Best stand-alone DVD-to-XviD-on-CD app?

[Brains]

I don't know about you lot, but I'm tired of trying a succession of apps that seem to breed. I'm tired of having my machine get confused about avisynths and vobdubs and effing-mpegs, and one installer calling up half a dozen more for programs that already exist. I'm tired of the winrot that all this installing and uninstalling is making.

Can someone please recommend a simple, stand-alone program -- free, shareware or commercial -- that can rip a single or dual layer DVD (or at the very least, convert the output from DVDFab Decrypter) and create an XviD-encoded AVI that is guaranteed to fit on a single CD?

[guns1inger]

AutoGK

[Brains]

Sorry, AutoGK is one of those horrible breeder apps.

Next?

[guns1inger]

Do you want done easy, or do you want it done right ?

AutoGK has never put a foot wrong for me, and gives me the best quality.

[Brains]

I want both, and I want it so that there are no hordes of sub-apps. One executable that does all of the work, not farming stuff off to a chain of ever-changing subprograms. AutoGK is the worst of the bunch, it's a front end for a front end for half a dozen sub-programs.

That's why I asked for a stand-alone app.

[guns1inger]

Go get yourself a copy of WinAVI. It sounds like it will suit you.

[ricardouk]

Can someone please recommend a simple, stand-alone program -- free, shareware or commercial -- that can rip a single or dual layer DVD (or at the very least, convert the output from DVDFab Decrypter)

DvdFab does it in the paid version (platinum)

I "understand" what you mean with AutoGk "calling/pop up" other applications, i wont put AutoGk down as it one of the best tools outhere, no buts.

Having said that, i was also "annoyed" by the "pop ups" but its a free tool that produces excelent results, that is why i use avi.Net now, does exactly the same thing, i dont have to go through the compression test extra time and pop ups, avi.Net does everything without the pop ups, it uses third party applications but you dont see them like in AutoGk, you're informed in the program on what it is doing at a certain time. In one word its more "TIDY" than AutoGk, it doesnt install codecs it uses what is on your pc.

Quality is the same. Try it and decide

Brains don't get me wrong but try to be more polite next time, you wont go far here by saying bad things about top quality tools that almost everyone tried and rated it "5 stars"

If you're having problems with the tools is most certainly your pc, you see AutoGk and otheres have been around for years.

To quote Len0x:

AutoGK and the programs it uses have been tested thoroughly and used, in many cases for years, by many thousands of people. These warnings aren't meant to scare you away from video encoding, but just so you'll understand if something does happen

and create an XviD-encoded AVI that is guaranteed to fit on a single CD?

every single one will fit CD, will it have good quality? NO

That is why AutoGk have the compression test and it will pick up the right option to use/ alert you you of the final quality. If You dont know what bitrate to use, use AutoGK, the "pop" ups is something you have to learn to live with.

If you Know what bitrate should be used use avi.Net.

By the way having CD as a reference with DVDR's at same price is outdated.

Welcome to Videohelp

[manono]

To quote Len0x:

Hehe, you're quoting me. It's strange to read your own words 5 years (or so) after they were written.

Personally, I don't understand the problem with the program in use at the moment showing, whether BeSweet, DGIndex, VDubMod, or anything else. The fact that AutoGK is a front end for several other excellent programs is nothing to be annoyed about, I don't think. But I guess Brains (?) has already made up his mind.

[Noahtuck]

Go get yourself a copy of WinAVI. It sounds like it will suit you.

[sohancool]

You could try Fairuse Wizard or Avi.net

[ricardouk]

To quote Len0x:

Hehe, you're quoting me. It's strange to read your own words 5 years (or so) after they were written.

Sorry, i've translated the guide and forgot it was you and him that done it, when i was reading Brain's post about his problems with avisynth and the third party programs it uses, the first thing i remembered were those words. They might have 5 years but they still apply today.

My "problem" with AutoGK isnt really the "pop ups", its the compression test, if i'm converting episodic dvds that adds quite a bit of time. Wish there was a on/off option.

