Smart ripper

Nero Burning Rom (latest version supports burning to the DVD)

Your Favourite Software DVD playback program (Cyberlink PowerDVD is a good one!)

Now, this is the MAIN menu of Smart ripper. It tells you details about nearly everything on the DVD it has authenticated to. If for some reason, authentication was UNSUCCESSFUL, then usually this means that the DVD is highly decrypted. What you need to do is to run your favourite DVD playback software, watch the DVD for a few minutes, this will decrypt the DVD and then shutdown the software and run Smart ripper quickly. Then it should be authenticated.

OK, now click on the target button (marked as 1 in the screenshot), and change to the directory you wish to save your ripped VOB files from the DVD. Once done, click on Settings (marked as 2 in the screenshot). Make sure that the settings match up with these:

I think, either the IFO or the Info file contains the information about the DVD and how many chapters or tracks there are in that movie. This is REALLY needed when loading the VOB's in DVD2AVI to create a project file to use within TMPGEnc or Nandub encoding.

Click OK and once done, click on Start!!!!!! LET IT RIP BABY!!!!!!!!!!

The ripping process can take up to 20 minutes to about an hour, depending on how fast your DVD ROM drive and and your system and how heavily encoded the DVD is. Now, make sure that the speed of the DVD, when ripping is really about 4x below the speed of your DVD ROM, the reason being is because the DVD ROM DRIVE and DVD ROM CAN go on fire due to the encryption on the DVD. If you see anything bad happening, cancel it immediately at once. Generally it doesn't happen but it's better to be safe than sorry!

Well, once it's done a friendly done message will appear, next is to load up Nero Burning Rom and create a new DVD compilation. then drag and drop the ripped VOB files into Nero and burn it to the DVD-R, preferably, burn it at a lower speed for safety. Once it's done, make sure it plays on your PC and if it does, it will play back on your DVD player!

Enjoy! :)

Well, this part is really the recommended way of doing backups of DVD's. You can also cut out the bits you want and also, brighten up the picture and edit some stuff before encoding the DVD. So, it does have a few more advantages than just to "rip 'n' burn".

Follow the guide above to rip the DVD, then you need these tools to continue:

TMPGEnc

DVD2AVI plugin for TMPGEnc*

DVD2AVI v1.76*

DVD Burner (recommended of course for this process!)

Nero Burning Rom

 Now, you may have noticed that I put an asterix (*) in front of the DVD2AVI. The reason being is because sometimes, TMPGEnc doesn't like to encode the VOB directly, so DVD2AVI acts as a "bridge" or "patch" to kind of, solve the problem.

Well, I'm going to use the DVD2AVI method, but if you folks don't want to, just skip to the part down to where you see TMPGEnc and load the VOB, instead of the DVD2AVI project file.

Install and run DVD2AVI (Make sure it is v1.76 otherwise it will NOT work!). Once you have opened the first VOB in the directory, this will appear, just click on OK:

Now, slide the slider along and skip to some parts of the movie, making sure it is OK. If not, then well, the decryption was not good enough which means you need better DVD playback software!

Go to File > Save project and type in a file name to save the project. This will create a D2V file in order to load it into TMPGEnc or Nandub. It will take some time saving again, about 20 minutes:

This will also save the audio track.

   DVD Audio is encoded and saved at 48000Hz (48KHz). Now, if you face a/v synch issues (audio is faster than video or vice versa) then it is better to down sample to 44100Hz (44.1KHz), which is CD quality. Usually, this is not a problem, since we are ending up making a backup of a DVD. However, if it was to some other method (like VCD, DIVX or SVCD) then we would have to down sample. Check out Method 1 in my DIVX guides on how to down sample.

Take a note of the Region of your DVD. the frame rate and also the aspect ratio, this is needed for the TMPGEnc settings. Otherwise your DVD result will end up as something you don't want!

OK cool, you just made a project file in DVD2AVI. now, unzip and install TMPGEnc with the DVD2AVI plug-in. Now, what DVD2AVI has also done is that it saved the audio track of the VOB file, this audio track is in a Wav file.

