Ripping and Encoding DVDs
Ripping and Encoding DVDs can be a rather daunting task. Many of the faculty I work with really don't know where to begin. Let's take a look at what tools and resources are available to accomplish this rather complex task.
Before we look at the software available to rip and transcode, let me give you two pieces of advice. First, you are not going to be able to do this without a decent computer with a large hard drive in it. So, if you're sitting in front of a dinosaur, do yourself a favor and wait until you upgrade before you jump into this. I would recommend on the PC side no less than a 1.5 GHz machine (preferably a P4 at 2 GHz or above). For the Macintosh, I would recommend a G4 or above. With either platform 512MB of RAM and the latest OS (OSX or XP) are also really best for this kind of workload. The files you will be working with demand intelligent memory management that is only available in the latest OS releases. Second, familiarize yourself with the single best resource site for video on the Net: VideoHelp.com. This site will answer any question you have and provide you with any tool you might need.
To get started, we can easily divide this topic into two parts. Backing up DVD videos onto writable DVD media and recoding video from a DVD into some other format, such as a DivX AVI file for playback on a computer or a set-top DVD player that supports MPEG4 video like the Philips DVP-642. If you just want to backup your DVDs to writable disk you're in luck; this process has been greatly simplified by inexpensive software tools that are available online or at most computer stores. I am very partial to Nero Recode, part of the Nero Ultimate Edition suite. For the Macintosh, there's Roxio Popcorn. And if you can't afford to purchase a software package there are free or open-source tools available, as well; DVDShrink for the PC and ffmpegX or DVDBackup for the Mac. The free tools are generally a little bit more difficult to use than the commercial ones, but don't let that stop you. I've used DVDShrink with great results. I haven't tried DVDBackup or ffmpegX, but speaking from the geek perspective, I think ffmpegX looks like the way to go. ffmpegX does it all; it will also transcode to mpeg4 variants like DivX and XviD.
For details on how to use the tools mentioned for DVD9 to DVD5 (as the above process is called) you can follow the links below for online guides:
Three of the five guides above are from the other essential website for video: Doom9.org. Take some time to check this site out. There are several great guides and many pages explaining the technology beyond the tools and formats you will be dealing with.
Now, onto the more interesting and, of course, more difficult process: ripping and transcoding to alternate formats. Again, you can find all the information and tools you need to do this on the VideoHelp and Doom9 sites. I'll provide links directly to tools I mention, but there are many alternatives, especially for the PC.
For the Macintosh, I've used Handbrake for ripping and encoding to mpeg4 files. But, in researching for this post, I think I will be using ffmpegX for all of my OSX video encoding needs--it's quite a cool little app. As the website says, it's a GUI for 20 open-source Unix tools for video and audio extracting, muxing, subtitling, and encoding. It includes a video player and all the tools you need to work with video on the Macintosh. It is essentially the OSX equivalent of GordianKnot (discussed below). You'll need a DVD Ripper, such as MacTheRipper, to get the files off the DVD for processing. The ffmpegX website includes documentation and step-by-step guides for most common tasks using the tool. The ffmpegX forum is hosted at VideoHelp.com. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to test the 2X faster than real-time encoding boast the author makes on his site for Dual Proc G5s. If true, this would certainly kick the pants off of Handbrake in the speed department.
On the PC, the absolute gold standard, in my opinion, for DVD transcoding is GordianKnot. As I mentioned above, GordianKnot is a front-end GUI for several open-source or otherwise free tools. Prior to the development of GordianKnot, one had to work with several separate programs to accomplish the task of encoding files from DVD to any of the mpeg4 variants. GordianKnot is open-source and free. There is also a side-project called AutoGK which further automates the process. But, Hey!, you're a geek, right? Or you wouldn't have gotten this far in this post, right? Use GordianKnot. Feel the power while looking at all of those settings and options. Hehehe. (Note: Starting with AutoGK 1.84 a piece of scumware/adware is installed with AutoGK. See the Doom9 guide linked below for more info and uninstall instructions.)
