Need DVD to AVI conversion help

[hankduck]

I want to re-edit a few DVDs I made (non-commercial) and have been trying to read all I can about the various methods. I need to convert to AVI for this.

On reading the guides to the various applications that ostensibly do this, it seems that when I get near the end of the guide, the terminology changes from simply AVI to xvid/dvid AVI or some other combination making me wonder if these are different from what I ultimately want, which are AVIs I can use in editors like Studio9 or Adobe Elements to make DVDs that play in stand-alone DVD players.

I would appreciate any help with clarifying this.

[Baldrick]

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=257288

[mats.hogberg]

AVI is a container. In an AVI, the video can have different kinds of encoding - DivX is one, XviD another. Both are lossy codecs, meaning you'll lose some (hopefully invisible) details when using them, but get relatively small files. You don't have to use any codec at all, using RAW AVI, but those files get huge. In between, there's huffyuv, which is like ZIP, it compresses, but all details are still there after decompressing. I suggest you follow the guides you've tried, but substitute the DivX/XviD for huffyuv at the end of the process where you select and configure the AVI codec. Be prepared for really big AVIs tho...

/Mats

PS! I'd use VirtualDubMod to load the VOBs, then select and configure the codec, save AVI. DS