When you load up TMPGEnc, you will be presented with a wizard like the following. If you have a PAL region DVD, select PAL DVD, otherwise, if it is an NTSC region DVD, select NTSC. The bitrate as another thing, of course, the higher bitrate, the better quality BUT bigger file size. Make sure you know the length of the movie before choosing a bitrate. usually a typical movie is about 1 hour 20-30 minutes so the default bitrate assigned is perfect (that is CBR 4000KBPS):

Click Next

Once that is done, load the wav file that DVD2AVI saved from the VOB in the audio file box:

Now, remember I was saying to keep a note of the aspect ratio of your DVD? Well, this is the place to select it. The aspect ratio is like, whether or not the DVD is widescreen or cinema scope or a FULL screen. My DVD was Widescreen (16:9) so I select 16:9 PAL (because my DVD is a PAL!).

The field order is what TMPGEnc did earlier on when it loaded the D2V file. It has set it to B, which is digital format, and A is analogue format (from captured material).

Leave everything and click Next.

Now, you may want to cut the end credits out the movie, if so, select source range and mark the start and ending positions of the movie you want to encode. You can also brighten up the picture if you like. Once you selected your settings, click on Other Settings and go to to the advanced tab:

Select Full Screen (Keep aspect ratio) from the Video arrange Method combo/drop down box. This makes sure that the movie is encoded widescreen/cinema scope etc...

Once that's done, click on OK and click next.

 If you find that you have a lot of free room on the DVD left (TMPGEnc tells you if your DVD-R is going to be full or not after the encoding), you can select a higher bitrate, by going back to the start of the wizard and selecting a higher bitrate. Again, it means higher quality and bigger file size. Make sure it doesn't over encode it other wise the movie will NOT fit on the DVD. Once done, browse and save the file to a destination on your HDD. Click OK and TMPGEnc will now encode the movie. it will take a lot of time so, sit back and relax.

Once it has been done encoding, watch the movie. Make sure everything is according to your expectations, make sure that the audio and video are not out of synch. When satisfied, burn the movie as a DVD using Nero Burning Rom! And then well, watch the movie on the DVD player!!!!

Convert DVD's to VCD using DVDx

There are many different ways today in making VCD's from different Sources. Some people like making VCD's from their own DV (captured from DV to PC and converted to VCD), or from DVD's, or even from DIVX files. VCD is now really, the BASIC STANDARD of viewing Videos, nearly ALL DVD players (standalone) support VCD playback. VCD is MPEG1 at a constant Bitrate of 1150 kb/s. It's very easy creating a VCD, and it can take some time converting from 1 format to another, due to compression, the source type, the lenght of the video file, the scene changes etc... Today, I am making a guide for you people, to create a VCD STRAIGHT from a DVD. The quality can vary, all the time. It depends on the original source and the software and settings you use. In my experience, I think TMPGEnc is the easiest and best out of them all sue to the ease of use and advanced features in it.

Let's Begin!

Tools YOU Need:

Smart Ripper (preferably v2.41) Smart Ripper
DVDx (I am using version 2.0) DVDx

VCD burning software (nero or adaptec)

Now, we have to "rip" the DVD we want to create a VCD out of, to the HDD, we use smartripper for this. The reason we have to rip the DVD to the hdd is because of the encryption on the DVD itself, and also, encoding from a DVD to a HDD can take VERY LONG, and also, there is a risk of the DVD going on fire due to the encryption and the amount of information held on the DVD. HDD's are the fastest thing in your Machine (with speeds from 5400RPM to 7200RPM IDE). Open smart ripper, you will have this screen:

Just before that, you will have a small screen where Smartripper analyses the DVD in the drive. It tries to read it and makes sure that it can rip. If it can't, then you have to play the DVD for a few mintues with DVD playback software, as this will get rid of the encryption for a while. Once authentication is done, you will be presented with the screen above. Everything is really set, you just have to specify the target directory that you wish to use to save the ripped files from the DVD. Make sure you have over 10GB free space (this includes the encoding etc...) You can delete the VOB's when the full process is done (that is, after we convert to VCD)

Well, what are you waiting for??? HIT START!!!!!!

This is the smart ripper status screen, it tells you very detailed info. The rip can take anything from 10-20+ mins, depending on the length of the movie and also the speed of your DVD drive.

Once done, you will recieve a friendly messege from smartripper:

Ok, now the DVD is ripped, that was a real hard job, why? well, simple:

When ripping DVD's, Some HIGH ENCRYPTED DVD's are very clever when DVD ripping software is trying to Rip the DVD. This can cause your DVD drive to go on fire, believe me, I have seen it and read it! So, be VERY careful. Use this version of smart ripper (SR241) because that is the safest out of the whole lot!

