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  1. Hi,
    If I want to rip my whole DVD collection and I want to use a DVD-ripping-for-dummies software that is VERY easy to use, e.g. select title from the DVD, select output format and click RIP VIDEO, and not something I have to do 100 different manual settings, filters, etc, which one would you recommend? Which one is both easy to use and produces good quality rips? I realize certain types of video would look even better if settings are tweaked etc depending on what type of video it is, but I want to use something where I will get at least decent results with the same standard settings. Something that is known for being easy to use and usually work without any problems.

    Also, which format would you recommend to rip to? I want the result to be balanced between filesize and quality. Something that looks good and each 90 minutes would take up 1 Gb to 1.5 Gb at the most.
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Your main request is easy to do with any ripping software. Make ISOs, VOBs, MPGs.
    Even MKV (via makemkv).
    In = Out.

    But then your last line reveals what you really wanna do - convert to heavily-compressed files. Totally counter to the idea of "good quality".
    I'll let someone else deal with that...


    Scott
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  3. ½ way to Rigel 7 cornemuse's Avatar
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    Also, which format would you recommend to rip to? I want the result to be balanced between filesize and quality. Something that looks good and each 90 minutes would take up 1 Gb to 1.5 Gb at the most.
    As to format, I'm a Chevrolet man!

    As to compression, some 90 minute movies are sometimes 4, 5, 6 gigs. compressing these to 1 - 1.5 gigs will go from bad to terrible quality.
    Yes, no, maybe, I don't know, Can you repeat the question?
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  4. Why do you want to get them that small? If it's to save disk space, it's not worth the conversion time at current HD prices.
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    Also DVDFab to rip (i.e. an EXACT bit for bit copy of the original video, never anything more).

    For Handbrake settings, search for the hundreds of posts for settings which vary video to video.
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  6. Thanks for replying. I have seen tons of downloaded 90-minute videos that are anywhere from 900 Mb to 2 Gb large, and the quality has been fine for me. They have been AVIs and MKVs.
    Let's forget what I said about good quality in my original post then, and let me rephrase my requests:
    * Simply to use (select title, select sound channel, select output folder and format, hit RIP)
    * Output size should be 1 Gb to 1.5 Gb maximum
    * Which program does the above (and which format do I use) and produces "least sucky quality"?
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    Stop using the term RIP to include conversion to another format. I refuse to accept that despite it's common usage that way, it's wrong! Ripping and converting to another format is a two step process. RIP and convert.

    That said, DVDFab will do what you want with "sucky quality" at the file sizes you want. If you want "least sucky quality", you'll have to rip, then convert with a second program like Handbrake, learning and experimenting with different settings as there is no magic one size fits all setting for every video.

    You'll probably need to use DVDFab or MakeMKV to rip your DVDs as they're constantly updated to deal with new copy protection schemes on DVDs and Blu-Rays. DVDFab has a free trial that lags behind on updates by weeks to months, while the paid version is updated much quicker and MakeMKV (for now) is free, but you may have to wait months for it to be updated for the latest schemes.

    Absolutely stay away from any program that promises One Click conversions. At best, they do a poor job, again there is NO single best setting for every video and at worst, they're just repackaging of free programs like Handbrake.
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    I don't know what your time is worth to you, but here's some facts about the "savings" you'll gain by shrinking your DVDs to "least sucky quality".

    Ripping a DVD or Blu-Ray will take ~10-30 minutes and will be ~4-7.5GB for DVDs. Conversion to 1-1.5GB will take multiples of that time to convert.

    Unless you're living somewhere that hard drive prices are outrageously more expensive than the norm, $15-$25/TB in the U.S., ~up to double that outside the U.S. You're looking at ~$0.05/GB max. A savings of $0.25 on a 7.5GB DVD less the time, electricity, heat and wear and tear on your PC.

    After I've paid as little as $5.00 for a DVD (which I keep as per Fair Use laws), I don't find a savings of $0.25 worth watching a "least sucky quality" of the movie.
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  9. Originally Posted by guy24s View Post
    I have seen tons of downloaded 90-minute videos that are anywhere from 900 Mb to 2 Gb large, and the quality has been fine for me. They have been AVIs and MKVs.
    Let's forget what I said about good quality in my original post then, and let me rephrase my requests:
    * Simply to use (select title, select sound channel, select output folder and format, hit RIP)
    * Output size should be 1 Gb to 1.5 Gb maximum
    * Which program does the above (and which format do I use) and produces "least sucky quality"?
    I suspected this was what you were really after, and held off replying until you confirmed. I personally agree: many of "those" files DO look incredible for their size, and I esp see no reason for a B movie or TV series that was shot thru linoleum on expired scraps of film to take up a full optical DVD storage size on a media server (much less a BluRay "restoration" size that is countless gigs worth of polished crap). Storage is cheap, but it isn't free, and it would be nice to have the choice to trade off an apparent 20% quality hit against 80% smaller HDD footprint, for a wider variety and quantity capacity in a given storage setup (or use in portable devices with limited storage).

    BUT.

    Forget it: not gonna happen. "Those" files are created by shadowy groups, typically from bespoke source material not available to peons, processed with years of expertise in figuring the arcane settings and software required to make a truly amazing reduction file. Every "civilian" who's tried to replicate those results using traditional software (Handbrake etc) on their DVD / BD collection wastes a lot of time and ends up with unwatchable garbage (your odds are even lower if you want a "simple, quick" workflow). Unless you're a participant in that underworld, you're gonna have to live with larger ripped HDD files than you'd prefer. On the bright side, within a couple years affordable storage options will grow in capacity so greatly that the issue becomes almost moot.
    Last edited by orsetto; 14th May 2020 at 12:54.
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    Of course it's to each their own. But I've been upgrading some of my favorite movies from VHS to VCD to Laserdisc to DVD to Blu-Ray over past 30+ years and in the future will upgrade to UHD when available and I replace my beloved plasma. I appreciate the difference in quality with each upgrade and would never consider "least sucky quality" over a few cents or dollars. The available quality viewing time in the few decades I have left is worth far more than the monetary savings.

