All You Need To Know About Ripping DVDs

Been Archiving DVD's since '98-what used to take ,Literaly DAYS-Now Takes MINUTES!! (pardon caps!) The arctickle referenced is chock-full-a information that is practically useless to the Beginner ! Get AnyDVD Trial Download and search web for DVDShrink 3.2 or CloneDVD2. Play with these apps for a few days,you should be amazed at what you learn and MORE IMPORTANTLY-Exactly what you need to learn to do what you want !

What is the native resolution for a regular singel layer DVD?

I'm confused on the part of the article that says using DVD decrypter for the encoding and DVD Shrink for the burning.

DVD shrink doesn't have any burning capabilities unless you combine it with Nero (burningROM, etc) for disc burning.

I use DVDShrink for the whole process. I know it can turn it into an ISO which Nero can later burn (the free versions of Roxio 6 that I have don't allow this) or it can be kept as VOB files which can be played with and recombined for episode type things, which I havent gotten into myself yet.

I think I tried DVD Decrypter and found it cumbersome to use, but I don't remember which version that was.

Same comment than segap21. For DivX compression, what about Dr. DivX ?

DVD Decrypter was not purchased by Macrovision.
Macrovision and others sued Lightning UK! (author) and forced
him to stop development and support of decrypting software.
He has since authored imageburn, but that only burns and does not
rip.

I convert most of my DVD's into X264 files and they look great at 1/2 the size or less. I play them on my HTPC.

Tom's Hardware is great for many things, but for the real deal on video check out Doom9.org.

Most of the authors of the programs mentioned and more hang out there, including Lightning UK!

Mark

I figured out that VLC Media Player is the software.

How large on average would you say a 1280X1024 native resolution, H.264 encoded MPEG would be?

I am an intellectual property attorney who reads Tom's regularly. For this article, Tom's should really get a legal opinion before inducing mass contributory copyright infringement under the DMCA (there is a difference between ripping a CD and DVD - a CD isn't encrypted and doesn't fall under the DMCA). Althoug fair use exists under section 107 of the Copyright statute, the DMCA exists independent of fair use and makes no allownace for it. This article hits a *really* gray area regarding contributing to the anti-circumvention sections of the DMCA. See the 9-0 Supreme Court Grokster opinion regarding the current sentiment for contributorily inducing infringement.

Although your article might be fine, it is an unsettled area of the law that could come back to sting THG. I'm not expert here nor your lawyer, but given the fact that it is unlikely that any of the software solutions cited in the article have actually licensed the DVD DRM keys and given the severity of fines under the DMCA anti-circumvention sections, you may want to reconsider this article unless you have a legal opinion.

Two cents from somebody who wants to see THG continue without the interference of Hollywood who is probably itching for a sacrificial victim to go after in this very area...

Any info on Apollo DVD Copy? http://www.xtodvd.com/

I noticed the lack of Slysoft's programs also. I have used DvdDecryptor, DVDshrink and now I use AnyDVD from Slysoft, which works the best for me so far. I noticed recently that the first 2 I mentioned are having trouble ripping the newest DVDs out even after updating the software(decryptor not available I think), which is why I started using AnyDVD. I still use Shrink for repackaging though.

I also agree that an excellent site for reference is http://www.dvd-to-wmv.com