Vcd / Dvd Ripping Software - Any Recommendations?

[bino]

Ms bino has just purchased a Galaxy S3. Foolishness in my opinion, because she is quite clueless about it - not technlogically inclined, and doesn't use it for any more than she ever used on her cellphone. She had to have it though - because it is the latest and the best. I tried convincing her that a smartphone that cost half as much would do everything she needs, but she wasn't having it. However - I digress... it is her money, and can buy whatever she wants.

She has seen me watching movies on my 'droid, and wants to do the same. Most of her movies and videos are on VCDs and DVDs, so I'm looking to set her up with a program that will convert and compress them to considerably smaller AVI files. It has to be as simple as possible- put the disk in her laptop and be one or two clicks away from a file that she can copy to her phone.

I've done some searching, and there are lots out there. Tried a few, but none of them seem particularly "foolproof". Anyone have any recommendations for a Windows program that she can use? Naturally a free one is best, but if a paid program is truly excellent and not outrageously expensive, I'll convince her to spend more of her hard earned THBs.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[meand]

I have been using Xilisoft dvd ripper 6, which will convert to various file types as well. I'm sure you could find a free (trial) copy or something. Anyway, good luck. I'll actually be curious to see other's responses and may even switch

[WhizBang]

Two FREE programs that are pretty good, but none, that I know of, are foolproof.

Format Factory

http://www.formatoz.com/

and, RipBot264

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/RipBot264

[urandom]

handbrake, which is free, open source software will get the job done. it has andoid presets too.

http://handbrake.fr/

[dave_boo]

Just a note; if you have copyright protected dvds (...in LOS?) you'll need something like dvd43 to strip the copyright off when you convert it. Only note that it (at least to) does not work on 64 bit versions of Windows.

And I second the Handbrake option. You can adjust which is the default profile to use; where it saves to; etc. So basically Ms. Bina will open the programme, click on source, wait for it to scan the chapters, accept the default chapter if it is a feature movie, and then click "Start". Sit back and wait...depending on the comptuer and the output settings chose it could be quite some time.

One thing to note is that I assume the x264 is 4x times as efficient as mpeg-2 (from converting approximately 100 000 minutes of video to 1/4 the size and having anyone who's seen it be satisified with the result) and crazy more efficient than mpeg-1.

In fact the maximum bitrate for plain-jane VCD is ~1100 Kb/s and SVCD maxes out at 2,7 Mb/s (total audio and video...but you'd only get ~30 minutes of video on a disk doing that). DVD of course maxes out at 9,8 Mb/s although it's rare you're going to find that...most of my discs are in the 3,5-5 Mb/s range.

Assuming that you're going for the 1/4 bit rate, you can have a "VCD" preset that runs at 300 Kb/s and a DVD preset that runs at 900 Kb/s. Disregarding audio, the VCD stream will run you ~2,25 MB per minute and the DVD converted files will cost you ~6,75 MB per minute. Multiply those numbers by the length of the movie and you have total storage space taken up (roughly...obviously running two pass VBR will affect that...I am giving examples of CBR so all you pendants can just leave me alone).

Of course there's a possiblity that Ms Bina would be happier with even less bitrate; perhaps you can give 'er a couple examples of the various settings and see the lowest one she is happy with and thus save space? Doing this of course will probably require an explanation of why using a DVD preset on a VCD does not make it look nicer but rather wastes space and why using a VCD preset on a DVD makes it look not so good.

[bino]

Thanks to all for the replies and suggestions - extra big thanks to dave_boo for the extra info.

We have checked them all out.

Xilisoft looked good. I found a torrent and tested a full edition. Very easy to use, and lots of formatting options- probably the best / most flexible of the lot. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. (I'll be keeping this one on my PC for me to use.)

Format Factory - a little less intuitive, and slowest of the bunch. Ms bino's laptop is decent - core i5 with 4 GB of RAM, but this software took almmost 90 mins to rip a DVD.

RipBot264 wanted us to install the Java Runtime Environment or another extension, which I couldn't be bothered to do. Her laptop is provided by her company and has some specialized / expensive accounting software that she needs to work with, so I didn't want to chance installing something that would screw this up.

Handbrake- I think this is the keeper. It is intuitive enough, lots of options, and by far the fastest- about 45 mins. Freeware price is good.

After I installed and tried them all, I showed them to Ms for her to make the choice of which one she liked best / felt comfortable with. She chose Handbrake because she likes the pineapple on the icon. Aaaargh! I don't know why I bother sometimes; can't live with her and can't live without her!

Edited July 29, 2012 by bino

[dave_boo]

Thanks to all for the replies and suggestions - extra big thanks to dave_boo for the extra info.

We have checked them all out.

Xilisoft looked good. I found a torrent and tested a full edition. Very easy to use, and lots of formatting options- probably the best / most flexible of the lot. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. (I'll be keeping this one on my PC for me to use.)

Format Factory - a little less intuitive, and slowest of the bunch. Ms bino's laptop is decent - core i5 with 4 GB of RAM, but this software took almmost 90 mins to rip a DVD.

RipBot264 wanted us to install the Java Runtime Environment or another extension, which I couldn't be bothered to do. Her laptop is provided by her company and has some specialized / expensive accounting software that she needs to work with, so I didn't want to chance installing something that would screw this up.

Handbrake- I think this is the keeper. It is intuitive enough, lots of options, and by far the fastest- about 45 mins. Freeware price is good.