BUT I DO UNDERSTAND WHY IT IS THERE!

[stantheman1976]

The compression test are necessary to get the best quality. AutoGK uses other programs to do the comressing but they are all programs that are well liked and used by many people here. It's not like it's installing spyware or anything malicious. It installs a few legitimate applications that works well together to give you the best quality encode and let's you defince a specific filesize. All you have to do is click your mouse a few times and wait. If you want to easiest solution with best quality AutoGK is it.

[guns1inger]

I have tried DVDFab Platinum for encoding to other formats (specifically H264 and Xvid) and in both cases I get horrible deinterlacing/interlace scaling artifacts. The results were unwatchable. It may be OK for progressive material, but it is useless for anything else.

[Brains]

Go get yourself a copy of WinAVI. It sounds like it will suit you.

Thanks, that's one to try. The reviews there seem to be mostly favourable, the only real issue seems to be going from AV to DVD, which is the reverse of what I'm after.

DvdFab does it in the paid version (platinum)

Ahh, that I didn't know. And it's affordable, too. That's another to try, thankyou.

I understand what you mean with AutoGk "calling/pop up" other applications, i wont put AutoGk down as it one of the best tools outhere, no buts.

So I keep reading, but I've never had any success with it. Crashes and/or errors during encoding, videos that end up with an insanely small resolution, or files that won't play on my standalone DivX-box ...

Possibly the biggest issue I have with 'breeder' apps like Gordian Knot is that if something goes awry and it gets un-installed, it inevitably punches holes in the rest of the system's video framework, because some other program relies on a different version of one of the same sub-programs ... hence my original request.

... avi.Net now, does exactly the same thing ...

Yes, but even more so, because it relies on .NET, end even though it hides its sub-programs, it still relies on sub-programs. The fact it has independent sub-programs means it isn't a contender.

... try to be more polite next time, you wont go far here by saying bad things about top quality tools that almost everyone tried and rated it "5 stars"

I was being polite, I stated my original request fairly clearly and succinctly, I thought. I want a single, stand-alone program with no dependencies on sub-programs, and people suggest the exact opposite. I thought using the word "stand-alone" in the subject and the posting would be self-evident. Gordian and AGK are not "stand-alone". No matter how good the results may be from it, it doesn't meet the criteria of my original question.

... If you're having problems with the tools is most certainly your pc

Unlikely. Very, very very unlikely. It gets a bare-metal rebuild every three months, the apps I use the most are tried-and-tested, the OS (WinXPSP2) is robustly secured, hardened, and lives behind two layers of hardware protection. It does everything else I want from it flawlessly, except convert videos ... and I've only had to get the PC to do this because no-one can seen to settle on a single video codec or audio codec or playback method, so I need to be able to field all comers so I can output a single, simple, common standard.

every single one will fit a CD, will it have good quality? NO

Good enough so that the end result fits on a single 700 MB disc is good enough for me. Visual perfection is not important to me; I watch movies for the story, not for the eye-candy.

the "pop" ups is something you have to learn to live with.

I've decided never to use 'breeder' apps. There is nothing wrong with an "application" having several smaller sub-executables, as long as 1) they are never seen, and 2) they all live together in the one directory. I never install stuff to '/Program Files/' unless it is driver-related or something from Microsoft.

I don't have to learn to live with anything. My computer, my rules

... having CD as a reference with DVDR's at same price is outdated.

Not here they're not. I have my reasons why I stipulated CD-R as the end result.

Welcome to Videohelp

Thanks!

So, end of discussion about AutoGK and the like, yes? Most of you love it, I hate it and I've explained why. Yes I'm weird, live with it, gods knows I have to :P

So. I'm still after any further suggestions for a suitable DVD-to-XviD-on-CD applicaiton that:
- is NOT AutoGK, Gordian Knot or Avi.NET
- does NOT rely on Avisynth, Vobsub, VLC, ffmpeg or any other sub-program
- is 100% self-contained and stand-alone
- has an intuitive graphical interface
- can ensure final output does not exceed 700 MB no matter what
- can be commercial, shareware, trialware or even free.

