Ok I got a question here. Yes, even the wonderful, all knowing Windows/DOS/Unix master Aaron has a question once in a while. (j/k)

I port my DVD player through my VCR then to my video capture card. It has been working fine for a little over a year now.

Well I just bought an IDE DVD-ROM drive. Works just fine to play movies using the included power dvd, but I want to capture off of it now.

A co-worker recommended using some software (I forget the name) which rips directly off the DVD drive (you don't even need a capture card), converts the source into a VBO file, then another utility converts that into an AVI, and finally, you can compress that into an MPEG. He said the total time was 5-7 hours usually.

Well that sucks. I have never used this method, but that's WAY too long for me. I capture directly off my regular DVD player and if the movie is 1 hour 35 minutes, thats how long my capture takes. I have to compress it to MPEG to fit on a CD, but that usually only takes 2 hours.

Is there some FREE ripping software to rip from a DVD-ROM? I'm not too worried if it outputs to AVI, as long as I can get it into AVI or MPEG in the end.

Any recommendations?

Aaron, you should visit http://www.vcdhelp.com

If it's about ripping, encoding, burning (S)VCDs and DVDs they've made an article about it, plus they have a great forum :thumb:

Ripitall (http://membres.lycos.fr/ripitall/en/home.htm) works well. It is a long process though. I ripped a copy of one of my movies (just to see if I could) and it took upwards of 8 or 9 hours. That was on my old 500 mhz PIII. Might want to check it out.

I use DVD2AVI and then TMPGEnc for ripping DVD's. It's excellent quality and it takes me less than 5 hours with a 1.2GH Athlon and 768MB ram.

Originally posted by Flix
I use DVD2AVI

I've heard of that one. Doesn't it go ahead and rip the audio at the same time so you don't have to try and dub it later?

Originally posted by Shakey


I've heard of that one. Doesn't it go ahead and rip the audio at the same time so you don't have to try and dub it later?
Yes it does. It does however split up the rip into two files. TMPGEnc merges the two files into a MPG, so it's really piece of cake to rip a DVD.

Ok that's enough for me to go on. I'll give it a shot.

Thanks guys!

You might also want to consider visiting the below website. They have a neat $30 program ($29.95 actually) that rips DVDs and any other CD or video media. It's not free, but is cheap, and it will convert DVDs into DIVX format for even higher quality and less disk space. DIVX is preferred, because MPEG is only 352x240, while DIVX can go as high as the DVD resolution. MPEG-2 can as well, but takes up more disk space. Just a thought.

http://www.321studios.com

I just ended up scarapping the idea. I tried one that either Smurfie or Shakey recommended. It was ok, but I absolutely HATE waiting HOURS for the fukn thing to rip, and above that, I tried the same movie 3 times and the audio track was ALWAYS off.

That pissed me off so bad that I said to hell with it. I can just port my DVD through my VCR instead. I've done it before, but I switched VCRs and this other one fades the DVD in and out. But I have 2 VCRs so I can make it happen.

If I were serious about it, I would reconsider, but I will happily record off VHS.

Thank you for the recommendation though!

Aaron the fading in an out can also be some sort of copy protection on the DVD disc itself .... It's also used in LDs, and is called Macro-something. Sorry can't really remember the specifics .... BTW the audio track being off can be remedie, go to http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/index.php I've seen plenty of threads regarding this problem .... Also take a look at this page http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdripping.htm I'm sure there must be something there you can use :)

Normally I could see that, but the fading problem *never* happened until I switched my VCR. Once I did that, even my existing DVDs that did not fade before started to.

I think its the VCR, although I'm sure in cases what you said is also right on.

It's called Macrovision. The VCR you used before the switch seemed to handle Macrovision just fine, but the new one does not. One way to get around this is to get a digital video stabilizer, such as Copymaster or Macrovision Buster. Another way is to find some sort of "hidde menu options" in your DVD player that will disable Macrovision altogether. Quite a few DVD players have this neat feature. I hope this helps. :D

Originally posted by Hurricane
It's called Macrovision. The VCR you used before the switch seemed to handle Macrovision just fine, but the new one does not. One way to get around this is to get a digital video stabilizer, such as Copymaster or Macrovision Buster. Another way is to find some sort of "hidde menu options" in your DVD player that will disable Macrovision altogether. Quite a few DVD players have this neat feature. I hope this helps. :D

Actually, the "new" VCR is one I bought off a guy at the office where I work. Its around 20 years old. That is the VCR that is having the fading problem.

The newer VCR is a Hitachi that is either from the late 80's or early 90's and doesn't have the problem.

Either way, I'm not ripping DVDs anymore. I have too many other things going on to screw with it now.