Fastest route to CDs?

[mike18xx]

Situation:

1. I have a giant gob of DVDs saved as constituant VOB files (unaltered, inside their VIDEO_TS, et al, folders; each DVD's folder "plays" perfectly as if an inserted/mounted DVD when the folder is drag-launched over VLC media-player).

2. In as few steps as possible, I want to mash each 4gig folder down into a single 700mb .avi (or whatever is appropriate) file, sans extras.

Note that I am NOT needing VCDs, just CD-sized playable video files. (They don't NEED to be 700mb, as I don't intend to burn many if any, but it's a convenient standardized size for my travel-viewing purposes; and I can stuff quite a few onto a smaller laptop drive.

I've been browsing around looking at likely utilities, but so far the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am godsend is eluding me. Pawing around various bittorrent search-engines (isohunt, etc), I note a plethora of 700mb-sized movies -- so I gather expedient options exist.

If you have a suggestion, please also post a short checklist for use with it (so I don't wind up waiting two hours for a compression algorithm to run its course, then discover the results are for crap).

Thanky y'all.

[futurex]

since you have so many, i would suggest the easiest route, use AutoGK with the XviD codec, both freeware. should get the job done quickly and easily, its pretty much a 1-click backup.

[paglamon]

Yeah,or Staxrip.

[mike18xx]

since you have so many, i would suggest the easiest route, use AutoGK with the XviD codec, both freeware. should get the job done quickly and easily, its pretty much a 1-click backup.

AutoGK appears easy enough to use, but after it frogging around all night, I am presently stuck in a phase with the VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 componant registering 0% for over an hour but sucking up CPU time like mad. I have no idea if the damn thing is stuck in a loop.

The lack of any kind of overall progress indicator is maddening.

[mike18xx]

l

Yeah,or Staxrip.

Googled; went to http://www.free-codecs.com/download/StaxRip.htm to grab 0.9.9.0, ....and straight-away I get "The Application Failed to Initialize Properly" when attempting to install it.

(sigh)

Anything else?

[anonymez]

i don't think you're using autogk correctly. see this guide http://www.doom9.org/autogk.htm

as for staxrip, i believe it needs .net framework 1.1 installed (though you should install 2.0 incase other apps need it)

[mike18xx]

i don't think you're using autogk correctly. see this guide http://www.doom9.org/autogk.htm

I've read it, and am using it correctly as far as I can see.

as for staxrip, i believe it needs .net framework 1.1 installed (though you should install 2.0 incase other apps need it)

(*ugh*) I have an intense, pathological, murderous hatred of people who write software which is dependant upon the presence of some other third-party-ware, and isn't written well-enough to indicate that fact.

Be that as it may, why on earth would it need .net framework just to perform I/O and run file-conversion algorithms?

[anonymez]

it just a GUI-- i don't know why he used .NET, ask the author if you wish; he's a member here, username "stax"

there's really no harm in installing .NET, though i wouldn't install it if it wasn't needed for a large number of digital video apps, not to mention official catalyst drivers

[mike18xx]

I tossed StaxRip for being too much of a hassle, and think the reason AutoGK froze on me the other day is because I inadvertantly deleted the tiny log text file it had created in the destination directory (apparently it wasn't smart enough to just make a new one and keep going).

Regards AutoGK, is there any benefit to selecting the preview function once you've a job all lined up? (I tried it, but didn't see anything happening after several minutes, and so aborted it and hit "start" like normal.)

[mike18xx]

I have a 900mhz P3, 256mb, XP, employed as a light-use network server. What's the estimated time for it to crunch a copied & decryped-to-drive 4.3 gig DVD's VOBs into a 700mb avi?

[megamachine]

I have used AutoGK for dozens of conversions, and never bothered with the preview; I just let it run and take a nap or a walk. With my 1.6GHz Pentium M laptop, it takes 3-4 hours to convert a 4.3GB DVD folder to a 700MB AVI.

[anonymez]

with only 900MHz and 256mb, it'll take quite some time, depending mostly on motion search settings, output resolution and length

[megamachine]

I did that once, during the second pass in VDM, and if I recall correctly it finished the job even though I had closed AutoGK. Hope that's the case.

[mike18xx]

Example: AutoGK has been running for several hours, and has currently called up VirtualDubMod (separate application window). Then, while looking over AutoGK's window to see the state of progress, I accidentally click the close button rather than the minimize button. VDM is still running (gobbling 100% of the CPU, and presumably doing something), and all the files are still in the agk_tmp folder. AutoGK, upon relaunch, doesn't appear to have anything resembling a "resume job" command.

I did that once, during the second pass in VDM, and if I recall correctly it finished the job even though I had closed AutoGK. Hope that's the case.

Unfortunately VDM has been stuck at 37% for about half a day now (even though the CPU is still moving around between 90% and 100%), and I'm giving up hope.

[megamachine]

Sounds like it's lost. Hate to tell you to run it again.