DVD to AVI or WMV software

[Yobbo]

Hi All

I've searched and searched and I can't find a decent DVD to AVI / WMV ripper
anywhere, especially a freeware one!

I've gone and got us a camcorder that records to DVD-R / DVD-RW and hasn't
got any cable outputs on it. Its a Canon DC100 and Canon have told me that
I need ripping software to get the data off so that I can mess around with
it in say MovieMaker and ultimately get it back on DVD.

I really like the simplicity of No1 DVD Ripper, ie select DVD, select format
(AVI, WMV, etc) and rip, but on my P4 3Ghz, 512MB, 250GB WinXP Pro SP2 PC it
took over 5 hours to rip a 1 hour 4 min DVD (home made one so no protection)
to AVI and the file size was 2.5GB !

Tried WMV and although the file size went down to 500MB it still took 4
hours!

Canon said DVD ripping would be as fast as downloading from tape to PC via
firewire, but this surely isn't right.

Does anybody know how to get realistic file sizes and rip times with this
software or one as simple?

My friend downloaded a 45 min episode of Prison Break as an AVI file and the
file size is only 340MB and the quality is great. How can this be so?

Is AVI better than WMV?

I tried the AVI xVid method, but Windows Media Player on machines that
didn't have this codec couldn't play it!

All I want is a very good video/audio quality file with a manageable file
size like the Prison Break file - am I asking too much?

Thanks for listening to my rant. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Yasin Aalipour]

have you tried Power DVD Ripper?
http://www.power-dvd-ripper.com/?gclid=CO6Nr-rYrIoCFQ0fggodllW7uQ

I've used it, its pretty good.

hope this helps,
yasin

 

[Guest]

Download windows media encoder 9 series,+ get its utilities.WMCAP utility
works great for simply viewing thru,the encoder does the rest...POWER DVD
certainly isnt freeware,bout the only thing "free" they offer is a cd....

 

[Noncompliant]

Ultimately, the raw Audio/Video will be in mpeg2 format before its changed
to a format compatible with DVD players. Typically, for best quality,
saving intially to AVI format results in best quality in the end product.

The retail version of few widely available 3rd party applications that do
all this for you do cost money, some actually do the burning after the
decoding/encoding.

If there are no cable OUTPUTs, you can't source the raw data from the
camera.

You can source the DVD but checkout what said here about the aspect ratio
when you do that:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Canon_DC100/4505-6500_7-31840778.html

 

[Jerry]

I have used Windows Media Encoder for a long time and works fantastic for
converting mp3 to wma, however I have been able to convert movie format with
it. I could NOT find the WMCAP utility you spoke of. Perhaps some
elaboration might be helpful.

Thank You

 

[Jerry]

I meant to say " I have NOT been able to convert movie format with Windows
Media Encoder".

 

[Noncompliant]

And what does that have to do with anything I said?