DVD to mpg/avi

[mr_tinka]

Hi, just got a DVD writer. I want to rip individual chapters from various DVDs and burn them onto a DVD-R.

!. What format would you reccomend mpg1, mpg2, Divx, avi ??? I want best quality sound & picture possible.

2. What application would you reccomend? I have tried several different applications, and the results varied. I followed a tutorial which ripped the chapter from the vob files on the DVD, the decypted them with DVD2AVI then syncronised the audio (.wav) with the .avi file using TMPGEnc. This produced the video but the sound was missing, also the DVD has a thin black band on the top and bottom of the screen when played this was not included so the picture although good quality looked squashed. Other applications produced .mpg files direct from the DVD, but they either had sound and no picture, or sound and poor/squashed picture.

I would like an appilcation that would produce good quality video footage (and not squashed) with sound. I would appreciate some suggestions so I can download the trials and decide which is the best suited.


Many thanks

[andkiich]

Use DVDShrink. Use it in re-author mode and then rip the chapters or scenes. They stay in VOB format, so you will not lose any quality if you do not shrink the clips.

[mr_tinka]

That worked better than the other things I've tried, but the image is still stretched after burning it onto DVD in Nero. Any suggestion about how to reduce the height of the image (squash it down abit and center it so there is a bar accross the top and bottom like the original)? Does any authoring programs allow me to do do this?

The box says it is in 16:9 widescreen (PAL) if that helps.