Kodiak888

Join Date 10/2006

+10

Where is a quality DVD Ripper? Where?!?

tl;dr Is there a DVD ripping software that allows for Widescreen rips with no loss in quality or resoltion?

Long Version; Ever since getting digital cable with a DVR I've been thinking of putting my entire DVD collection onto a computer, hooking it up to my TV, and having all of my movies accessible with a few clicks instead of hunting through my rather large racks of mostly terrible b-movies that take a special kind of nerd to love. With the purchase of a new desktop, I've decided that this is just the time, and the plan is to rip each DVD and whatever special features I'd like to keep onto my old computer's HDD and connect it to my nice big widescreen. I started with with a few movies, tested everything out, and it's all going perfectly until tonight.

I've hit a snag. I can't find a single DVD ripper that will copy the DVD into a widescreen format without downscaling it. I haven't gotten very far into the widescreen movies yet (see: stuck on number 1), but the native resolution is around 850x480 for the non HD movies. The max resolution I can get is about 720*480. I've downloaded several free trials and they all work great for 4:3 resolution types, but the 16:9 is out the window apparently. The full versions don't allow for it either, I've made sure.

I haven't even gotten to my HD collection yet, so I'm sure that will be just as annoying, but until then, I'm stuck here. Does anyone know of software that lets me rip movies in their actual resolution, that keeps (or sharpens) the video and sound quality, that doens't look audio sync? My demands may seem high, but to me they seem standard and what everyone should be looking for.I'm not asking for free software, I'm more than willing to pay a reasonable price for something that works as I expect it to. I'd prefer a free trial though so I can test it's features.

I should note that I'm looking to just burn the movies, not an image copy of the DVD's to be played on a virtual drive. That's plan B, but much more costly (in Gb space) so will be saved as the backup plan. I'm also not looking at workarounds or other tricks unless they result in zero loss in quality. I don't mind a movie looking bad on the TV if it looked bad from DVD, but if it looks different (and I'm anal about it) it's worthless. I didn't think this would be so difficult of a project, but that's what I get for thinking.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

I don't know of any that meet your requirements, but i sure as hell will follow this thead closley to see if someone else does.

DVD Decrypter comes to mind but i have not used that in some time and have no idea if it would suit this purpose.

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DVD Decrypter + handbrake ?

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I always used mewig, a gui for mencoder, though the deinterlacing of mencoder is not that good.

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Hmm and DVD Fab didn't work? I haven't tried it but I know it has Bluray support (so should do different resolutions and also has a '100% quality' option, in other words it shouldn't recompress.

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DVD SHRINK to get them off the DVD

DVD FLICK to get them back on to DVD

MrL

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the_Monk

Join Date 01/2008

+221

AnyDVD to "unlock" anything out there (hasn't failed yet!) www.slysoft.com

CloneCD to rip to image or make direct copy (no quality loss at all) www.slysoft.com

I use CloneCD instead of CloneDVD because although we're talking about DVD's for some reason using CloneDVD won't preserve the original layer-break location and while you can't strip trailers or menus when using CloneCD, it does keep the layer-break in the original location, thus giving you an exact 1:1 copy of the original DVD!.

EDIT:

I've owned both AnyDVD and CloneCD for years now, and the company SLYSOFT is amazing at keeping both pieces of software up-to-date (they come out with AnyDVD updates sometimes as frequently as 3-4 times a month) which ensures that I haven't had a single problem using those two pieces of software together.

THE STEPS TO ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WANT:

You start AnyDVD (use the 20-day trial from the official website or buy it to make sure it's up-to-date).

It runs and places a FOX icon in the system tray.

Now any DVD you insert will be scanned and "unlocked".

Then you can right-click on the FOX icon and COPY (no quality loss at all) the DVD contents to your HD in DVD format.

-or-

After starting AnyDVD you can start CloneCD and copy to image, or make a direct 1:1 DVD copy to a dual-layer DVD.

-- monk out!

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@mrlarone

DVD SHRINK - from what I can tell, doesn't isolate certain files very well, only burns the whole image or larger parts. Also there is no mention anywhere of file support. It is freeware, though, so anyone looking to try it can have a go. I might try it as a last resort, but the documentation doesn't seem that cohesive, or I didn't look hard enough.

DVD FLICK- looks good for burning them onto a DVD, but that is the exact opposite of what I'm looking for.

@twifightDG

DVD Fab - seems like it shoud logically do what I'd like, I'll check it out later tonight when I have time. They offer a free trial as well.

