Am I Missing Sumthin?

[Greyhair]

I've been reading the guides on ripping dvd to dvd-r. I've had some experience with this, but not a lot so I'm looking for some other's experiences.

None of the guides include, what seems to me anyway, the most obvious and simple solution for movies larger than 4.3 gigs. Rip the dvd, run it through dvd2avi, reencode with TMPGEnc (or CCE), author it (I use Ulead), then burn. If it's smaller than 4.3, just rip it and burn it in Nero.

The guides I read also seem to use ReMpeg alot. Isn't this just another encoder (and a more inferior one at that) reencoding the movie to a smaller size? Why go through all the ifoedit stuff?

I'm not trying to be critical, just wondering if I'm missing something that would make these methods particularly superior?

[buckonine]

not sure what you are trying to do? if you want to keep a full disc as original as possible then yes, you're right. dvd2avi, transcoding, re-authoring is the way to go. if all you want is the main movie then stripping is the easiest way if you can drop it to the right size with just that. if you are planning to re-author from beginning then doing stream processing and keeping only the audio you want is a perfectly acceptable way to go. there are many ways to get where you want to be, an dyou're also right about rempeg, it's really no good. for that matter though CCE is still far superior to tmpeg as well. but do learn the methods. even think about reading the CCE manual.

[EnemyWithin]

Yes, ReMPEG2 isn't very good. Yes, transcoding is necessary to fit big DVD's onto a single DVD-R. Unfortunately, some people can't afford/find the software necessary to do the job. The IFOEDIT/ReMPEG2 solution is free and works (although not necessarily the best solution). Also, sometimes stripping can make a DVD fit onto a DVD-R without requiring transcoding, like buckonine pointed out.

With your solution, how are you handling AC3 sound? I didn't think that Ulead supported authoring with AC3. Pesonally, I do the same thing you do (but with SpruceUp). I'm just graduating from TMPGEnc to CCE, and testing out Scenarist.