DVD/DVR > Portable

[cbaltazar]

Recently purchased a Wolverine ESP. I'm using a trial version of Magic Ripper to rip dvds. I was able to rip and view a whole dvd in avi format and it came out pixelated.

Here are a couple of questions:

- Can you recommend the best software to rip from DVDs and DVR?
- What's the best format with optimal video and smallest file size? AVI, MP4, DiVX, etc? Not too concerned about audio.
- What settings for the second question?

Thanks![/list]

[redwudz]

For just the ripping or decrypting part, DVDFab Decrypter, or RipIt4Me for the newest DVDs. For the video format, I would try AutoGK with the Xvid codec and mp3 audio, since that unit mentions them both. AGK should be able to process the decrypted video all the way through, from DVD file to finished Xvid.

I'd try a 700MB file size to start, and see how that looks, then adjust downward till the quality fails for your screen size. Those programs are all freeware, so you have little to lose. avi.NET is another freeware converter similar to AutoGK you could try.

One advantage to AutoGK is you could also burn the videos to CD or DVD and watch them on the computer or a standalone Divx/DVD player in the future, so the encoded file would be more universal than some other formats like WMV or similar.