Right, download and install DVDx v2.0 and open it, this is what you should get:

Very pretty, isn't it? Better than the other version, I think so anyway. I haven't tested it so, this is the first time I am using DVDx v2.0, and I thought, well, why not use it and make a guide at the same time? So, here I am :) There are 2 version of DVDx when you install it, a version for all other computers that are NOT a Pentium 4, and a special version for the P4. Why? Because INTEL rule! They made a special version for the P4 because of it's enhancement, better graphics and sound. And also, sometimes a faster encode. :)

OK, goto file > open DVD root, and select the DVD you have just ripped. Select the correct VOB, you can tell by the length of program/video:

Once you hit the select button, you will have the input settings Window:

Well, nearly everything is done for us, great! Change the Audio to this option:

"High Quality 48KHz to 44.1KHz". The reason:

Every conversion (DVD/VCD/SVCD/VDC) has a "compliance" and if it doesn't meet the compliance then it is not compatable. So, if we leave it at 48KHz, the CD-Writing software will NOT burn the file and you cannot view it on you standalone DVD player. Also, Some sound card do not support 48KHz. It can cause A/V synch issues and sometimes it can sound like ASF streaming format. We are "DOWNSAMPLING" from one frequency to another, 44.1KHz is a frequency used by audio CD's, and it is REALLY good quality. HIGH quality. If we downsample from 48KHz to 44.1KHz, we will NOT lose quality. it will keep the same quality, but just lowered a frequency. It's simple :)

Just to make sure we do not have A/V synch issues, select the "Audio/Video synchronisation" check box. If you want to shut your PC down automatically when the job is done, check the "Shutdown the computer when job is done" check box. Finally, select the output frame rate you want for your region. 25fps is PAL, so I chose that, 29.97 is NTSC frame rate so choose that if you are in an NTSC region.

If your movie, in the end, comes out bad where there are "lines" in the colours of Red, Blue and or Green, then that means that the video needs to have a de-interlace filter. VCD has this problem so by applying this de-interlace filter, it should sort out most of the problem. It will take more time to encode but it's worth it.

Hit OK.

You will recieve this error message:

Ignore it, it is a bug, still hasn't been fixed from DVDx v1.8, the last time I used it!

Anyway, things will work fine. Now, we have to selct our output settings, so goto Settings > output settings and a window will appear:

Select the format you want the video to be converted to, we are making a VCD so choose VCD (MPEG1):

VCD = MPEG1 (with a CBR of 1150KB/s) = Low quality
SVCD = MPEG2 = High quality
DVD = MPEG2 (HIGH Bitrate) = High Quality


anything else done in MPEG, is not a VCD/SVCD/DVD. It's just and MPEG file!

The audio bitrate is set to 224 as this is the standard compliance. Generally speaking, the higher bitrate, the better quality BUT a bit higher on file size.

Motion Search : This is nearly the same as TMPGENC (I prefer TMPGENC), this setting is fine as it is (normal (fast)) but if you want a higher quality, select "High (slow)" This will take about 8-12 hours to encode, quality is SOMETIMES, OK, but leave it were it is, this will take about 4-5 hours to encode.

Leave everything else and move to the right hand side! :)

Leave the Res, but if we were making a DIVX file/AVI then you can change the res. GENERALLY speaking, the higher the res, the better quality but file size will increase, ALOT. I love my captured stuff at 352*288/320*240 and it gives me NEAR DVD quality, and LOW file size.

For the "Zoom" section, if the movie was Widescreen (16:9), choose 16:9, otherwise choose 4:3. All it is, is the black bars get put in the movie, top and bottom, that's all.

Now, you may wish to encode all or part of the movie, if you want to encode the WHOLE movie, click the WHOLE button. Otherwise, enter the frames (from 0 to x) you want to encode to. For example, I might want to encode half of the movie so the frames I want to encode will be 69187.

