DVD to avi/DivX

[nempo]

I've played around with a few tools and have done a lot of forum searching and still can't seem to find an easy solution. All I simple want to do is convert a TV show DVD (3 episodes) into an avi file or DivX. A lot of the software I've used ends up converting the episodes incorrectly and then I have to join/cut them according. Does anyone have a good solution to make it easier?

[jman98]

The problem may not really be with the software you have used but the DVD itself. In my experience TV show DVDs are often misauthored, either deliberately or through incompetence, and this can make it difficult to convert. One time for a friend with no real technical skills I did a single disc DVD conversion of The Office (the American version) season 1. That disc is the worst authored DVD I've ever seen. I had the problems you mention - I had to cut and join various segments of the conversion to end up with a correct final product. If the DVD is badly authored or misauthored there's not really anything you can do about that.

[Bonie81]

I guess the best way in this case is to rip VOB ---> AVI and join all separate AVIs in to one.

[dj234468]

Once I get the DVD to the computer hard drive sometimes I have to use DVD Shrink. Just in case you haven't used DVD Shrink in the past, here's what I do:

Click on Open Files and go to the DVD VIDEO_TS folder and click on OK.

Once the program finished analyzing the DVD, select Re-author from the top menu.

Select the 3 episodes that you want and drag them to the left screen under DVD Structure.

Select Backup from the top menu and select where you want the backup to be stored.

You will get a new DVD Compilation that will have the 3 episodes separated so that when you encode the episodes to DivX or XviD you will have just the episodes and then you can keep them separate or join as one. I've had to use this method on series like The Office Season 1 mentioned by jman98 and then you can re-number and place in the correct order. Hope this helps?

[Bonie81]

oh man...
how come i forgot DVDShrink, one of my most favorite and nice FREE gift by DVDShrink Authors and Mr. BASS.
it is awesome and wonderful plus so easy to use.
thanks dj234468 for making it complete