@Spooky

Mencoder - I tried to use this awhile ago when I was just trying to burn a few dvd's to my HDD to convert and put onto my archos for traveling, and the quality of the rips was atrocious when viewed in any upscaled resolution. I don't remember if it had audio sync problems as well, but I want to say it did. Do you use it and get quality results?

@DaBing and Neilo

DVD Decrypter - Is a bit old and can't handle some of the newer protections put onto DVD's. I use SlySoft for decryption and it works wonderfully.

Handbrake - I tried this last night and gave up in frustration. It's own menu says that the movie's source size is 720x480, but that it's aspect ratio is 1.78. Those don't add up at all. I know for a fact that resolution on the movie is 852x480 anyway (which is where the 1.75 aspect ratio comes from), and I haven't been able to force handbrake into copying at the resolution without stretching the "original" 720x480 picture, which causes a noticeable loss in quality for me.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm still s.o.l. Whenever I get the chance I'll post about DVD Fab, but my hopes aren't very high, seeing how every other product I've tried has failed so far. Does anyone else have any more ideas? Preferably with personal experience, so I'm not downloading and then eradicating 30 different free trial offers, all with their own bs that is installed and left behind.

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Quoting the_Monk,

reply 6

Snip

-- monk out!

I'm an avid fan of Slysoft, and what you've layed out is exactly what I've done, but have delegated to Plan B. What I'm trying to do, if possible, is to copy just the movie, not the entire DVD. I'm sorry if that isn't very clear.

I can easily clone the DVD, and play it in a virtual drive no problem with zero loss in quality. The movie I'm trying to burn I actually put back on the shelf, and am now burning from a clone on my HD so I don't have to keep putting it in/taking it out, etc. Thank you for the help though.

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the_Monk

Join Date 01/2008

+221

@ Kodiak888,

I see....

well then how about the following?

1. Start Slysoft AnyDVD

2. Insert the movie DVD

3. Use windows explorer to navigate to the DVD

4. "Explore" the DVD and look at the .VOB files.

5. Copy only the .VOB files relating to the Movie itself.

I guess I must not be understanding your issue completely, because once AnyDVD "unlocks" the movie for you, you can literally do anything you want with the .VOB files located on the DVD.

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Your problem comes from the MPEG-4 codec settings most probably.

Depending on the OS (and if MS-Media player is present, btw), there is always the FFDShow solution that actually gives control over the decompression of DVD by filtering a number of key pre-processing steps for lossless "conversion".

There are also complex technicalities about proper usage of FFDShow but i'm sure you'll be able to find the necessary details in specific sites.

** Please note that any DVD protection schemes reverse engineering or ripping headers isn't encouraged nor suggested by ME or otherwise through posting the above recommendation.

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mactheripper- requires OSX, dumps it to vob if I remember, which anything worth shite can play without incident. Diskspace is dirt cheap why compress and remove audio channels?

... it's the only thing my mac is still good for

Dr.Gonzo

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@the_Monk

It's more a convenience issue, as sorting through the .vob files, as well as setting them up in a fluid way is more of a hassle than say, having an .avi or .mkv of the movie all in one go, with a subfolder with any extras from the movie I may have kept. I'm not looking to keep any sort of menu system, but I would like to have a file structure that I can easily select through my TV screen. Keeping the .Vob files and playing them directly is Plan A.2 I am just hoping for an easier shell.

In an attempt to be more concise, my problem is taking the .vob files and converting them into a different shell, without loosing quality. I can do this perfectly in a 4:3 movie, but when I try with a 16:9 movie, it still converts it in a 4:3 aspect ratio, 1.5 (720x480). I'm looking for a converter that keeps it's original 1.8 (852x480).

@Zyxpsilon

Forgive me, because I didn't thoroughly go through the entire website and research it, but I don't see where this helps my problem. Have you personally used it to keep the resolution the same? If you can set custom resolutions, does it stretch them (as in my current problem of stretching the standard Dvd 720x480 to fit the 850x480, or does it take the original 850x480 and copy it 1:1?)

@Dr.Gonzo

Diskspace is dirt cheap, but I easily own around 300 DVD's, not counting boxed sets. That collection grows by 2-5 DVD's a month, depending on how many Thursday Movie nights my girlfriend and I have. That dirt starts to add up. Also, the pc will be running WinXP or Win7. As far as what I can do, the movie is converted "losslessly" (not sure if that counts as a word), and the audio channels lost are the lower tiers, which any player worth it's merit can take the 6ch and make it 2ch without a problem. My problem is finding a player that doesn't squish the resolution.

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That's because macs are useless.

Sorry, I had to.

Bacl to the topic... the_Monk's suggestion seems to be the best solution available.