You can also tell DVDx to encode up to a certain file size!!! This is handy for doing DIVX files, as it will stop when it has reached to the entered file size and start a new file and continue with the encoding! So, 2 jobs done in 1 :)

Since we are making a VCD, it is not necessary. As long as the movie is in the length of the capacity of CD (80 mins) then we are fine, regardless what the file size will be. If the file size is more than 700MB but the movie is still less than 80mins, NERO will burn it!!!! How? Because it uses timescale, NOT file size. Clever!!!

Hit Apply

Now, one of the most FINAL AND CRUCIAL moment is here. We must encode our file to the chosen format (VCD in this case) Hit the Red button, that looks like a record button.

Once done, play it back, do you like it??????

Some videos are better looking than others. But remember, VCD is NOT a good format! If you want to make a good video, and your DVD player supports it, convert to SVCD or DVD (If you have a DVD writer!)

Cutting Parts of Videos Using Virtualdub

SOOOOOOO MANY people have asked me this question. Answers are in forums, but, for some reason, they do not wish to look for it - which is fine by me, I like helping out.

Thanks to you guys, Technosoft 2000.co.uk has been a BIG Hit for DIVX and also, for programming, I just wanna say thanks and I hope I keep providing you the best and top quality information, in all aspects of this site.

1) Open Virtualdub
2) Open the video we wish to edit


Here are the standard Virtualdub (VD) tools




It is really simple, I am just going to highlight the MAIN tools we are going to use.

Let's say, our situation is that a movie is too big to fit on 1 CD, and must be fitted on 2 CD's (depending on the size of the movie of course!), how do we do that?



SIMPLE


1) Hit the Start marker button
2) Move the Slider to the part of the movie where you wish to cut up to
3) Hit the End marker to stop marking the movie
4) You will see that the part selected/marked has been highlighted:








OK, as you can see, that should happen to you, that's great. Now, if we want to save the selected part to a file, we must make sure that the audio and video are copied EXACTLY. Otherwise, we will have a discombobulated jibbry jibberish file (actually, a HUGH file, and may have A/V synch issues). In order to sort this part out, do the following:


1) Goto Video > DIRECT STREAM COPY
2) Goto Audio > DIRECT STREAM COPY

That's it, that part is self explanitary, It copies that part EXACTLY, as it is.

Now : 3) Goto file > Save as AVI and save the file.

In a few secs, the selected part of the video will be saved to a new file. Simple, eh?


If you wanted to delete the selcted part, simply HIT DELETE on your keyboard. That's all! Then:


1) Goto Video > DIRECT STREAM COPY
2) Goto Audio > DIRECT STREAM COPY
3) Mark the whole movie/the part you wish to save
4) File > Save as AVI
5) Save it

DivX to VCD Conversion Guide

Video = smartripper, dvd2avi, gk, nandub,

10-20GB For dvd rip, sound and nandub encoding, but you may delete the vob files and sound files after nandub 2pass, leaving only the DIVX DVD rip file.

Rip the dvd using smartripper. If u get an error message like "can't unlock dvd" then play the dvd for a while using windvd/powerdvd. Then run smartripper again, it should read the dvd and give an "authentication successful" message.

OK, this is good, now hit the settings button in smartripper and then change to these settings:

 NANDUB is a HIGH 2pass encoder. Nandub is based on SBC (Smart Bitrate Control), basically, uses both, low and fast motion when encoding. The controls are similar to Virtualdub, because it is "Hacked" (with permission) and also is based on VirtualDub. The SBC cleverly detects the motion of the scene and adjusts the bitrate/codec accordingly. More information on Nandub could be found on

 We need to set the audio bitrate, you may choose which ever bitrate you would like to use. The higher bitrate, the better quality and bigger file size. I have chosen 128kbps 44100Hz because that is the "standard of MP3's" and will not lose much quality. Actually, sometimes it can be the same quality for some strange reason. LAME is a good codec and so is RADIUM for MP3's, but for some reason, DVDx was programmed to use LAME. There are other options too if you want to save your audio as a different format, like WAV, AC3 etc... But we choose MP3 as this is what 90% of DIVX encoders (people) do.

"This means that it will hardly ever go higher than what we set it. So if we set it to 800 kbps it would use 800 kbps on most scenes and only use a very little more or less depending on the action. This means the Low Motion codec is a lot more predictable." - Extracted from nicky guides on nicky.digital-digest.com

"When we set the Fast Motions bitrate we are setting the Maximim bitrate! This means it will always use an average bitrate of about 300 kbps, for example, until it reaches a high action scene and only then will it increase the bitrate to the maximum level! This is why people get confused, because it doesn't use the bitrate they put in until it finds an action scene!" - Extracted from nicky.digital-digest.com

Now, there is one button to click to do the conversion, HIT THE ENCODE BUTTON!!!!!!!!

