Getting an MPEG-2 file off a DVD?

[Chancellor Todd]

Hello,

I have a DVD that says "DVD-ROM & Video MPEG 2." That is the exact wording. It's an adult title, and since you don't see normal mainstream films with logos like that, I am under the impression that it may be encoded differently than the DVDs most people are familiar with.

Is there a way to rip that MPEG 2 file right to my computer? (Similar to how you would rip an MPEG 1 files off a VCD using VCDGear?) And if so, would I just have to run it through TMPGEnc to make it VCD compliant? I would imagine this MPEG 2 file would be quite large, so would converting it to an MPEG 1 reduce its size?

I would appreciate any opinions on this matter.

Thanks,
Todd

p.s. I realize of course that DVD ripping is a bit more complicated, but since it says MPEG-2 right on the label, I felt that it would be easier somehow to get the MPEG 2 off of the disc.

[AntnyMD]

DVD-Video authoring is pretty strict in that theres not much room, if any, to go off-spec and expect the title to play. I suspect your adult title has "video MPEG 2" written on it for two reasons: in the USA, it was mainly only porn publishers that supported the earlier VCD standard of MPEG 1, and a few of them also made CD-i and CD-ROM titles. To say that disc has MPEG 2 video is just a huge cue to consumers that it is not one of the older kinds of discs. The other and probably more likely thing is they didn't want to pay extra to use the DVD-Video logo that almost all movie studio releases use.

You would rip this DVD like you would any other -- but this is where it gets better: porn titles are almost never encrypted, with DSS or Macrovision. You could just drag and drop the files off the DVD onto your hard drive and they'd be fine. I have yet to encounter a porn DVD encrypted in any way.

[Chancellor Todd]

Thanks AntnyMD,

I'll play around with this. The quality isn't that good, it just looks like a transfer from a VHS tape or something. I thought if it was possible to get that MPEG 2 files off of there, I could just convert it to VCD.

I'll see what happens, it will be a good disc to experiment with.

Todd