dvd ripper

[homer15]

i just got a dvd from a relative with some homevideo on it. i would like to rip this dvd onto my computer (in any video format). how can i go about doing that? any good dvd rippers out there?

[DrZaius]

http://www.doom9.org has good guides on making DVD backups.

[homer15]

thanks drz.

[Iman74]

Also, www.gamecopyworld.com
they have rippers and more.

[RJ]

Home video ? Is this a burned DVD (DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW or -RAM) ?

If so, then just copy the files to hard drive, that's all. Tools like DVD decrypter and SmartRipper are only needed for commercial DVDs as they are copy protected and only the ripping tools can overgo them.

RJ

[homer15]

i tried looking at the file structure on the dvd, but i didn't see any readily copyable files.

[RJ]

The files have to be there. On the DVD itself there are 2 folders, called AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS (audio_ts can be missing, but video_ts is required). Inside VIDEO_TS you will find *.ifo, *.bup and *.vob files. Copy those files to hard drive.

If the structure of your DVD is different then it's not a video DVD. What exactly do you see when you browse through the DVD ?
Have you checked that there are files on the dvd (rightlick on the drive in my computer or explorer, select properties) ?

So this is a burned DVD, right ? In this case you don't need ripping tools as there is no copy protection to overgo.

RJ

[homer15]

i saw those files in the VIDEO_TS folder. i tried running one of them (the .vob i believe), and it wouldn't run. i'll try running the other tonight.

[RJ]

Ok, so the files are there. The movies are stored in the VTS_xx_x.vob files, beginning with VTS_01_1.vob (VTS_01_0.vob contains the menus). Just drag them in your dvd playback software and they should play back. It shouldn't be a problem to copy those files to hard drive. If there is a problem, you can use a ripping tool like DVD decrypter or SmartRipper they do their job very well.

RJ

[homer15]

ok, i'm also looking to edit these files. would i be able to edit them in the .vob format?

[ryanatalie]

ok, i'm also looking to edit these files. would i be able to edit them in the .vob format? No, you are going to have to convert the VOB's to AVI, and then edit in your software of choice.

There are a lot of good articles at:


VCDHELP (http://www.vcdhelp.com)

or

DOOM9 (http://www.doom9.org)

[RJ]

Converting to AVI ??? Uuuuuuuhhh, nope, don't !

That is the worst thing you can do as you will lose quality and you don't need to.

Ok, so, there are more videos on this dvd and let's say you want to take out one of them and edit it ?

Depending on how large the movies are, you might want to merge the vob files. DVD decrypter has an option for this. Check this option, select the VTS_xx_x.vob files and rip them. DVD decrypter will merge them so you get a large vob file on your hard drive.
With IFO Edit you can now take out the movies you want. This is done by striping out so-called VOB-ID's. You should know that VOB is not a video format, the format is MPEG-2, VOB is just a video object that contains that MPEG (and sometimes even more, like subtitles, multiple audio tracks etc.).
So in the VOB there are MPEG-2 videos, they're enumerated by the VOB-IDs. Using VOBrator you can see what video has which ID, then using IfoEDIT you can get the movie you want by taking out the other VOB-ID's.

Now to edit just load the vob into your video editing application. If the application does not want the vob, use TMPGEnc to extract the video and audio part of the MPEG. With bbMPEG you can remux it to a *.mpg file, which nearly every video editing application should be able to load.

RJ

[ryanatalie]

That's what is fun about video editing. There is always more than one way of doing something.

This is how I would have edited VOB files.

1) Use DVD decrypter or Smartripper to get the files to my hard drive. I prefer DVD decrypter. :D
2) Create a DVD2AVI project. You will need the program DVD2AVI (free)
3) Frameserve the project using VFAPI converter (free). This is required for editing software. You can also use AVISYNTH, but it is more complicated.
4.) Then open the VOB files for editing in Adobe Premiere or other editing software.

[RJ]

Yeah, you *can* do it, but the problem with converting to AVI is that you lose quality, and you don't need to.

The best way is to keep the MPEG-2 as MPEG-2 and load this into Premiere or another editing program and edit it. Only the edited parts will be re-encoded, the rest will remain as its original quality.

By converting to AVI you first need an AVI codec unless you want it uncompressed. MPEG-2 to another codec -> quality loss.
Then when finished back to MPEG-2, you use the MPEG-2 codec again -> thus again quality loss. Therefore keeping it in MPEG-2 is the best, also the fastest, way.

RJ

[homer15]

thanks guys, i'll give it a shot. my uncle (the one who shot the video) has a dvd burner, but i guess no flare for editing. he just threw all the stuff on, it's all a big jumble. he gave it to me... then mentioned he'd like the stuff to look a little better, but doesn't know how to do it (hint hint hint!). so, i need to edit some stuff and make it look a little classier.

[RJ]

Ah, I see. Well, hopefully he has a plus burner (that burns to DVD+R/+RW), not a minus one (that'd be DVD-R/-RW, or DVD-RAM).
With DVD+RW you can use DVD+VR, that is what the standalone dvd recorders use: Realtime video recording to dvd and the capability to edit it directly on the disc.
With the PC you can also take advantage of DVD+VR. The only program so far that supports it is neoDVD 4 (Std. and Pro. Pro also supports AC3). That way you could directly edit the stuff on the dvd itself on the DVD+RW, you need to do that on his computer, though.
With DVD- this is not possible, only with DVD+.

RJ