EXTREMELY Bad newbie idiot needs help here!

[kbcs6dpm]

Hi. I am COMPLETELY and utterly new to this web site and to DVD ripping, and therefore utterly dumbfounded!

I need two bits of advice: Firstly, is it possible to fit an entire DVD movie onto one single 80 min/700 Mb CD-R? Do you need one CD-R for the movie, and one for the extras?

Secondly, what is the best way to get a DVD onto a CD-R? I have a DVD machine that is region free and macrovision-protection free, which can play pretty much everything (including VCD and SVCD), and a CD-Burner and DVD drive in my super fast PC.

Please help someone, as i am new to all this and it is all so confusing! Any help would be much obliged. Thanks!

(A point in the direction of an all-in-one easy to use ripping guide would be nice!)

[War]

Listen up. I am also pretty much a newbie too; and thats why im going to point you in the right direction.. The people on this site are in general "superexperts" there idea of fun is not explaining how to do stuff from the beginning.

** check the forum search engine for VCD burning
1. Based on your message im assuming you only have a CD-RW drive and NOT a DVD-RW drive. The only way to get DVD to a CD-R is to rip it off a DVD and convert the movie to VCD format PAL or NTSC. You need special software like Ahead Nero burning rom or Adaptec EZ cd creator Platinum 5.0. Buy one of them now if you are serious otherwise your task will be daunting for a newbie. It is possible to put a very large DVD movie onto 2 CD-R if you compress the audio but they will only be *.avi files that can only be played on your PC not on a DVD player. If you want to go to the DVD player much more is involved.
2. Nero or EZ will encode the ripped video to the format you need to put the movie on a (CD-R) VCD. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FIT AN ENTIRE DVD movie ON 1 (CD-R) VCD. You will have to split it.
3. Look to the left under EDIT there are tools there to help you split and rejoin movies you make.
4. You will need codex to even view some of these movie types, look under PLAY for these or just search using the search engine on this site.
5. there is also a listing of DVD players here that will let you know if your DVD player is even compatible for VCD.
6. If you can get this far then you will be able to tweak the bugs out from here using the forums and search engine.

War

[lucindrea]

http://212.88.77.140/

[Mordant]

Go to the how to section at left and click on DVD RIP. Follow Sefy's guides. To copy DVDs to CDRs you can choose the DivX/AVI format or the (S)VCD/MPEG format. Divx files can only be played on computers. Mpeg files can be burned to CD in the Video CD format which allows playback on most DVD players.

The Divx format will allow you to fit movies on one CDR, the mpeg format generally takes 2 CDs for good quality...this is hotly debated and is somewhat a matter of taste.

There is Freeware software for all of this.

Sefy's guides are a great starting place for VCDs...check out a program called Madrona which uses another program called FairUse for making DivX files. It does it all for you.

If you DVD player supports SVCD you can take a look at the DVD2SVCD program, which also does everything for you.

[Sefy]

War, I object that comment, no one here is a supergenius, i for one never declared myself as one, and I have always tried to explain things to newbie's as best as I can, my guides are specificly to newbie's to make their job easier.

Everyone on this webpage are normal people with normal sized brains, which just have experience in some (or most/or all) of these things and are willing to share that information with others.

kbcs6dpm, regarding your questions, for your first, it depends on the length of your movie, if you are doing a VCD, then 80min movie will fit on a 80min CD, if it's longer you can either try 90min CDR's, or you can split the movie.

As for your second question, I suggest you try my Classical Newbie Guide as it covers nearly everything from ripping to burning a DVD to a CD and all using freeware tools.

[rrhea]

Since you are a newbie, I will give you some practical advise. There is a lot of free software available to copy DVDs to CD-Rs. However, it is all rather difficult to use and time-consuming. It takes a lot of experience to get it right. Someone who says "it's easy" is not a newbie.

Since you have a DVD player with Macrovision disabled, why not plug it into a VCR, and make a copy onto a tape? All VHS tapes hold 2 hours, which is long enough for most movies, or you can use the EP mode and get 6 hours per tape (with less quality).