After I installed and tried them all, I showed them to Ms for her to make the choice of which one she liked best / felt comfortable with. She chose Handbrake because she likes the pineapple on the icon. Aaaargh! I don't know why I bother sometimes; can't live with her and can't live without her!

Sounds about like my wife...

Handbrake has just as many options available as the other programmes, but you have to know about (most) all the x.264 settings to really get the most out of it. Once you understand them handbrake is extremely powerful. Playing with the various settings you'll be able to balance speed of transcoding with quality of output also.

[robbie22]

Thanks to all for the replies and suggestions - extra big thanks to dave_boo for the extra info.

We have checked them all out.

Xilisoft looked good. I found a torrent and tested a full edition. Very easy to use, and lots of formatting options- probably the best / most flexible of the lot. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. (I'll be keeping this one on my PC for me to use.)

Format Factory - a little less intuitive, and slowest of the bunch. Ms bino's laptop is decent - core i5 with 4 GB of RAM, but this software took almmost 90 mins to rip a DVD.

RipBot264 wanted us to install the Java Runtime Environment or another extension, which I couldn't be bothered to do. Her laptop is provided by her company and has some specialized / expensive accounting software that she needs to work with, so I didn't want to chance installing something that would screw this up.

Handbrake- I think this is the keeper. It is intuitive enough, lots of options, and by far the fastest- about 45 mins. Freeware price is good.

After I installed and tried them all, I showed them to Ms for her to make the choice of which one she liked best / felt comfortable with. She chose Handbrake because she likes the pineapple on the icon. Aaaargh! I don't know why I bother sometimes; can't live with her and can't live without her!

You could probably download the Xilisoft from a torrent site like Kick ass and get it for free. Just a thought.

[meand]

Thanks to all for the replies and suggestions - extra big thanks to dave_boo for the extra info.

We have checked them all out.

Xilisoft looked good. I found a torrent and tested a full edition. Very easy to use, and lots of formatting options- probably the best / most flexible of the lot. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. (I'll be keeping this one on my PC for me to use.)

Format Factory - a little less intuitive, and slowest of the bunch. Ms bino's laptop is decent - core i5 with 4 GB of RAM, but this software took almmost 90 mins to rip a DVD.

RipBot264 wanted us to install the Java Runtime Environment or another extension, which I couldn't be bothered to do. Her laptop is provided by her company and has some specialized / expensive accounting software that she needs to work with, so I didn't want to chance installing something that would screw this up.

Handbrake- I think this is the keeper. It is intuitive enough, lots of options, and by far the fastest- about 45 mins. Freeware price is good.

After I installed and tried them all, I showed them to Ms for her to make the choice of which one she liked best / felt comfortable with. She chose Handbrake because she likes the pineapple on the icon. Aaaargh! I don't know why I bother sometimes; can't live with her and can't live without her!

Thanks for the breakdown. Xililsoft has definitely been good to me, I find it very slick and intuitive. Drawback=pricetag as you say.

[Sateev]

" a program that will convert and compress them to considerably smaller AVI files"

Probably better ripping to .mp4, which , I think, is the default Android setting in Handbrake.

After using Handbrake for several hundred movies, I have come to appreciate it. One thing, though: it sometimes appears to hang at or near 100% completion. DON'T stop the conversion. Just let it run for a while, and it will complete. Sometimes after running along at 300+ frames per second, it will appear to hang, but is actually adding a few bytes a second to the target file (look at it in Explorer and hit F5 to refresh and see if the filesize is still increasing). It will eventually finish the file.

As a recommendation for an Android player, I don't think you can beat MX Player - very intuitive and plays about everything.

[bino]

Handbrake has just as many options available as the other programmes, but you have to know about (most) all the x.264 settings to really get the most out of it. Once you understand them handbrake is extremely powerful. Playing with the various settings you'll be able to balance speed of transcoding with quality of output also.

Yes- I've discovered lots of settings in Handbrake- will give them a go. However for now I just wanted something reliable that runs "out of the box" / default setup for Ms. to use.

You could probably download the Xilisoft from a torrent site like Kick ass and get it for free. Just a thought.

That's precisely what I did. took two attempts though- the first one I downloaded wigged out my antivirus software. Also- I was a little apprehensive about installing a "moody" software on her company owned computer which might corrupt something "occupation critical" or wig out the IT staff at her company. Going to be keeping it on my PC though!

" a program that will convert and compress them to considerably smaller AVI files"

Probably better ripping to .mp4, which , I think, is the default Android setting in Handbrake.

After using Handbrake for several hundred movies, I have come to appreciate it. One thing, though: it sometimes appears to hang at or near 100% completion. DON'T stop the conversion. Just let it run for a while, and it will complete. Sometimes after running along at 300+ frames per second, it will appear to hang, but is actually adding a few bytes a second to the target file (look at it in Explorer and hit F5 to refresh and see if the filesize is still increasing). It will eventually finish the file.

As a recommendation for an Android player, I don't think you can beat MX Player - very intuitive and plays about everything.

Yes - Handbrake offers mp4 as default, so that is what we are going with. I only figured on AVI because most of my movies are from torrents - AVI format.

Thanks also for the tips - Ms has been ripping away all day and hasn't reported any problem yet.

We will check out MX player. Have been using one called QQ player for a long time and have no complaints with it, but if MX is better, I'm always ready for change / improvement!

[Xonax]

Magic DVD Ripper