Newbie needs help

[UniMaster]

So there it is. I'm a newbie. A frustrated newbie. Does everything have to be this hard. . . ?

I'm just trying to get a handle on ripping/copying a DVD to my hard drive for editing purposes. I've looked through several tutorials, read posts, analyzed recommendations, and have now tried three different software programs on a few different DVDs. Nothing works.

Handbrake and DVD Decrypter have given me a buncha files that are corrupt, won't convert to anything useful, or skip once a second. I tried both copying and ripping with DVDFab; copying again left me with a corrupt file, and while ripping to MP4 format did give me a useable file, the quality was worse than downloading from YouTube—and the #%$&@! DVDFab logo was plastered across the front of it! What the hell am I gonna do with something that's been fouled up like that?

I just need someone with some know-how to explain (in simple terms) what tools I need, and what steps I should take, in order to get a clean, decent-quality rip/copy/whatever of the main movie file off a DVD disc. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

[smrpix]

Using the free version of DVD Fab to copy an entire disk to an iso has always worked perfectly for me. It can then be mounted with DVD Fab Virtual drive or a number of other tools. You should clarify what you mean by "editing purposes."

[jman98]

DVDs can use almost infinite variations on what is known as bad sector copy protection. DVD Decrypter hasn't been updated in years and doesn't understand that kind of copy protection. The author was sued and part of his settlement was that he abandoned DVD Decrypter. I don't use or trust Handbrake for ripping. I have my doubts that as a free program it's as up to date as DVDFab and AnyDVD (both cost money) are.

One of your problems if you want help HERE is that you are confusing "ripping" with "encoding". First you rip and THEN you encode. You cannot "rip" to MP4. You can rip and THEN encode to MP4, but you cannot "rip" to it. DVDFab and other unfortunately use the term "rip" wrong. You need to get your terms right here for the best chance of help.


You're likely using DVDFab in some kind of demo or free mode. If you bought it, it would not give you the logo.


You might name this DVD so we can tell you if there's anything special about it. Note that if you bought some obscure DVD from a country outside the USA, like perhaps India, that it may use copy protection that AnyDVD and DVDFab don't understand. As I said, bad sector copy protection offers almost infinite variations.


Here's a guide a moderator here wrote.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/303110-How-to-easily-convert-DVD-to-high-quality-MP...ing-free-tools
Try ripping the DVD first and be sure that is OK and only then worry about converting it to MP4 or whatever.

[jman98]

Using the free version of DVD Fab to copy an entire disk to an iso has always worked perfectly for me.

Recent reports are that new people CANNOT install the supposedly "free" version of DVDFab any more. I have posted this before and begged senior members here to provide installation instructions on how this supposed "free" version can be installed today. Only Baldrick responded and that was with little information except he installed the truly free version years ago (years ago there WAS a truly free version) and he's been updating that ever since. I strongly suspect you fall into that category too - you installed the free version years ago when it actually existed and you've just updated that over time. So I post with great skepticism that anybody today can follow this advice if they've never previously installed DVDFab.

[smrpix]

I strongly suspect you fall into that category too - you installed the free version years ago when it actually existed and you've just updated that over time.

You are correct (even though it wasn't that long ago.) Thank you for warning me away from a clean install!

[UniMaster]

One of your problems if you want help HERE is that you are confusing "ripping" with "encoding". First you rip and THEN you encode. You cannot "rip" to MP4. You can rip and THEN encode to MP4, but you cannot "rip" to it. DVDFab and other unfortunately use the term "rip" wrong. You need to get your terms right here for the best chance of help.

Got it. Makes sense.

You're likely using DVDFab in some kind of demo or free mode. If you bought it, it would not give you the logo.

You are not mistaken. However . . . the idea is to encourage people to buy their product, yes? How likely am I to do that if they throw that kind of wrench in the works during my initial trial? (General venting here. Obviously you have nothing to do with it.)

You might name this DVD so we can tell you if there's anything special about it. Note that if you bought some obscure DVD from a country outside the USA, like perhaps India, that it may use copy protection that AnyDVD and DVDFab don't understand. As I said, bad sector copy protection offers almost infinite variations.

Shouldn't be anything strange. It's a fairly normal copy of Poltergeist. The cover indicates its region is the USA.

Here's a guide a moderator here wrote.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/303110-How-to-easily-convert-DVD-to-high-quality-MP...ing-free-tools
Try ripping the DVD first and be sure that is OK and only then worry about converting it to MP4 or whatever.

Now this is immensely helpful. Looks like I need to be using a combination of DVDFab and Handbrake. We'll see if the encoding process fixes the problem with the skipping/jumping.

In any case, you've given me a good starting place. I certainly appreciate the advice. (I'll keep you posted on the outcome. . . .)

[Kerry56]

Or you could just rip your dvds with MakeMKV. This will produce an uncompressed mkv file of the main movie. You can run this mkv file through Handbrake to make a smaller MP4 file encoded with H264.

Update your beta key for MakeMKV every month or so: http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1053
MakeMKV is supposed to be free for dvd decryption/ripping no matter what. Updating the key also lets you decrypt blu ray if you wish.

And just for you jman98, I'm downloading the latest DVDFab 9 and installing it into my backup computer. I dislike Fab quite a lot, and don't use it, and have never used it in this computer. We'll see how well the free section works once the trial ends.