that starts with x

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Originally Posted by sidewinder

Would only really consider xvid/divx

I rip the DVD's with DVD Decrypter and then convert to xvid with Auto Gordian Knot

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Just tried AutoGK - what a lovely set of software! (bin struggling with some DVD files and this did the trick (Students new DVD Cam :()

Why don't you convert the movies to iso images(DVD decrypter or simelar), install Daemon tools and just mount the images to play them.

The .vob files on the dvd are MPEG2. If you copy them to the HDD and rename them from .vob to .mpg they should run.