In any case, there are excellent how-to guides for GordianKnot on Doom9.org (links below). While you are at SourceForge downloading GordianKnot make sure to grab the codec pack there as well. More on that in a bit. The only other tool I have found to be solidly reliable for transcoding is DVDx. DVDx is a fine tool, but it just doesn't have the features of GordianKnot. That said, if you want quick, down-and-dirty transcoding to SVCD, VCD, or DivX, DVDx might just fit the bill. Oh, and did I mention, it's also free. Nice. ;-)
Finally, a newcomer to the mpeg4 scene is the Nero Digital codec (more on mpeg4 codecs in the Appendix below). If you are smart and use Windows, you have already purchased Nero Ultimate Edition, and so, you already have access to this sweet little beauty of a codec. Doom9's annual codec shootout pegged Nero Digital as the winner in the speed/quality race. And I can tell you from my own real-world experience that I have to agree. For you bitheads, Nero Digital is a H.264 MPEG4 variant that supports high quality AAC audio encoding. With a setting in the Nero Recode application, the resulting mp4 files can be played in QuickTime, otherwise you need to use Nero's decent ShowTime media player application (also part of the Ultimate Edition suite) to play the mp4 files. Nero's marketing material says there are several consumer electronics manufacturers who have signed onto the codec for playback in their devices. My Philips DVP-642 won't play the files out of the box and I haven't seen a firmware upgrade that will do it yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Why, you might ask? Well, Nero Recode is one of the easiest to use apps for DVD transcoding I have ever worked with. And did I mention that Nero Digital is extremely fast? Well, it is. Recode can transcode a 2 hour DVD to Nero Digital mp4 in less than an hour on my 3.2 GHz MPC Millenia. And it is just plain pretty at the Home Theater setting. Even the Portable profile yields great results, though there is some softness in the image when you are close to the screen. But, hey, you can fit the file on a CD! So I don't wanna hear anymore whining....
Below you'll find some links to guides for the PC tools we just covered:
- Doom9's indispensible GordianKnot Guides
- Doom9's AutoGK Guide
- Doom9's Nero Recode Guide
- DVDx Guide
Well, there you have it, a whirlwind tour of tools and resources for backing up and transoding your DVD collection. Of course you wouldn't use these tools to copy rented DVDs or disks from Netflix would you? No, of course you wouldn't. Keep in mind that with the exception of applications like Popcorn and Nero Recode, you're going to have to read the guides and rely on them as walk-throughs for the first few times you do this. There are simply too many options that require some knowledge of how computers handle video for most people to just open these applications and start using them.
Appendix: Notes on DVD Decrypter and Video and Audio Codecs
(Note: DVD Decrypter has been killed by the MPAA and other copyright hounds. A free alternative is DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.7.2 - I haven't tried it extensively yet, but I'll report on it when I do. More info on VideoHelp.)
On the PC, one of the essential tools you will need for anything you do with DVDs is DVD Decrypter. DVD Decrypter is a ripping tool that allows you to transfer the files from a DVD to your computer hard drive. But in doing this transfer, DVD Decrypter removes CSS encryption, Macrovision copy protection, and any region coding on the disk. As the media companies come up with new ways to foil this process, the smart folks reponsible for the development of this tool update the software to handle the latest escallation in the copyright/fair use wars. Therefore, when you install DVD Decrypter and it asks for permission to check for updates at start-up make sure to say yes and download the latest version when needed. One caveat here, the GordianKnot rip-pack comes with a certified version of DVD Decrypter that has been verified to work with GordianKnot. So if you update DVD Decrypter and GK stops working, unistall the new version and reinstall the rip-pack.
DVD Decrypter has two modes of ripping disks, file mode and IFO mode. If you are using GordianKnot, you must rip disks in IFO mode. IFO mode will pick out the main movie from the disk and rip only that (or another program or chapter of your choice). File mode essentially recreates the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD on your hard drive. If you are using Nero Recode or DVDx you may want to use file mode. File mode has the added benefit of maintaining the full disk on your hard drive at its full resolution with all menus and features intact. Most DVD Player software can playback VIDEO_TS folders from your hard drive. So if you have a capacious hard drive you can keep multiple disks on your machine. If you're taking a flight and you have the files on a laptop, playing the movie from the hard drive will use considerably less battery power than running the DVD drive resulting in longer battery life.
I've been throwing around the word codec quite a bit, and I don't have the space here to go into too much detail, but I do want to point you to some resources for getting your machine ready for encoding and playback of all the video formats you might run into along the way. I've pointed you above to the GordianKnot rip-pack. It contains many of the free codecs you will need. Another useful codec pack is the Matroska codec pack. It contains several additional codecs and tools for playing mkv files, which are wrapper files that can include things like multiple subtitle tracks and audio tracks. Another similar wrapper format is the Ogg Media format, ogm files. See Doom9's Ogg Media Guide. Ogg and Matroska generally use XviD for their video encoding because it is open-source. As you might have noticed, GordianKnot will let you create these files. Just an aside for my fellow Nipponophiles, but much of the Anime you find out on the Net is either ogm or mkv.
If you just want to get the two most popular video codecs, you can download them directly: DivX and XviD. The DivX codec comes in a freeware and Pro version. The Pro version provides better quality at lower bitrates than the free version. I think it's worth the $20. DivX Networks has from time to time been offering their nice little encoding software Dr. DivX (which includes the DivX Pro codec) for $30--only $10 more than the DivX Pro codec by itself. If you see that special, it's worth buying the encoding software. And finally, here's a great resource for dealing with PC-centric video on the Macintosh.
