DVD RIPS (non copyrighted) for educational use...

[Spooky_uk]

Hope somebody can point me in the right direction, new to all this so bear with me.

Our school have a large quantity of VHS language educational tapes (not copyrighted) which they are about to transferd to DVD. It has been decided that they will use a Combi VHS/DVD unit to make initial hard copies of them onto DVDR's for future proofing.

Once that is done they require the ability to RIP those DVD's to a PC either in whole or just specific sections (for use in exams or lessons etc).

What is the best software to do this? Also what is the easiest most straightforward software to use for these tasks? (in case the best is not the easiest to use!!) Want to let the language teachers to do this themselves and not all technical so the easier the better.

Any help and pointers appreciated.

[Baldrick]

If you want to copy the entire dvd just drag drop the video_ts folder from the dvd. If you want it as one video file use VOB2MPG and get one MPG video. If you want to select a part from the dvd you have several mpg/dvd editors that you can use like tmpgenc mpeg editor, videoredo, mpegvcr,dvd shrink(in reauthoring mode) but they are not the easiest tools out there.

You could also rip and convert to another video format like avi divx/xvid with for example tmpgenc xpress, fairuse wizard. You can also cut with those tools.

[Spooky_uk]

thanks for the reply, plenty to look at tomorrow then. Ideally the ripped files will be good quality but as small as possible so am guessing either divx or xvid format. will that narrow the possible solutions down a little?

Also freeware software ideally..

[buttzilla]

I would use xvid over divx since its freeware and for what you want to do divx would not be free.