If you can't suggest anything which meets all of those criteria, don't comment

So far, I've got WinAVI and DVDFab as possibles. Anything else?

[guns1inger]

Go to downloads.com and you will find hundreds of them. They are all based on pretty interfaces and bastardized freeware backend routines that aren't credited. And like WinAVI, they are for the most part, crap.

However, as you have stated that quality is far lower on your list than convenience or keeping it all in one application, it really wont matter which one you pick. They are all pretty much the same - average programs for average users.

If you really want to keep your system that tidy and compartmentalised, you should go and buy a Mac. You can just drag the folder for app into your applications folder, and it is installed. Don't like it ? Drag it to the bin and it's uninstalled. And decision making is far easier because there are far fewer applications to choose from, and none of them use the better tools like avisynth.

[redwudz]

FairUse Wizard should do all you want. You will still need to decrypt the DVDs. The freeware DVDFab HD Decrypter is recommended for that. WinAVI is not recommended by much of anyone here. Do a forum search as to why.

[Brains]

Go to downloads.com and you will find hundreds of them ... they are for the most part, crap.

I know. I did, and found, as you say, hundreds. That's why I came here, to get suggestions on which ones are worth looking at. And if they're all based on the same "uncredited freeware backends" as breeder-apps, surely the output quality would be on par with the free stuff you seem to prefer?

If someone can take a clump of free code and stand-alone one-shot apps, strip them down and repackage them into a single exectuable, and puts a decent interface on it, and then wants money for the repackaging, I'll pay for that if it does what I want how I want.

If you really want to keep your system that tidy and compartmentalised, you should go and buy a Mac.

Funny, that ... it so happens I'm first and foremost a Mac person, have been since they came out in '84. I only got an AMD-based Windows XP machine in 2002 after it proved virtually impossible to do much with video on my G4 after you Windows weenies started encoding stuff with hacked-up MPEG4 codecs that were all optimised for little-endian x86 processors :P

(And no, don't tell me to upgrade the G4 to a newer Intel Mac, I won't touch anything which uses an Intel chip. AMD, 68k or PowerPC only in this house, thanks!)

FairUse Wizard should do all you want. You will still need to decrypt the DVDs.

Ta for that, will scope it out.

[workinmatrix]

New released E.M. Free DVD Copy can rip DVD DVD to AVI, DivX, XviD, MPEG, FLV, WMV, even rip to ipod.

It is a freeware. I tried the program, it works well for good quality DVD discs but cannot handle scratched DVD discs. And the conversion speed is not very fast. And for ripping DVD to ipod, iphone, it needs upgrading to paid version.
Get from http://www.freewarefiles.com/EM-Free-DVD-Copy_program_41511.html

[jagabo]

Go to downloads.com and you will find hundreds of them ... they are for the most part, crap.

I know. I did, and found, as you say, hundreds. That's why I came here, to get suggestions on which ones are worth looking at. And if they're all based on the same "uncredited freeware backends" as breeder-apps, surely the output quality would be on par with the free stuff you seem to prefer?

No. The people who put AutoGK together know what they're doing. Most of the people who put those other apps together don't.

[Brains]

So why don't they liase with the authors of all the sub-programs they use, and turn it into a single executable?

[guns1inger]

Because then you end up with Nero - bloated in size and mediocre in function. The good tools (avisynth, ffmpg mencoder et al) are complex programs written by dedicated people who work for nothing. They are all concentrating on the things they know and do best. Trying to co-ordinate all of this into a single program is a mammoth task that would ultimately mean losing many of the functions that make the tools what they are.

I have a single instance of avisynth on my machine, that is used by probably a dozen different tools. Why do I have so many - because each does something different and does it very well. I would rather have a dozen very god tools, so I can use the right tool for the job, than have one mediocre tool that does everything, but does none of it well.

[shoeshine]

i use TMPG ENC