I haven't ripped a DVD to .avi In years. What's the best free way?

[snafoo]

Years ago, i ripped an UNPROTECTED DVD to .avi, but forgot how. I have some UNPROTECTED DVD's that i wanna watch on my Samsung HDTV. My Samsung doesn't play mp4. It only plays avi. What's the best free software to do this?

Happy Holidays, everyone!

[davexnet]

Probably a few ways to do it, even today.
AutoGK - takes care of everything, inverse telecine, frame rate, deinterlace, etc. (Not sure if it runs on recent Windows)

Or using recent software MakeMKV and Xmedia Recode. Use MakeMKV to create a lossless MKV of the main movie.
Then use XMR to convert to DIVX Avi/Mp3. But you'll need to take care of the stuff I mentioned above manually

[ProWo]

For unprotected DVDs you can also use clever Ffmpeg-GUI to rip the movie and elaborate it further.
It's small, portable and doesn't need installation.

[Sharc]

One would have to reencode the DVD rip (mpeg2) to mpeg4 part2 (=mpeg4 visual) for .avi.
It can be done with ffmpeg, like
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/MPEG-4
Replace the input file by your ripped file (*.mkv in case of ripping the DVD with MakeMKV).
Using a GUI which does it may be simpler though.

[ProWo]

My Samsung doesn't play mp4. It only plays avi.

Could you specify the exact model of your Samsung HDTV?

[jagabo]

If your TV plays MPG files: VOB2MPG