Is it worth it????

[jaikin]

I guess after finally ripping and recording my first DVD that I just don't see the value. It tok me about 20 hours.

I could have bought the DVD for $18.00. Can someone explain to me why this seems worthwhile to you all?

Thanks,

John

[UncasMS]

well lucky you: you seem to have a dvd writer

most of us have to transcode the dvd files to avi in order to brun them on cd


well, it all hurts in the beginning, but after a while you get addicted and become familiar with decent techniques

then the funny part starts

[jaikin]

I see....

So, it must be the thrill of it. When I said it took me 20 hours, I didn't include the 3 days it took me to find software that A) I could understand how to use, and B) that didn't lock up on my system.

It's very odd to me that there isn't a way to directly rip and encode vob files.

It used to be that even with mp3 files one had to encode them as wav to burn a cd, and then I happened across musicmatch jukebox which does all that on the fly.

Is there software like that available for Divx/VCD?

Thanks,

John

[UncasMS]

if you want a divx/avi I'D say: NO
there is no decent tool, that does all the work for you, though some tools are available.
they do, however, provide only mediocre quality or do not work in other cases.

for svcd on the other hand my advice will be: DVD2SVCD

[Simon T]

DVD-R



Well, now we're talking about DVD's. Is it not possible to just rip ALL the files of the DVD (vob,bup,ifo,...) and write it to your DVD?

I just ask this because I'm thinking of buying a DVD-recorder and I ask myself the question: Are the availabe DVD-recoders good, or will they become better (I don't give a damn about speed)??

[jaikin]

Misunderstanding

SOrry, I guess I missed that in the post. No, I don't have a DVD writer. I used fireburner to create a VCD.

I ripped the DVD, then created an MPEG, then created the VCD. I will say that the disc works fine in my DVD player, but I think the MPEG was actually better quality.


John

[mattward2k]

Don't take my word for this, but - with a program like Smart Ripper, you can basically rip the all the files off, un-css'd and un-regioned either through the "backup" or "movie" modes, so, after doing this, would you not simply be able to just burn those files back onto a DVD-R?

[jaikin]

I think the files would be too large. Most DVD's seem to have around 3 to 4 GB of information, so it wouldn't fit on a normal CDR.

That's why I encoded them as MPEG and then used TMPGENC to split the MPEg and then burned the files onto two CDRs.

John

[mattward2k]

I thought we were talking about writing to DVD-R's neway . Obviously, you'd never fit DVD files on a CD-R, purely because the majority of the movie files are bigger than a single CD-R neway.

If you haven't got a DVD-Writer the best thing to do is to just create a VCD and copy it to one or two CD's depending on what quality you want. Your should, with a bitrate of about 800kbps, be able to fit an hour and a half's worth of video on one CD in VCD format.

[UncasMS]

jakin was actually talking about dvd, matt!

and he is right, that currently dvd's will only take up to 4.7 gb and quite a few titles are bigger than that.

[1 Smelly Fish]

Far out !! well that totally confused the heck out of me, I think it changed from DVD to VCD to DVD about 4 times lol's

[johnbmx4christ]

ok..i am gonna talk about both...i dont have a dvd-r but have been looking into it..i know that dvd-rw's are double sided ..that is 4.7 gigs per side..i have no idea how good they are though....as for the 800kb rate on the vcd...i have templates that are " sevcd " for tmpg and they are variable rate and can also put 90 min on a vcd..it says they can fit 100 mins but i aint gonna try it.also 800 kb probably dont look that good..it might be better to lower the rate on the audio and try to keep the video rate up a little higher. i think the total kb rate is 1347(video plus audio) but could be a couple numbers off.

[Nefarion]

dvd burning

Soon they will be coming out with double sided dvd-R's, which will hold 9.4 gigs. Once those are out you will have no problems directly burning the VOB files to make a copy. You may have to split the VOB files (half on one side, other half on the other), but you still should have no problems. The cool thing about having a dvd burner is that i can put 4 or 5 VCD's on one dvd-r (havent done it yet but i plan to, just got the computer). The only drawback that i can see to dvd writers is the fact that the dvd-r's and rw prices will not go down. The companies that make the dvd-r and rw's had to sign an agreement to the dvd companies stating that they get a major percentage of each blank dvd sold. Oh well, i will pay for the convienence. Peace

[tomselina]

It IS worth it, depending......

There are certain DVDs that don't contain lavish soundtracks or tons of extras that are perfect candidates for conversion to VCD or SVCD. I personally enjoy the old horror movies and TV shows like Star Trek & MASH (on DVD Jan 2002). These are PERFECT candidates for DVD to VCD conversion, and once you get in a rhythm, you can convert about 4 to 5 of these shows to VCD and have them ready to play in a day. With cheap DVD rentals, or online DVD rentals like Netflix.com, and the price of CD-Rs these days, you can save lots of $$. It is addicting in it's own way too after you get the hang of it! Here's my normal timetable for a short 70min flick, using a 1.2ghz Athlon: About 5min to rip the DVD, another 8min to DVD2AVI, and about 90min to TMPGenc to a nice tidy MPG file, with only a few minutes to burn to VCD with NERO. If you're ripping a 2hr movie, just let your TMPGenc encode overnight, and you're ready to burn the next morning!

This really is alot of fun once you know how...

[johnbmx4christ]

i just wanted to say to tomselina..you are the only other person that ive seen that rips, saves , and encode the way i do...everyone seems to do it different and - or - with different programs..i have found that the way i am doing it is the best for MY system but may not be for others..i will say that so far it is the easiest for me, and reliable.of course i am not as samrt as others..lol