I want it all... Which ripping method delivers?

[SupaCoopa]

Untill now I have been sceptical about DVD ripping, thinking the quality was too bad and not worth the hassle. Till I got my hands on a two-disk SVCD rip of the Matrix which was amazing! Unfortunately I don't know what software was used but I know for sure it was ripped/converted with a PC - not hardware encoded. It has everything I want, Dolby Pro-Logic soundtrack, subtitles (permanent), widescreen (16:9) picture and no motion artifacts!

So it seems as if I'm gonna engage in the DVD-rip "business" after all, but I'd like some suggestions as to what tools should be best used. I have read almost everything in this site and other sites too but I'm a little confused. I think I can have some of these features with one method and some with an other but not everything on the same time.

Can someone experienced in DVD-ripping suggest a method that:
1) Converts AC-3 to Dolby Pro-Logic (not plain stereo)
2) Correctly (and if possible easily) hard-encodes subtitles
3) Makes a correct widescreen MPEG-2 to view on 16:9 TV
4) Offers the option to choose bitrate etc and use one of the best MPEG-2 encoding engines (CCE or TMPEG)?

Cheers to all.

______________________
VCD intros and more...
http:\\welldone.freehosting.net

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SupaCoopa on 2001-10-25 10:15:49 ]</font>

[vitualis]

There are excellent guides that take you step by step at doom9's site.

There are two main methods: FlaskMPEG or DVD2AVI

1. Dolby Surround downmix is done by both.
2. Hard-encoded subtitles: FlaskMPEG is definitely easier but it isn't as good for MPEG-2... The DVD2AVI method is messier and probably buggier, but the DVD2AVI method is probably better for MPEG-2
3. Both the FlaskMPEG and DVD2AVI method will correctly do widescreen rips with no problems
4. DVD2AVI is probably more versatile in terms of frameserving to TMPGEnc or CCE. FlaskMPEG is not as good a frameserver as DVD2AVI -- though the newest XiS versions of FlaskMPEG (aka XMPEG) is probably up to scratch if you prefer Flask over DVD2AVI.

Regards.

_________________
Michael Tam

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: vitualis on 2001-10-25 11:52:40 ]</font>

[dvd2svcd]

If you're new I'd suggest you try dvd2svcd. It does all the things you want in one go and in superior quality:

http://dvd2svcd.doom9.net

Here's doom9's guide:
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvd2svcd.htm

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dvd2svcd on 2001-10-25 13:15:04 ]</font>