rip movies

Use HandBrake to compress them into something smaller.

There are many options, not the least of which are iMovie and Quicktime Pro. And as to being "more universal", all those VOB files are the actual DVD video, so you could burn them to a blank DVD-R as-is and (assuming the burn was done properly) watch it in a DVD player. Granted for keeping on your hard drive 5.7GB is quite big, but if you want universal support, there's probably nothing more universally supported than the DVD format itself.

It will work with Handbrake, just be patient.

How are you trying to open the .vob files. When you have the option to select the DVD folder, then you should be the folder that contains all the of the vob files - don't select them individually. I'm assuming that's what you are doing. Explain what you did, and I'll see if I can fix it.

The movies I've compressed using the same process have been great.

BTW, it would be better to compress using MPEG-4 not AVI - well at least that's what I've experienced.

iMovie is the worst option, by the way. I would combine them using ffmpeg, then convert them to like XViD and mp3 audio with the same ap.

derajfast said:

well do you use mactheripper to first rip it and then edit it with handbrake? or do you use handrbake to rip and convert? i tried that directly from the dvd drive and it takes quite a long time though

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Use MacThe Ripper to rip the DVD to your desktop. This should create a DVD folder on your desktop. Then open up Handbrake, and when the menu slides down click on Browse, under DVD Folder/Image. Find the folder that you ripped to the desktop, and then click open. Just click the folder - do not go into the folder. The menu should go away and then you are left with the Handbrake intwerface behind. Mess with the setting and then click rip. Where ever you set the movie to save (Option in upper right corner), you should find the file when it's done. Make sure you don't try to open it before, the blue status bar goes away as it won't work. It will say 100% for a while, but it won't open. Then you should have the DVD as a file on your HD.

Note: You should save the file to your main hard drive and then transfer it to your external drive.

jimsowden said:

iMovie is the worst option, by the way. I would combine them using ffmpeg, then convert them to like XViD and mp3 audio with the same ap.

Click to expand...

I've never heard of ffmpeg. I'm trying it out now.
What's a better way to encode: divx or xvid?

I just tried ffmpeg also today for the first time. Can someone post a good explanation of how to use it?

iLikeMyiMac said:

I've never heard of ffmpeg. I'm trying it out now.
What's a better way to encode: divx or xvid?

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XViD is a smarter version of DiVX, so I would go with the X. It may be slow, but the results are very good.

i know that these threads get repeated over and over again, but there is some validity to them.

much like music, i think people have different preferences in how they rip their media. PLEASE NOTE: We are talking about movies that you own. If you are like me then you would like to have a nice stash of your movies right there on your computer. I like the convenience, and I like not having to have to go through all my dvds and see what i want. it is also easy for me to hook up my ibook to a tv to watch them (i dont own a standard dvd player *gasp*) I think this is only going to become more popular as time goes on.

Right now we are stuck with so many different file formats and ratios and sound formats that it really makes it kinda difficult. I cant wait for someone (hopefully Apple) to release a good online movie store, as i will rip all my movies according to how they have encoded theirs, just because i want my stuff to be compatible in the future. i know there is no such thing as being future proof, but it would be nice to not want to re-rip them every 3 months

right now i am encoding my movies with handbrake in MPEG-4 with AAC audio. i have the audio at 160k and the video at 512x224. an hour and 1/2 film takes up about 550MB with an average data rate of 778kbits/s. also takes clost to 5 hours to encode.

as soon as i get my new computer i will be ripping at higher levels but i do that for now so that they play well on my older iBook.

I feel that as a forum we should develope a community standard. lol but good luck on that.

Handbrake is the best option that I know of. It works great.

Yes, I like Handbrake too, particularly its subtitle support.

I have been using handbrake to rip a lot of my family guy, futurama and seinfeld episodes to watch on my PSP. I used to save them at mpeg 4 files, where each was around 50mbs. The quality is not perfect, but I can around 9 on my 512mb memory card. Since they stated they will update the PSP to play AVC (h.264) in the next week, I have been ripping then now in h.264 format. The same 50mb's looks soo much better ( on my computer that is). But ripping in that format takes much longer, I just start it and hide the program until it is done.

wwooden said:

I have been ripping then now in h.264 format. The same 50mb's looks soo much better

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How about going for an even smaller file size? You might find that H.264 holds up really well.

Also, if you have Compressor 2, you could connect your iMac and PowerBook and share the processing load between the two machines.

I was never quite happy with the quality when it was in mpeg4, I just dealt with it because I knew the file size was where I wanted it. Maybe someday I will be able to connect my iPod to my PSP and transfer episodes over to watch on it. I could store all the movies and tv shows on the iPod, allowing me to bring a ton more videos on the road.