How To Convert PAL (European) Video to NTSC (American) for VCD
 

Tools: TMPGEnc.

Launch TMPGEnc.

1. Press Browse to select the Video Source.

2. Change the directory to your CD / DVD Rom where the Pal VCD is inserted and the directory MPEGAV (For example F:\MPEG)

3. Select the file extensions to *.* and load the movie file. Often it is AVSEQ01.DAT but on some VCDs (With Intro etc.) it can be AVSEQ02.DAT or AVSEQ03.DAT

4. Press Open.

Note! If Tmpgenc says that the .dat file is a invalid file you can try to change the settings in TMPGEnc under Option->Environmental settings->VFAPI plug-in and right click on the DirectShow Multimedia File Reader and increase the priority to 1 or 2 and try open the video again.
or convert the VCD dat to a MPG that you should be able open, read.


5. In the TMPGEnc window you should now see the first frame of your VCD.

6. Press load and open the file VideoCD (NTSC).mcf which is in the Templates dir of TMPGEnc.

7. After pressing Start TMPGEnc should encode your movie

DVD Ripping Programs You Should Get Now
 

RIPPERS / DECRYPTERS
These programs will convert your store-bought movie files into video files on your PC, and will also strip off the CSS copy protection.

DVD Decrypter: A simple tool for moving video to your hard drive, with a minimum set of options.

Smart Ripper: Another decrypter with a lot more options. Somewhat confusing to use, but it produces good results.

CladDVD.net: Works on top of Microsoft's dotNet framework, it's pretty easy to use.


ENCODERS
Don't want to make a perfect DVD copy? Want to reduce the size of your DVD movie to fit on either a single recordable DVD, or to the SVCD, VCD or DivX formats for playback on CDR or your PC? These tools will help you – but don't expect a lot of hand-holding

FlaskMPEG: A great way to create VCD or SVCD files. Lots of options, somewhat confusing.

DVDx: Many people like this product for converting DVDs to VCD, SVCD or DivX.

Xmpeg: My friends in the video business all swear by Xmpeg. It will convert to DivX, VCD, SVCD and DVD video formats. It even includes wizards to make things easier for you.


ALL IN ONE
These bundle everything together for one-button copying and conversion. There's only one, though, that I can recommend

DVD2SVCD: This one bundles lots of programs together and tries to do it all. It's a bit tough to configure initially, and the options can be confusing. Still, it's a good place to start if you're looking for one-button ripping, decrypting and conversion.


FINDING THESE PROGRAMS
They can usually easy be found on P2P sharing programs like Kazaa or WinMX or just try entering their names in google or altavista.  Most of these programs are freeware as well!

DVD Basics
 

DVD movies, like music CDs, are stored digitally on that plastic disc, in a stream of zeroes and ones almost as long as War and Peace and Remembrance of Things Past combined. VCR and cassette recorders, by contrast, transcribe in an analog format –closer to what your eye and ear perceive.

Each time a cassette or VHS tape is copied, the music or video degrades. That's because the recording can't match the original source. That's why the "master" was so important in the pre-digital days, because only it could generate the best copies for sale or share.

But when you make a copy of a digital file – whether it's a Rolling Stones song, Harry Potter movie or Excel spreadsheet – the copy is identical to the original. It's hard to mess up ones and zeros.

When Hollywood decided on a digital movie format – called DVDs – it decided to protect it with something called CSS, or the Content Scrambling System. Like Pig Latin – ere-whay vree- ay erd-way is-ay anslated-tray to-inay nother-ay (where every word is translated into another) – the ones and zeroes stored on a DVD are unintelligible garbage unless you have the key.

That key was jealously guarded, but like most secrets, it got out. This was first done in a breakthrough program for DeCSS which laid the groundwork for what we are talking about here.  Now anyone with a computer and DVD drive can easily strip off CSS in a process called "decrypting", and create a perfect copy of a DVD's video and audio content on a hard drive. And from there it's easy to create a DVD copy that's identical to the original.