    I'm not sure we'll see storage costs drop dramatically in the near future. HDD technology is hitting physical limits at 20TB and come at the cost of speed with slower writes due to SMR*. The low prices we see on external drives are driven by price wars and are largely based on overstock, second level drives (i.e. white label drives that can't be sold as high level internals) or possibly drives that fail at full capacity, being sold as smaller drives.

    *The big three, WD, Seagate and Toshiba recently acknowledged they using SMR on many new drives, resulting in slower write performance and sometimes errors in RAID setups.

    SSDs are dropping in price, but they're a long, long way off from reaching HDD prices. In addition, they're not archival and if they fail, it's usually complete with very difficult and costly recovery.

    I don't know how much lower than <$0.05/GB, <$0.25/full size backup we'll see in the future less the savings in time, electricity, heat and PC wear and tear we'll see in the next few years, but for me, right now it's good enough!
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  11. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    I own very few DVD titles that are culture tied and never been on Blu-ray like the Hollywood big titles and I just ripped the disc image to hard drive with DVDfab and I enjoy the full disc structure on the HDD with menu, titles and special features with blazing speed compared to the slow DVD drive. 7GB is not a big file, But you can try MakeMKV with main title only that saves you few GB's without loosing quality.
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  12. Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    Stop using the term RIP to include conversion to another format.
    OK, convert it is then. And thanks for the tip about DVDFab. I don't like that program very much especially not the later versions because they keep randomly making idiotic changes to UI just for the sake of changing it, but I suppose it's still one of the better options now with current copy protections. I still use DVD Decrypter whenever it lets me, but sometimes I am forced to use DVDFab.


    Originally Posted by lingyi View Post
    Unless you're living somewhere that hard drive prices are outrageously more expensive than the norm, $15-$25/TB in the U.S., ~up to double that outside the U.S. You're looking at ~$0.05/GB max. A savings of $0.25 on a 7.5GB DVD less the time, electricity, heat and wear and tear on your PC.
    Don't speculate regarding my reasons for wanting to do what I am asking for, because you have no idea why I want to do it. I can let you know that I own over 30 external hdds that ranges between 2 to 4 Tb each, that are filled with 1:1 ISO rips of DVDs.
    I wanted to rip -- EXCUSE ME, convert -- a bunch of these and put them on a smaller USB stick to bring with me when I go on trips. It's quite impractical to drag around external harddrives, plus I am very paranoid about moving them around as they tend to fail quite often.
    So this has absolutely 0% to do with cutting costs of harddrive space as I have spent thousands on dollars both on my physical DVD collection and these piles of harddrives.
    And before you assume other things I can assure you that the stuff in my collection is not available on streaming platforms like Netflix or Hulu, so don't even suggest streaming them online if I go on trips.


    Originally Posted by orsetto View Post
    Forget it: not gonna happen. "Those" files are created by shadowy groups
    OK I understand. I'll just have to try it and then I'll decide if it's worth the time and effort.


    Originally Posted by dellsam34 View Post
    I own very few DVD titles that are culture tied and never been on Blu-ray like the Hollywood big titles and I just ripped the disc image to hard drive with DVDfab and I enjoy the full disc structure on the HDD with menu, titles and special features with blazing speed compared to the slow DVD drive. 7GB is not a big file, But you can try MakeMKV with main title only that saves you few GB's without loosing quality.
    This is what I have done too (except I'll use DVD Decrypter whenever it's possible and DVDFab as a second choice).
    I have multiple WD TV mediaplayers that can play back the ISO files with menues and everything and this is how I watch movies in my home, but I spend several months on the road each year and wanted to convert them to something less spacious that will fit on a USB stick because they're small and easy to carry around plus (in my experience anyway) they don't fail as often as external HDDs like "Passport" drives.
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    Fair enough about the cost savings. I made an assumption and everyone knows what that makes me. I just get tired of posters trying to squeeze every cent savings out of their rips.

    A bit of food for thought...

    In the space a portable HDD occupies, you can carry multiple flash drives. Eight mini 256GB (the current sweet spot for price) flashdrives will occupy the same space and provide 2TB of storage. If you really want to save space, you could get a couple of SD readers (always carry a spare!) and substitute SD cards for the flash drives.

    As I've posted about many times before, in my experience, the drives in premanufactured externals rarely fail any quicker than an internal unless it's subjected to a drop or shock. It's the cheap USB interface that's usually the culprit. Put the drive in a good quality third party case and the drive is likely to be fine.

    Alternately, 1TB external SSDs on Amazon U.S. are just over ~$100. Right around the cost of four 256GB flash drives.

    Again, depending on how you value your time, effort and storage space, converting your videos may actually be a non-monetary loss. There's the tweaking of settings, which as mentioned above, there is no single best setting for every video, conversion time and storage/backup of the converted videos. I highly recommend at least one backup of your converted video so you don't have to redo it if the one on the flash drive fails. You now have an additional 1-1.5GB file to backup, in addition to the 4-7GB original rip.

    I came to this realization when I wanted to carry around some of my favorite videos on my phone. I started shrinking them to save space, then realized I could just keep them at full size and carry an extra SD card for any additional videos with virtually no cost of physical space.
    Last edited by lingyi; 18th May 2020 at 08:01.
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