Video conversion questions

[Peter88]

I appreciate my questions may be low level, but then I am not even sure what I am talking about. I am a quick learner.
I want to 'rip' content from DVD (not actually illegally) to be converted into a suitable format for web streaming/viewing.
1. What format would people suggest to convert to?
2. What is the software (linux friendly) that would effectively and be stable to do this?

Thanks
Peter

[guns1inger]

AVI Demux can convert to a wide range of formats. If the disc is not protected, and you see, to be saying it isn't, then you can simply copy the content from the DVD to your HDD - no ripping necessary.

Which format real depends on where you are streaming from.

[Peter88]

Thank you.
You are correct I am not looking to bypass copy protection.
"Which format really depends on where you are streaming from".
I am not sure what you mean by 'from'.. geographical or do you mean type of server? It is a Linux server based in UK. Those watching will also be in UK.

[thecoalman]

As far as the streaming you need to consider your audience and how you will present the files. If you're going to embed a video into page use .flv and a flash player. A newer option is Silverlight but that is not that widespread yet. One thing to note for true streaming you need a streaming server, the difference it makes is the user can FF through a file. Any type of server will suffice for basically embedding a file.

For direct links to the files I'd suggest WMV, for ultimate compatibility MPEG1. MPEG1 will require approx. 4X the bitrate of WMV but it will play on just about any platform.

[guns1inger]

The question was more aimed at finding out what environment you will be streaming from - home grown or pre-built or existing - and what sort of bandwidth, both for streaming and total volume, you have available. FLV seems to be format de jour for size and bitrate for streaming.

[Peter88]

Thanks, this is very helpful.
I will be streaming using Media server software. The hardware is a dedicated server. I have very high bandwidth available.
The issue I have with 'ripping' (I'm not sure this is the right phrase) is converting from DVD to a format suitable for uploading etc. Most of my software doesn't seem to like straight DVD (VOB). I would prefer to convert on upload and in one pass.

[guns1inger]

In that case you either need something that can use Watch Folders - basically monitor a folder and convert whatever is dropped into it - or something that can be scripted. You may have to become familiar with ffmpeg or similar.