You cannot put an entire move on one CD-R, unless it is a short movie. CD-Rs can hold only about 700 MB of data. You will need at least 2 (and sometimes 3 or 4) CDs. This is not convenient. The video quality will be similar to a VHS tape, since you will need to use either Video CD (VCD) or Super Video CD format, both of which are lower quality than DVD because they have a lower resolution and bitrate. In the end, it is more convenient to use a VHS tape, and the video quality will be similar.

[Sefy]

I'd just like to add/change what rrhea has said, for one, VHS quality degrades fast over the years, CDR content does not degrade unless you have actually damaged the media!, also, the space on a CDR is much greater then was mentioned:

74min = 740mb
80min = 800mb
90min = 900mb
99min = 990mb

Or in other way, each CD capacity can hold the exact length of movie on it.

[rrhea]

You are correct in that CD-R video quality does not "degrade" because it is digital. However, I do not agree that CD-R media is more durable than VHS tape.

CD-R durability is still unknown at this point, since it is a new media type. Tests that have been published on the internet show that TDK CD-Rs seem to be of high quality and should last about 50 to 100 years. However, we don't really know. Some other brands of CD-Rs are of poor quality and fail durability tests.

I can still watch VHS tapes I made 13 years ago recorded in the slow (EP) mode, and the quality is still OK. The tape was stored in the attic in a Texas house (summer temperatures exceeding 120 F). I were to store a CD-R in a hot attic for 13 years, I would NOT expect to be able to play it.

I do agree that digital video is of higher quality than VHS. However, even with all the tutorials and guides, it is still difficult for a newbie to rip a DVD, encode it properly, and burn it to a CD-R that will play in a particular DVD player. There are too many got-chas and unknowns.

[mikewg]

And I'd like to object to those who say you can't fit a movie on one CD. Almost all my VCDs are on one disc using VCD format. Most movies are less than 80 minutes, especially Disney ones. Anything over 80 minutes, I'll split into two discs... unless it's close, like Zoolander, which is 83 minutes. Then I'll just cut out 3 minutes of the movie (some boring slow part that doesn't add to the plot) and voi la, it fits on an 80 minute disc. My longest movie, Gladiator, works out to be 158 minutes and will still fit on 2 discs. I can't think of any movies longer than 2 hours 40 minutes except Lord of the Rings (the new one) and probably some Godfather movies, which I've never seen. Odds are your movie will be 1 disc, if not then odds are that it'll be 2 discs.

[Sefy]

rrhea, I don't want to start a debate, but i'll just give you my experience, i've got over 110 VHS Tapes, and about 40 more of Original bought VHS tapes, and i've seen even the original ones (Disney/Star Trek) that have degraded, and not even played that much (I always make a copy and use the copy) and my room tempertures are not as high as your's was, but because of my close proximity to the ocean, the saltness in the air trashed the tapes, some of them to a stage of unwatchable (and just before you jump into conclusions! they are all in boxes!).

At the same time, I have movies on CD's, about 90 of them now I think, and not one has yet gone bad on me, I use both high quality VHS and CDR's, and besides the space the CDR takes, the quality is better (when done right) and also easier to create backup from, not everyone has 2 VHS recorders at home you know, of course, not everyone has a CDRW, but it's cheaper and more chances someone will buy a CDRW then buying an extra VHS recorder

[MikeV]

I live in "The heart of Texas" (San Antonio) and have a couple hundred video tapes, most are over 10 years old. They are Disney and other store bought tapes that have been played around four or five times. They are now starting to deteriate to the point that i get drop outs, grainy picture, and faded. These tape problems are the reason I decided to convert them over to VCD. I also have some reel to reel audio tapes that are over 20 years old and I can't even play them. The tape is stuck together and when you try to pull it off the reel the coating comes off and gives you dead spots in the music.

Sefy
Try zip lock bags to keep the salt air out of your tapes. When we go to the coast for vacation we put everything in them. From cell phones to clothes, even the tools and fishing gear.

[Sefy]

MikeV, thanks for the suggestions, however, I can't get that here, and I wouldn't have the space to put it

Also I don't care too much about my tapes anymore, I'm planning on having everything I need on VCD's, so when I move to Australia, i'll leave the tapes for my dad to watch, as i've got the James Bond Collection and others on it.

[Davey]

www.how-to-create-divx.com/