DVD Ripping

[Morrison Lard]

I've got a shedload of DVDs but no DVD player, the only way of currently using them is on my laptop.
I want to rip them all down to avi/mp4/whatever as fast as possible, copy them to my media player HDD, then either bin or car-boot the discs.

Which program is best for doing this? I'm not arsed about any extras off the DVD, just the episodes or the main movie clip.

Is there a program that will convert straight to my desired format?[nb]It's been a long time since I did any DVD ripping, dvd shrink was what I used to use I think, and had to deal with vobs or some such[/nb]

Any help appreciated, Ta.

[Sandow]

I use Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/), which usually does a flawless conversion job.

[mcbpete]

AutoGK was what I used for a long time. Though I probably haven't used it for about 5 years now so not sure if it even works on current OSs - http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AutoGK

[jutl]

I've got a shedload of DVDs but no DVD player, the only way of currently using them is on my laptop.
I want to rip them all down to avi/mp4/whatever as fast as possible, copy them to my media player HDD, then either bin or car-boot the discs.

Which program is best for doing this? I'm not arsed about any extras off the DVD, just the episodes or the main movie clip.

Is there a program that will convert straight to my desired format?[nb]It's been a long time since I did any DVD ripping, dvd shrink was what I used to use I think, and had to deal with vobs or some such[/nb]

Any help appreciated, Ta.

I use

(a) http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/
plus
(b) http://handbrake.fr/


Get some big storage, rip a load of DVDs to it with (a) then queue up encodes in (b) and go to bed.

[Morrison Lard]

Superb!

Thanks for your help folks, I'll get the required programs now if I can find em.
Cheers very much.

[The Masked Unit]

How long does it take to rip the average film at source quality, out of interest?

[Puffin Chunks]

Surely it would be quicker and easier just to download the torrent of those films you own. Decrypting then re-encoding to avi is a time consuming process. As you already own the films and the outcome is the same, I don't see the problem[nb]my personal view. I do not condone piracy in any way. This is a suggestion to the OP of a route that he can follow, not a recommended or correct route.[/nb]

[jutl]

Surely it would be quicker and easier just to download the torrent of those films you own. Decrypting then re-encoding to avi is a time consuming process. As you already own the films and the outcome is the same, I don't see the problem

It would be annoying to get one of those chancer lawyer letters, particularly as owning the DVD wont get you out of the accusation as torrenting involves both downloading and uploading the movie.

[jutl]

How long does it take to rip the average film at source quality, out of interest?

You'll always lose quality if you compress at all, and the time it takes to do it is completely dependent upon your processor. Anything vaguely modern should be able to do it in less than real time, but how much less varies a lot. 

[biggytitbo]

I've spent the last nearly a year ripping my unwieldy DVD collection, was a bit of a slog but worth it in the end.


I use handbrake aswell, and have finely honed my settings for the best quality/file size balance:


ref=6:trellis=2:analyse=all:no-fast-pskip=1:no-dct-decimate=1:me=umh:merange=64:deblock=-2,-1:direct=auto

[Harry Badger]

MPEG Streamclip is another very versatile one I use. http://www.squared5.com

[surreal]

I'm ripping my boxset collection at the moment.  I have a dos batch file which is set up to work with DVDDecrypter specifically to rip episodes.  You run it, give it the name of the series and the episode numbers on the disc, and the structure of the disc (using DVDDecrypter, dvd's aren't  set up all the same way), and it rips into named folders so you can then use something like Handbrake or AutoGK to do the actual conversion.  Can let you have a copy if it will help (and if you're using a windows PC obviously).

It does take some time though, ripping takes the longest as Handbrake is pretty quick at the conversion to .mp4 - just be prepared for a lot of hours in front of your machine changing discs over...

[surreal]

Just an update to add that I found a great bit of software called The Renamer: http://therenamer.com/

if you call your converted files by their season / episode number (S01E01), you can use this to get all the episode titles and rename the files for you - saved me a huge amount of time...