Dvd to avi (or hd) - help

[toronto]

Hi,
A lot of stuff is on the net about ripping encrypted DVD’s.
My question is simple. I have about 5-6 dozens home made DVD movies, I mean they are not encrypted and they have just one title. All of them are 1 hour long and I transferred them from my camcorder to pc. Then using Nero or adobe encore I burned them to DVD.
Now times seem to have changed going from DVDs to blue rays and now to hard drives. So which is the best way to convert them back from DVD to hard drive (I know I will loose some quality) maintaining a decent quality, lets say I want to give one DVD aprox 1 to 1.5Gb space on hd.
Thank you for reading and any help or advice or any link would be much appreciated.

[QuantumRand]

Taking a 1 hour DVD and then encoding it with h.264, it should be pretty easy to stay under 1.5GB without losing any noticeable quality.

I personally use MakeMKV to copy DVDs and Blu-rays into an MKV video file. This is completely lossless and creates a 1:1 copy. Size can vary depending on how it's stored on the DVD. It's possible that just this step will be enough to get you that 1.5GB file size you're aiming for.

If the file is still too big, you can use a video converter to convert it. I'd recommend Handbrake for the advanced beginner types. It'll give you a handful of options but is also simple to use. Since your DVDs aren't encrypted, you could even skip the MakeMKV step and have Handbrake transcode it directly from the disc.

Using Handbrake in Constant Quality mode (with a RF value of 18), you should be able to get a visually lossless copy. With standard compression settings, it'll take a modern computer around 3 hours per hour of video to transcode it. The result should be somewhere around 1GB per hour in file size.

[diogen]

60 to 70 DVDs (single layer) will be about 300GB. A 500GB drive will set you back some $70.

Assuming your DVDs are without menus, just copy over the VOB files, rename them MPEG and call it a day...:)

Diogen.

[toronto]

Thank you QuantumRand & diogen for your time and ideas.
I will give Handbrake a try and also I will even check MakeMKV and its options.
Diogen, I have noticed that every DVD has 4 vob (about 1 GB each) and after renaming they might have to be joined altogether in order to have only one single file.
I would like to ask another question here. After finishing the editing of my movies that has been transferred to pc, I end up with an .avi file which is aprox 12 GB in size.
How can I compress them to 1.5 GB or even 2 GB? In this way I will avoid burning them to DVDs and then to pc again. I am planning to do this way in my future home movies.
Thanks

[diogen]

I have noticed that every DVD has 4 vob (about 1 GB each) and after renaming they might have to be joined altogether in order to have only one single file.Oldy-but-goody DVDShrink will do that...
I end up with an .avi file which is aprox 12 GB in size.Did you use VirtualDub for editing? You most likely saved it uncompressed.

What compression tools/formats you use is personal.
For non-HD self-made movies I'd use XviD...

Diogen.

[toronto]

I just tried DVD Shrink ansd it created a folder with the same structure as the DVD. I would say it just copied from DVD to the HD all the folders, so keeping the same 4 vob files there instead of only one single file.
As for editing I have used most of the times an older ersion of Adobe Premiere (1.5). It uses DV (NTSC)compressor and "configure" buton is disabled. I do not know if this is a real compressor or not. Also there were no other compressors available through Premiere in spite that I have installed Huffuyv, PICVideo, Xvid Mpeg-4 and some other from Microsoft and Intel Indeo Video that might have come preinstalled with WIn XP.
:thanks:

[diogen]

In DVD Shrink 3.2
Edit->Preferences, press Output Files tab.
Uncheck "Split VOB files...".

That will merge all VOBs in one during backup.

Diogen.

[toronto]

Thank you Diogen,

With your help and explanations that was easy. Should renaming be done through any special software or just using the right clik "rename" button? I noticed that this one does not change the extension of the file itself unless I have to do any extra work in advance or after the fact.

Any advice regarding any good compression codec would be apreciated as well.
Thanks

[diogen]

VOB is MPEG-2.
As long as the content of the DVD is one continues video clip (no menus), just take out the X.VOB file, rename X.MPG (any way you like) and toss the rest.
The file should be playable as-is even in (not very old) DVD players.

If you are new to encoding (and would like to encode), start with user friendly packages like Handbrake.
The more interest you develop (if), the more variables you'd want to tweak, the more complicated tools you will turn to...

Diogen.

[toronto]

I tired several times VirtualDub but not to its full content. Now I have sth new (for me) like Handbrake to discover and learn.
Thank you again.

[vrpatilisl]

I think you should try "make mkv" and make bit to bit identical copy of your dvd. So you get single mkv file for each dvd and no quality loss. And if want to encode to visualy loss less quality Mkv then use veryslow preset with crf 18 or 16 in vidcoder or hybrid.

[toronto]

Thank you vrpatilisl. I will definitely give MakeMKV a try as suggested also by QuantumRand.
:thanks:

[hanfrunz]

Hello,

you can also use VOB2MPG it joins the vob files to one .mpg file an it's very easy to use: I like the old version 2.5 the most for simple dvds:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOB2MPG/old-versions#download

hanfrunz

[toronto]

That was really easy with VOB2MPG25
Thank you "hanfrunz"
:thanks: