Encoding specific parts & Ripping in general

[RipMaster]

I have been ripping my DVDs to ISOs with DVD Decrypter and storing them on my hard drive. That is not storage efficient, and I was thinking about burning them all to DVDs and then deleting the files. However I know that some people use DVD Shrink, some use RipIt4Me, etc. Is my ripping method outdated, and if so what should I use instead? Is there a guide on how to rip for the newbie? I've searched the site and the more I read, the more confused I get and the more contradictions I see.

Also I have a specific question. I got a DVD from a band. It's got a lot of tour footage and some live stuff and a few music videos. I ripped it to VOB then used ImgTool to convert it to ISO, so now I have 2 copies the VOB/IFO/BUP and the ISO. I want to encode the live stuff and music videos and leave out the excess tour footage. The tour footage/live stuff is on one .VOB and the music videos are on another. I'm going to use XViD, so how can I end up with separate AVI's for each live song and music video?

[foxyshadis]

DVDD is still perfectly fine for most movies, even many new ones. It's only movies that come with newer protections, like Sony's Arccos, that require RipIt4Me or DVDFab. If DVDD doesn't work, it'd start coming up with lots of errors during the ripping process.

Guides for different methods of encoding can be found on www.doom9.org.

The way I'd probably do that would be to rip the disc in either file mode or IFO mode, file is usually more compatible with tools, ripping the vobs for one in one folder and then other in another.

[RipMaster]

But there is more than one video in the VOB and I want to cut it up into separate AVIs. Encoding just those two VOBs will still end up with me having 2 AVIs and I want one of each video.

[manono]

Usually each music video and live performance has its own chapter. When decrypting, set up DVD Decrypter in IFO Mode (up at the top, Mode->IFO), and not the default File Mode. It'll then show you the PGC(s), by default the longest one first, and the chapters of each. If you Right-Click->Select None on the chapters, start checking them one by one and setting up a folder for each, you can then decrypt by chapter.

There's a chance that each music video or live performance has its own PGC, although that's very unusual. And I suppose it's possible that they're all jumbled together. If so, you can decrypt into a single VOB file (Tools->Settings->IFO Mode->File Splitting->None, and when you get that one large VOB file, split them up into the various music videos using something like MPEG2Cut or ChopperXP. MPEG2Cut is good because you can see what you're cutting or saving.

[RipMaster]

Thanks! I ripped each chapter and it worked fine. If I'm going to encode all the VOBs to XviD then I don't really need the stream info or IFOs do I?

Also, I was reading about AC3, MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, all the sound things. For each number, there were two PGC's. I ripped each chapter off each PGC, and I have two copies of each video. I was wondering why this happened, and I thought maybe it was because one had one type of sound and the other had another, but when I read about those it seemed to be more information for encoding to types of AVIs. I'm pretty sure it's because certain players will not accept certain types of sounds (which is the point of dual-audio AVIs)

So are the videos identical or what? If not, which is better?

[manono]

The videos will be identical. The Stream Info.txt will tell you what audio is in there. The videos aren't on there twice, but just once. The reason there are 2 of each is probably because there's a "Play All" feature in the menu, where you either play each video separately, or the whole thing together. Or something like that. One of the duplicate PGCs is a linking feature, but the video isn't really on the DVD. If you were to open the DVD in VobBlanker, you'd see the same thing, but one of the PGCs has no size.

No, if for XviD, you don't need the IFO or the Stream Information.txt