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  1. I have a number of television programmes that I have recorded to a DVD record, and also a few commercial DVD. I would like to transfer these to my computer’s hard drive – space is not an issue.

    I have read many guides on VideoHelp and check the forums, but I am still confused about one simple aspect.

    If I want to rip a DVD (whether a tv recording or commercial) what is the best method to do this without any further or additional quality lost?

    I appreciate that the nature of DVD compression means that some quality is lost from the original source, but I require that my ripped copy on my hard drive will appear no differently to the DVD.

    I have used Handbrake which makes a MP4 (H.264) file – which does not appear different to the source, but given that the MP4 file is about one third the size of all the .vob files – I do worry about it.

    Ideally I would prefer the ripped file to be just one (rather than several .vob files and all the other bits and pieces that go with them), for convenience.
    I would appreciate your help. Thanks!
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  2. Member hech54's Avatar
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    A "rip" is an exact copy of a DVD with no compression changes. Just make an exact copy of the DVD with something like DVDFabDecrypter(for commercial discs), or copy the VIDEO_TS folder from your recorded DVDs to your hard drive.
    Done.
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  3. Member
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    You are misusing the term rip as hech54 points out. Ripping is generally used to describe moving the data from your original dvd to the hard drive of the computer. Most of the time this is a complete copy, unchanged from the original, though there are tools that can select just the main movie and "rip" it to the hard drive.

    If you want the dvd in one file without losing any quality, this is possible. You'll need to decrypt any commercially made movie first however. Use a tool called Vob2Mpg to remove the main movie from the dvd and output as a single mpeg2 file. You aren't really changing the video here, you are simply removing it from the vob files and outputing as a single mpeg2 file. This does not compress the movie, so if you are looking to save space, this won't do much for you other than getting rid of menus and extras.

    When you convert from dvd-video to H264 mp4 files, you will lose some quality in the picture, though you may not be able to spot it easily. As you have noted, it will result in a much smaller file while retaining a very high picture quality.
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  4. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Rip DVD to dual layer DVD9 = no loss
    Recommends: Kiva.org - Loans that change lives.
    http://www.kiva.org/about
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  5. Member
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    I don't RIP, I don't compress
    I copy to the hard drive using dfab

    every movie has its own folder complete with vob files etc..

    i can do a complete disc "all menus,previews,bonus etc" or Main Movie only which saves 1 or 2 gig (from a recent double layer release) but maintains the complete movie & quality NO loss NO compression
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  6. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    If you want ONE single video file use MakeMKV. No quality loss.
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  7. Member
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    I'm a little confused about something.

    If HD space is not an issue why are you bothering to encode it to MKV or anything else?

    Try DVDfab HD Decrypter ... the free (non trial) part of DVDfab, and actually the only part of it that really works well.

    Go to settings and set output to DVD-9. Create a separate folder for each DVD you`re ripping. It`ll rip the DVD uncompressed to your output folder. Not needed actually except for commercial disks but for stuff you`ve recorded to DVDRW, which is the smaller DVD-5, it won`t matter.

    I also don`t really see why it has to be a single file. If it`s in a DVD format folder you can just open it and play it like a regular DVD. With mpc-hc or dvdpower9 (my preferred playing programs for dvd) you can open a dvd format folder exactly the same way you`d open a DVD from the drive. Using the same command. If the video is stored in DVD format the player itself doesn`t care, or even know really, whether it`s in the optical drive or on the HD.

    I`ve ripped a bunch of my commercial DVDs to hard drive this way. Watching them is no less convenient than opening avi or whatever files. And you don`t have to convert. That`s really convenient. And much quicker.
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  8. What if you want to rip a dvd in order to make a trailer for it, taking footage and putting it into your editing program like FCP? I have tried this, but the quality consistently goes down significantly and everything looks interlaced.
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  9. Member DB83's Avatar
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    Interlacing has nothing to do with quality. Your conversion could look 'interlaced' simply because your source IS interlaced.

    You could, of course, be screwing up field-order when you convert. So, post a mediainfo report of the original vob as you ripped it. Post a mediainfo report of your converted clip and, if possible, upload a sample of that clip.
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  10. Banned
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    If your quality is going down then there is something wrong with either your editing program or something you are doing or something that needs to be changed in your editing software settings.

    A good "editing" program will NOT change from the quality of the source, you should be able to edit things out, join scenes, finish the entire project and have the exact same quality as the original as long as you save in the original format.

    I can't speak as to how to use FCP or what it does as I have never owned a mac or used mac software.
    But seeing as you really gave no information on exactly what you are doing, who know's what is going on.
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