DVD-to-AVI help

[snadge]

first off is there a program that will tell me the bitrate and resolution of an original DVD thats protected?

and I want to rip an original DVD to a DIVX , AVI or MPG file - which is best format and codecs to use?
I want the best quality I can get

what sort of file size would i be looking at to keep the same resolution and decent bitrate but as one of the above formats instead of DVD-9

thanks

[redwudz]

Gspot or MediaInfo will tell you the attributes of a video file. Just drop one of the main VOBs into one of them.

Try AutoGK for a easy conversion of a decrypted DVD. Xvid would probably work fine for you if you make the filesize about 2GB.

Or if your computer is fast enough, H.264 will work as well at a slightly smaller filesize.

Another one to try is FairUse Wizard. There is a freeware version available.

None of them will give you the same quality as the original file, as there are conversion losses. But they can be very close.

The easiest option is to run the DVD through DVD Shrink and make it into a DVD-5 size. It's also a lot faster and simpler than the other programs. If you toss the video extras, along with languages, audio tracks and subtitles you don't need, many DVD movies will fit on a DVD-5 disc. If not, the 'shrinkage' will be fairly low.

EDIT: Just to add:

'Ripping' is just copying the exact contents of a disc to your hard drive. You usually decrypt it at the same time. Nothing to do with encoding or conversion.

Encoding usually converts the format. 'Transcoding' (As Shrink does) just removes parts that you generally won't notice to reduce the size..

Resolution generally refers to the framesize of the video, not necessarily the quality, IE, 720 X 480 Pixels is common with NTSC DVD video.

Bitrate, depending on the codec used, mostly determines quality. Most codecs have a upper limit where no more improvement in quality happens, just the file size get larger.