EDIT: For some reason my picture's not showing up.. Just click on it to see it. =/

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@MetaNerd3ooo

I'm not a fan of macs either.

I'd crack open my HD DVR and try to jimmy-rig a few more terabytes of memory in there if I could do so without most likely breaking the first three units in my attempts and voiding their warranties with wreckless abandon, but I thought this route would be easier.

Also, the_Monk is giving the best solution. Sadly, it's what I was trying to work around in the first place, but it looks to be the only way to get what I want.

I'm still open to any ideas and suggestions, so keep them coming.

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5 * 9.99 = ~$50.00 + tax & other nazi crap.

300 * 9.99 = ~$300.00 + tax & other nazi crap.

1TB HDD = ~$70.00 + tax & other nazi crap.

12months * 5 movies * 5gb = 300GB [it will take you 3 years to fill the capacity at current rate]

300 x 5,000,000,000[5GB] = 1,500,000,000,000 [1.5TB]

You can easily outpace your movie collection... one TB hard disk will hold 200 of your favorites, which means 2TB RAID 0 will hold 400, easily outpacing your movie collection growth rate. Disks will continue to grow in capacity and drop in price-- meaning these numbers are only accurate 'this month' and will only lessen.

Look at it as cost / time for the hardware storage... $70/1095days == $0.06/day for storage growth... you're not going to find cheaper, even if the numbers are shitty at the cash register ... even if you want to factor both HDDs in... 12 cents a day.

You can keep increasing the space required... as I see you have "Boxed sets" that you may or may not want converted... double it again...4TB Raid0, $0.24/day.

I hope my math is right, don't make fun of me if it's not

tl;dr:
You could pan-handle the disk space costs.

Dr.Gonzo

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The PopcornHour can play DVD ISO files. Just make ISOs of your DVDs and play with the PopcornHour: http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

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@Dr.Gonzo

I realize I can outpace my movie collection with more memory, but if I can increase the movie/space ratio, I'd be happier. A complete guess is that I have 500 DVD's (including the boxed sets). I'm also just going to say that each dvd is 8gb each. I'm sure there are plenty of 4gb or so in there, but the blu rays are more and I'd rather plan for more room and need less than vice versa. In my near pointless scenario those 500 dvds come to around 4000gb, with another 40gb each month. (5 movies x 8gb) So I would need five terabyte drives. Well, four, as I already have one installed on the soon-to-be movie machine.

My math is most likely skewed, but if I can save some space I'd like to. Even if it is just a quarter a day. The TV says I can feed several needy children with that kind of money. After typing that I feel guilty about making a joke about indeed wanting to pan handle to recoup the costs it will take to enjoy the luxury of not having to get up and look on a shelf that's 5 feet away for a DVD, then have to go allllllll the way to the dvd player, switch dvd's, and put the old move allllll the way back on the shelf, after feeling dumb that I had to recite the alphabet to put the movie in it's proper place while being a full grown and lazy adult.

@Gank

Thanks for the recommendation, but I I have a great program to use for .iso files already.

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...or does it take the original 850x480 and copy it 1:1?)

That, and more.

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@ Kodiak
Why don't you just get one of those huge ass things that stores like 500 discs and switches them for you?

Dr.Gonzo

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hi kodiak,

took a screen shot of dvd shrink for you. but can't work out to upload as it asks for a url it output's to either vob or iso. can use zero compression and keeps the ratio. it also allows you to select the audio tracks you want as well a precise time to start/stop ripping. you can also select by chapter.

having read on some more about what you actually want to do here's a few more directions to investigate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RatDVD

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=65889

ratdvd is a bit odd as it saves to it's own format, but it comes with a player and should help keep things in order.

virtualdubmod is an oldie but a goodie; allowing you re-encode as you wish.

again these are both free to try.

another method would be to use dvd shrink to save iso images then play them back, fyi XP has a built in virtual drive:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6abd84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe

for what its worth, i work with media network devices and any solution you find will be fairly similar to the above in the steps you'll need to take. for full automation ffmpeg is goign to be your best bet, but i'm no script kiddie. eveything i've suggested is doable for free so at least give it a bash be fore you shell out for something that will do the same (if maybe better/faster/brighter...)

MrL

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@Zyxpsilon

I'll give it a DL and check it out properly then. Thanks.

@Dr.Gonzo

I would if they made one for Blu-Rays, that also fit in my entertainment console, and wasn't absurdly expensive. Also I'd like a pony.

@mrlarone

I'll take a look at them, but it seems the easiet way to achieve what I'd like is to just screw around with the VOB files after anydvd has had its way with the protections. I already have anydvd and highly recommend and slysoft product, so it's not new money lost.

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