SubRip can't rip directly from non-encrypted DVD?

[bizzybody]

I have the latest SubRip, trying to rip directly from a DVD-Fab ripped copy of a DVD. I select the IFO, click Start and it *doesn't start*. Nothing happens except it closes that window. Same not-starting after having it verify.

I've used this same version to rip subs from the main movie ripped to hard drive with Smart Ripper.

This DVD has six episodes of a show but they're all packed into a single video with 30 chapters, five chapters for each. I ripped the first five chapters to hard drive and SubRip worked fine on that, so I figured I could save the character matrix and use it to rip the whole thing and split it later for each episode.

Doesn't matter if I use that matrix file or not, it won't work directly from the disc.

[Baldrick]

Have you tried use vsrip to rip out the sub/idx from the dvd? and then convert them to text.

[bizzybody]

Sooo I ripped the main movie to hard drive and SubRip worked, but this DVD uses several fonts, some special characters and symbols and even titles set on angles.

So now I'm using DVDFab Platinum's generic portable settings configured for Divx and MP3 at 320x240 with subpictures rendered direct to video.

Had to spend money. :P Isn't there a freeware app that can do this?

[jman98]

TV episode DVDs are notoriously difficult to convert to formats like Divx because of the way they are often authored. I'm not sure if it's an "evil genius" thing where the discs are deliberately authored in a way to make such conversions very difficult for consumers or if it's being done through pure idiocy.

I did a one time conversion to VCD (this was a one off thing) for a friend from the only disc in season 1 of NBC's The Office. That is the worst authored DVD I've ever seen. It was incredibly difficult to get the episodes ripped, but I did so using freeware tools like DVD Decrypter. I remember that on some episodes the audio would start with the episode itself, but the video started with some Universal intro, so I had to edit the video to match the audio. There were other problems too that required editing by me to fix. I also did a subtitles grab and conversion to hard subs for VCD for my friend. It's been a few years, but I remember only using freeware to do everything. I'm glad it was only a one time thing as I would not want to repeat the experience. If you have a video editor you can fix a lot of these problems, but if you just want it to rip properly without having to do a lot of work yourself, there's probably no way to do it all for free. The editor I used, MPEGVCR, is not free, so even though I did all the subtitle and ripping work with freeware, I still had to use a commercial editor to fix it up.

[bizzybody]

The Monty Python's Flying Circus DVD set are made with the episodes all hacked up and scattered throughout the VOBs. IIRC Disc 1 has the episodes one per VOB. One disc apparently was screwed up so bad it had to be recalled and redone because the disc name has FIX tagged onto its end.

At one time I was working on doing SVCDs of them, one episode per disc. That's when I first found SmartRipper. At the time it was the only app that could follow the twisted mess of those discs and assemble the episodes properly. I gave up on that when I got a DVD burner and just made backup DVD-Rs so the originals can stay safely in their cases.