[TUT]Ripping films into .avi format.

N!ck · 29-06-2007, 03:45 PM

Tutorial: Ripping films/video from DVDs and encoding them into .avi (XviD or DivX) files.

Note: The important parts of screenshots are circled in red.

1) You will need to download the necessary software. Download the latest versions of DVD Decrypter and AutoGK (when AutoGK is installing there will be a few other applications that install with it e.g. VobSub - make sure you install them).

2) Insert the DVD into your DVD drive and open DVD Decrypter.

3) Make sure that DVD decrypter is in IFO mode. This allows you to select which part of the DVD you would like to rip, such as the title movie or some part of the extras.

4) Select the part of the DVD you would like to rip by clicking it on the right habd side unter the "Input" tab. In this example I will be using the main title movie. This is usually VTS_01 > PCG 1. You can usually tell weather this is correct or not by the length of it, which is shown in the "[]" brackets. You can then select the chapters that you would like to be included in the rip in the box below. It is usually best to leave all of these ticked, unless you wish to remove the end credits or the audio in the encoded video is out of sync (which I will talk about more later).

5) Make sure that the source drive is correct and that you know where the destination directory is and that it has enough space for the rip. The destination directory can be changed by clicking the small forder icon to the right of the destination directory.

6) Click the decrypt button!

7) Wait for it to finish ripping. This can take varying amounts of time depending on the speed of your drive and the length of what you are ripping. Look at the time remaining section. It may also be a good idea to note the fps for later on.

8) Once the ripping has finished you can now close DVD Decrypter. Open AutoGK and click the little folder icon to the far right of Input file.

9) Browse to the location that you ripped the DVD to and select the .IFO file to open and click open. This will usually be called VTS_01_0.

10) A pop-up will appear asking you which PCG to use. Make sure you select the PCG that you ripped and click ok.

11) Choose the location that the output file will be saved to. Make sure you give it a name and click save.

12) Select the audio track(s) to use (it will usually be English AC3 6ch) and the subtitle track(s) if you want subtitles.

13) Select the size of the output file. I generally use 1CD (700MB) for films, or you can manually specify a file size (custom size).

14) Click Advanced Options.

15) The output audio type depends on the length of the film and the size of the rip that you are doing. For most 2CD rips i'd say choose original. For 1CD rips (like I do) i use VBR MP3 128Kbps for films less than 1hr 40mins, 112Kbps for films less than 2hrs (but longer than 1hr 40mins) and 96Kbps for films longer than 2hrs. I think it is a bad idea to go below 96Kbps. Maybe consider going on 2CDs if the film is long. As for the output resolution settings I generally leave them unless I want a specific width (e.g. when ripping the Simpsons Season 1 I wanted the widths of them all to be the same, to make the season consistant, so I manually set it to 464 (they were 140MB per episode). I recommend using XviD over DivX for these purposes. choose your subtitle options here if you selected subtitles previously.

16) Press Ctrl+F9. This brings up a menu containing the hidden options. The main options you should be looking at here are cartoon and credits. If what you are encoding is a low detail cartoon (e.g. The Simpsons) then tick the force cartoon mode box. XviD has the clever option of encoding the end credits at a different quality than the rest of the film. This means the end credits will take up less space in the film (allowing the rest of the film to be encoded at a higher quality). That is, if you did not remove the credits chapter(s) when ripping the film with DVD Decrypter. Te encode the credits at a different quality you must look back at the fps of the film. Tick the correct box in this option. Then find out the exact time that the credits start by skipping towards the end of the film (on the DVD) and looking closely at the time. In my example, the film is 25fps and the credits start at 1hr 22mins 5secs. I put this information in and click the "Calc" button. This then works out the starting frame. In my case the credits are black with white text, so I tick the greyscale box. If the credits are in colour, leave the greyscale box unticked. For greyscale credits I use a quality of 30 and for colour credits I use a quality of 40. Tick the "Encode Credits with different settings" box. Click ok.

17) Click the "Add Job" button and then the "Start" button.

18) Wait a while for you film to encode (it can take hours), and don't be scared by boxes and windows from other programs that were installed during the AutoGK setup as it uses functions from several differend programs and encoders together to get the best possible quality videos for the file size. Many films that you download are encoded in a similar way.

19) Enjoy the film

.

Problems that may occur:

1) When ripping the film with DVD Decrypter it stops shortly into it and may stop responding. This is usually due to the fact that the person who developed DVD Decrypter was forced to stop in 2004 because of copyright infringement. And DVD copy protection that was made after 2004 may cause this problem as DVD Decryptor does not know how to handle it (a lot of new DVDs do still get through fine though). There is a program called RipIt4Me which makes use of DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink and it's own DVD ripping methods to bypass this. This program is not as simple to use, however, so you should only try it if you have problems with DVD Decrypter in the normal manner. DVD Decryptor and DVD Shrink must be installed for it to use these to make use of their methods combined with it's own. I have only had this problem with "The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift" so far.

2) The output video file's audio is out of sync with the video. This is usually because of either: a) Not using the .IFO file in AutoGK (you just used one of the .vob files instead - which does usually work) or b) There is some dodgyness at the start of the film (e.g. the MGM Lion, or sometimes the thing that is making it out of sync is not even visible) This can be solved when ripping the film with DVD Decryptor (yes, you'll have to do it all again). These dodgy things usually reside in Chapter 1 and can be got rid of by the box to the right of the chapter box containing Cell 1, 2 etc. tick boxes. Remove each cell tick box that does not have a significant impact on the filesize of the film (a few KB) by looking at the size of the film (bottom right corner) as you remove them. You probably will be left with 1 cell box (the bottom one) for chapter 1. I had this problem with "High School Musical".

Sticky by MattGarner (Forum Super Moderator): As this is an awesome tutorial and will help many users