Take it from the top..... newbie help please

[BBFCFM]

Ok... I've been wanting to get into the VCD/DivX/etc scene for a while and am rather computer savy, but have a few questions....

1. VCD Vs. DivX - what's the benefits of one over the other? If you are ripping from DVD, for personal use or whatever, what's the best way to go?

2. DivX - is this a file format in its own or is it just a compressed .avi? Do DivX files have their own file extention, like .divx, or do they show up as .avi?

3. Trading - Do you guys trade VCDs and/or DivX movies on disc?

4. Downloading - I know there are servers and P2P sharing programs out there, what do I look for? DivX? VCD? AVI? I started downloading Monsters,_Inc.avi from a server, is this a DivX movie? How can I tell?

5. Thanks for all your help in advance... for those that are kind enough to help me out, I'll hook you up when I get my shizz together

Ben
FilmsFromBelow@hotmail.com

[PlaiBoi]

1. VCD Vs. DivX - what's the benefits of one over the other? If you are ripping from DVD, for personal use or whatever, what's the best way to go?

DivX is for computers ONLY. No standalone players can play DivX files. VCD is a cd made up of mpeg movie files. If you want to only watch the movie on your computer, then go for divx, if you want to be able to watch it on your standalone dvd player as well as your computer, then go for VCD.

2. DivX - is this a file format in its own or is it just a compressed .avi? Do DivX files have their own file extention, like .divx, or do they show up as .avi?

DivX is its own file format and it uses the *.avi extension. It's a type of compression for movie files just like mpeg. If you want to, you can rename your divx files to have the *.divx extension and they will still play with windows media player, or wutever player u use.

3. Trading - Do you guys trade VCDs and/or DivX movies on disc?

As far as i know, they do not do trading here.

4. Downloading - I know there are servers and P2P sharing programs out there, what do I look for? DivX? VCD? AVI? I started downloading Monsters,_Inc.avi from a server, is this a DivX movie? How can I tell?

If what your looking to create in the end run is VCD's then go ahead and just download the movie in mpeg or cue/bin format. If you want to be able to watch on your computer and thats it, then download the divx file. Most movies that are spread around the net are in divx format. Lately some groups have started releasing them in cue/bin vcd format. You cannot tell if a movie is a divx file until you finish downloading it and look at the files properties to find out what decompressor is being used to play that movie.

I hope i answered all your questions. If you need more help, just post again.

PlaiBoi

[BBFCFM]

Thanks a ton PlaiBoi... your help is much appreciated. I do have one last question...

Do you need to have a DVD-Rom drive in order to rip DVDs? Or can DVDs be ripped via CD-Rom drives with the appropriate software?

Thanks again.

[BBFCFM]

Never mind that last post... I answered my own question... duh...

Thanks again man...

[Mirror_Image]

Taken from http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq03.html#S3-49

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Subject: [3-49] How do I copy DVDs onto CD-R?
(2002/01/26)
It isn't possible to take the contents of a DVD-Video or DVD-ROM and record the whole thing onto a CD-R, unless the DVD is nearly empty. The capacity of DVD discs is considerably greater. Generally speaking, you can't play DVD content from a CD-R disc anyway, because the DVD drive needs to read encryption keys from outside the filesystem area.

You could, of course, capture the video from a DVD-Video disc with a video capture board, re-encode it with MPEG-1, and write that as a VideoCD. The quality would be VHS-grade though. (You can get better results with MP3 audio and MPEG-4 video, but the process is a little convoluted. See http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/support/dvd2mpeg4.html.) The next section talks about some ads you might have seen for products that do this.

If you're only interested in the audio portion of a DVD-Video, you can extract the AC3 audio directly from the .VOB file, using some freely available utilities (notably "ac3dec" and the elusive "DeCSS"). You will need to convert the audio from 48KHz to 44.1KHz. You can also capture it under Windows with Total Recorder (6-2-19).

The story is the same with DVD-ROM: you can probably copy it to a CD-R if it will fit. If the contents only took up about 650MB, though, it probably wouldn't have been shipped on a DVD-ROM.




Subject: [3-49-1] I heard of software that copies DVDs with a CD recorder!
(2002/01/26)
I'm guessing you've also heard of ways to get rich by sending money to other people, legal ways to get your bad credit history erased, and drug-free side-effect-free low-cost super cures made from all natural ingredients on distant tropical islands.

They're all nonsense. I can't help you if you believe in the above, but I can speak to copying DVDs with a CD recorder. Here's a piece from a message that was spammed at me (spelling and grammer errors left uncorrected):


COPY ANY DVD MOVIE

With our revolutionary software you can copy virtually any DVD Movie
using your existing equiptment! Conventional DVD copying
equiptment can cost thousands of $$$

Our revolutionary software cost less than the price of 2 DVD Movies!

If you go to the web site, it goes on to say:

Learn How To Burn DVD's onto Regular CD-R Discs and watch your new
movies on Any DVD Player, not just the computer DVD.
[...]
No DVD Drive Required!!!

Another, possibly unrelated, site says:

With detailed, easy to follow, step-by-step instructions, you can
BURN your own DVD Video using nothing more than our software and
your CD-R.
[...]
o No DVD Burner Required
o Superior Reproduction Quality

It has a link for their "frequently asked questions" document, but you have to give them your e-mail address to get it. Any company that refuses to give you information until you submit to their spam list is best avoided.
Let's start with the facts:


You can't read a DVD in a CD-ROM drive. DVD requires a laser at a different wavelength; the disc has a different physical format; the disc has a different logical format. A firmware update is not going to make this work, so don't expect that installing new software is going to help.
You can't put a full DVD on a CD-R disc. DVD movies are typically around 8GB, which is roughly 11x as much as you can put on a CD-R.
Many DVD players can't read CD-R discs. This is because of the different laser wavelength. DVD player manufacturers have found several ways around this, but many players just can't handle CD-R.
You can't easily duplicate the blocks with the security keys. They live outside the filesystem area. The only way to get the MPEG video off in a playable format is to strip the CSS encryption, and software that can do that is illegal to write, sell, or use in the USA (DMCA law).
Products like "DVD Wizard" and "DVD-Copy 2.1" cannot possibly do all that they claim. The closest they could get would be to transcode the video into a different format. This requires ripping the MPEG-2 video off the DVD using a DVD-ROM drive, stripping the encryption, re-encoding the video in MPEG-1, and writing it to CD-R as a VideoCD. You will be going from 720x480 video recorded at up to 10.08Mbits/sec down to 352x200 video recorded at 1.5Mbits/sec. Instead of Dolby 5.1 you will have low bit-rate stereo. On an 80 minute disc, you can store about 80 minutes of MPEG-1 video, so nearly all movies will require two or more discs.
This software will let you duplicate a movie that could be played back in computers or *some* DVD players -- not all DVD players support CD-R media, and not all will play VideoCD -- but at roughly VHS quality, and without any of the features that make DVDs special. Most notably, you will lose all of the menus, audio options, and special features. You will not be burning "DVD Video", and in some parts of the world (most notably the USA) you will be breaking the law even if the copy is for personal use.

Software that does this sort of thing can be found, for free, on various sites on the Internet. (Because of the legal issues, it isn't always available in one place for long.) If you really want low-quality MPEG editions, save your money and search the web for DVD copiers or converters.
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[PlaiBoi]

no problem BBFCFM.