Converting DVD's to AVI

[savilash]

Hi All

Recently, I bought a Western Digital HD TV Media Player. This allows me to store my DVD collection on an external hard disk, connect it to the WD HD TV and play the DVD's on TV. This is brilliant as it enables me to protect my actual disks.

The downside of it all is that the Media Player can only play videos in certain formats & .vob is not one of them. The media player does play .avi format quite well. So my only option is to convert my DVD collection to .avi or any other format that the player handles. Since I have heard of .avi, this is my format of choice.

Now my question to all fellow doom9 members is : Can the kind community of Doom9 please point me in the right direction of a software that can convert my DVD's to .avi ? I need to convert the entire DVD and not just certain files or files individually. I am happy to rip them to my hard disk. However, bear in mind that I am a total novice so any application recommended must be easy to use.

I thank you all in advance and look forward to some good & friendly advice.

[buzzqw]

WDTV play vob, or video_ts folder

it's just don't play menu of dvd.. just straight movie

anyway a good way for converting dvd to avi is AutoGK (or HDConvertToX)

BHH

[savilash]

Hi buzzqw

Thank you for your post. You are 100% correct. WDTV does play the .vob files. I just have to point it to the VIDEO_TS folder and it works. Brilliant. Thank you very much. I am now using DVD Shrink to reduce the size of the movie so I can fit more into 160GB (trying to keep the DVD's approx. 2GB in size). I will look at HDConvertToX though just so I can have another string to the bow, so to speak. Thanks a million.

PS: not too fussed about the menu as I hardly use it or any of the other "goodies" that is on a DVD. I want just the movie so this will suit.

[buzzqw]

yea, wdtv is a little gem (i own one too).. and i don't miss to menu too :p

just one suggestion , a dvd shrinked to 2gb mean a big quality loss... a lot better would be encoding (with xvid or x264 codec) to 2gb, you will got a "near" trasparent quality

BHH

[savilash]

buzzqw
you have probably gathered by now that I am a total novice when it comes to encoding/decoding dvd's. i merely stick to what i know is easy to use. I would very much like to try your suggestion of encoding with xvid or x264. Can you tell me which program i need to download to do that and how to actually do it ? Ahh .. I get it. Your signature has a link to HDConverToX. I suppose this is the one. I downloaded it the other night but haven't had a chance to play with it. I hope it is easy for a newbie. Thanks again.

[buzzqw]

HDC is easy, but will require some knowledge about encoding

for start, and a very good start, use AutoGK!

you can't mistake -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=64266

AND.. when you will do a step further to quality, try HDC

[savilash]

buzzqw,

thanks a million for all your help. I most appreciative. Have downloaded and installed AutoGK and will try it tonight. Thanks again.