Questions about DVD backups and file formats?

[jacatone]

I tried this DVD backup program that made an Mpeg 1 copy. It not only took about 5 hours but the final image looked like it was made from an old 8mm film. I don't understand all these different file formats, Mpeg 1 and 2, Avi, Divx, WMV. What does it all mean and what is the best format to aim for? Thanks.

[Doobie]

Mpeg 1 = VCD Quality...
Mpeg 2 = I believe but could be wrong its Super VCD quality
Avi = is good quality but worthless if your backing up becuase it would fill your whole hard drive.
DivX = is great quality and most movies fit on one CD but you wont be able to play on your DVD player... I believe they used to make Divx players but Im not sure if they still make them.
WMV = is Windows Media Video... the quality is decent but I DONT CARE FOR IT.

When backing up your dvds I would recommend using Mpeg1 or 2 becuase most dvd players will play vcd and super vcd.... so unless your planning on just watching your movies on your computer mpeg is the best in my opinion. Well unless you have a DVD burner.

[reboot]

Mpeg1 is VCD. Mpeg2 is SVCD/DVD depending on what program you are using to rip your DVD's.
DivX is a compression codec, used in .avi's to keep the filesize down, while maintaining quality, but only good for avi.
WMV is too bloated to do decent backups.

What you should be doing is ripping your DVD's to your hard drive, encoded in SVCD (mpeg2), then burn them to CDR. Most DVD's will take 2 cdr's, some will take 3, or more, depending on movie length.

Tutorials on doing exactly what you want, including all free software to do it:
http://www.mpegit.net/eng_svcd.php
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvd2svcd.htm
http://users3.ev1.net/~CavemanLawyer/

I also recommend you get dvd shrink from here: http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/

Although there are programs that claim to backup your DVD's all in one step, they just don't have the quality (as you've found out).

Probably the quickest, easiest way is to follow this guide: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvd2svcd.htm
Use TMPGEnc http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html as it's free, CCE is too complicated and leaves a watermark, and Canopus is over $700!

[boxcarracer767]

Check out www.dvdrhelp.com it has many guides into encoding and decoding dvd's, and file formats

[jacatone]

Thanks for the replies. There's obviously a lot of options out there. I did try this one program called Super DVD Ripper which ripped an entire DVD to one CD using AVI. I wasn't able to view it properly until I used a free Divx player and ran the CD on my DVD drive. The picture and audio was indistinguishable from the original and it reduced the whole movie to 640 megs which is remarkable. I guess once DVD burners become affordable this whole process will become commonplace.

[reboot]

The only problem with ripping to avi, is that it will only play on the computer. If you want to have backups that play on a standalone DVD player, you need a DVD burner, or go through the conversion process and burn as (S)VCD.