Noob question about converting ripped files to AVI

[gingerman74]

I have been ripping for a while using Rip4Me and then converting with autogk. I read on here about using dvdfab to rip so I started doing that and then converting to avi still with autogk. For some reason the quality really sucks now and it didnt before.
Is there some other program I should be using to convert with? Should I be converting to AVI or no? I play these files on my laptop which is hooked up to my tv. Its nothing super fancy and i dont expect it to look like im watching a blue ray either but the last few conversions i have done really suck and are pretty pixelated which they werent the old way I was ripping.
Ive looked through most of the guides on here but they all seem to be 5+ years old or older. Surely there is a more updated way of doing this.
Can someone give me a hand and point me in the right direction?
Thanks!

[gingerman74]

just as a side question...
I looked at the details for one movie vs another....one I ripped at my gfs house and the other at my house IE..different computers...
The video dimensions are verry different...one is 720Xsomething and the other is 320Xsomething.
Can the dvdv drive determine that size output or is that determined by the ripping software or the widescreen vs fullscreen version of the video on the disk?

hope that made sense

[manono]

If you're not careful, DVDFab will transcode the DVD to a smaller size. Are you sure you're putting it on the hard drive with no compression (the same size as the source VOBs)? Reading the second post, it seems you're allowing DVDFab to mess it up to begin with. That's probably the problem.

There's a chance also that your AutoGK settings aren't optimum. Do you have the log for one of the ones that didn't turn out well?

[gingerman74]

hmm I dont have any logs right off so ill see if i can get one that doesnt compress too good and post it...meanwhile I just started a rip job in dvdfab and theres not really anything i can change settings wise. I use dvd9 which is really the only option i can change. Ill let this one run and see how it looks and post the log if its messed up and see what you think...thanks for replying

[manono]

If I'm not mistaken, the default setting for DVDFab HD Decrypter is DVD To Mobile, hence the 320x240 video you got. You want DVD To DVD. And for AutoGK you also want just the Main Movie, also with no compression (probably DVD9 size).