Ripping old DVDs

[tecnofobe]

It's a bit overwhelming all the threads here and I'm not sure I could properly identify the best one/s for my needs anyway. So I'll just post my request of advice-
I have a few old DVDs which I want to 'rip' and reduce to 1GB or so . These films aren't available on the torrents. If they were, I'd jest get them there.
I can't watch them anymore using a DVD player. I have them on my external HD from just dragging and dropping the original DVD sector divisions there. But these take up a lot of space and the subtitles don't work in this way of watching.
Is there any free (and easy to use!) software that I can use to rip and convert to one file, like the versions one might find on the torrent versions?
Advice much appreciated.

[netmask56]

It's against the rules of the forum to give or discuss any information pertaining to illegal download sites, however as you indicate you have the originals on your HDD so maybe using makemkv or even mkvtoolnix would give you a playable version.

[Alwyn]

Options depend on what format your DVD files are in.

If they are in the VIDEO_TS folder with the VIDEO_TS.IFO file, or they are in an ISO file, you can use MakeMKV.

If they are not in that folder ie you have them separated into individual VOBs eg VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB and so on, you can use AVIDemux as per my guide here (the SSL certificate will be revalidated in a few hours).

Basically, you open the first VOB in AVIDemux and it will offer to open the rest in order to create one file. To save as an MPEG file, use Video Output>Copy, Audio Output>Copy (untick all unwanted tracks from the Audio menu>Select Track item), MPEG PS as the output format.

It looks like MakeMKV won't join up VOBs without that IFO file ie the complete VIDEO_TS folder.

MakeMKV will only join the VOBs up and create a MKV file; it won't reduce the size because the underlying codec will still be MPEG2, the same as the native VOBs. AVIDemux initially does the same. If you really want to reduce the size (with hard drive sizes these days, I wouldn't recommend it due to quality loss), then you can use programs such as AVIDemux or Handbrake.

For AVIDemux, to save as an MP4, for video output, choose MPEG 4 AVC x264 (or other MPEG 4 encoder if you have one) and on the Configure button, choose whatever Rate Control you desire (you can set the file size). Then for Audio, set the output to AAC FDK and Configure>192kbps, Filters>48,000hz. You can do test runs to check the file size; just use the A and B buttons on the timeline to select a small area to export.

[tecnofobe]

thanks to both of you for the input. I will experiment with the procedures.