A few newbie questions...

[stoopidstp]

I'm just getting into dvd ripping and I've got some questions. I want to get a dvd to svcd easiest way possible. I'm trying to take 1hr long sopranos epsoides on dvd and convert them to svcd's. I'm a little confused in reading through the articles on the site as to what process is best. Okay after you rip the dvd w/ smart ripper or what ever, do you have to compress it w/ a divx codec and then convert it to a mpeg2? Or is there a way to go straight from the file you ripped from the dvd and make it a mpeg2 and burn it as a svcd? Also w/ the bitrate calculators...they tell you how big the compress avi file will be....but how do you know how big the mpeg will be. Sorry these are probably simple questions, but like i said i'm very new to this.

thanks for any help!
stoopidstp

[WireFrame]

Well, I'm still a newbie too, but I guess that it's not a very hard question, so maybe I could try...

No, you don't have to encode the DVD to DivX and then encode it from DivX to SVCD. This will lead to nothing but wasted time and of course, a loss in quality! When you convert the movie to DivX you're loosing quality, and then you will loose it again when you convert it to SVCD.

All you've to do is to encode the movie from DVD to DivX directly, using a program like DVDx and frameserving with a program like CCE or TMPGEnc you can get a decent SVCD rip from the source...

As for the MPEG Bitrate Calculator, go to www.doom9.net and get from the downloads section a program called 'Bearson's Bitrate Calculator'...

[poopyhead]

prolly most time tested method is smartripper->dvd2avi->tmpgenc

[alucard2050]

i would have to agree with poopyhead. except instead of smartripper i use claddvd. dvdx will put ALOT of wear and tear on your dvd player.....

[T 3 X]

I think you just use DVDx first if your a newbie. You can get it from the tool section in this forum.

Follow Sefy's guides and you rip a DVD straight to an MPEG 2.0 (SVCD) and burn it direct with Nero. Takes about 6 - 12 hours depending on your system... just do it when you goto bed

Cant get any easier than that and the quality is good. I think Ive done about 30 DVDs now using my Pioneer DVD drive on my PC and there's been no meltdown yet.

Once you get your eye in using this then you can start experimenting using TMPgne, CCE etc as a frameserver.

Cheers... T 3 X