Ripping DVD’s to high quality video
Sometimes you just need to rip the video off of a DVD into a high quality and usable format, such as an AVI. Probably for further editing, or compression. Sometimes a client delivers some video to you on a DVD-R and sometimes you might need to excercise your fair use rights on some retail DVD content. When I was figuring out how to do this I couldn’t find any clearly written step by step guides to getting raw video off a DVD, this is that guide. Complete with links to the software you need.
Step 1: Decrypting
If your DVD is encrypted, meaning pressed by a movie distributer, containing copyrighted material, you might need some software like DVD Shrink (if that link goes down just google it). Using DVD Shrink you can make unencrypted copies on DVD-R’s andalso just output the .vob files directly to your hard-drive. This is the prefferred method if you will only be creating and AVI file from the DVD.
Step 2: Software and Codecs
If you are getting video off of an _un_encrypted DVD, or if you have now made your unecrypted copy of the encrypted DVD things start with a program called VirtualDubMod. So Install VirtualDub Mod, then install the high-quality video codec you want to output to, I suggest the Panasonic DV codec. DV files are the same format as the files you get from capturing from a MiniDV tape, the format that most decent Video Cameras use. So this file type will work well with most compression programs and NLE (Non-Linear Editor) software packages. Also, DVD audio is usually in AC3 format so you will need the AC3 ACM codec.
Step 2: Ripping
Once all 3 of these are installed, insert your unecrypted DVD into the DVD drive, or make sure your .vob files are on the hard-drive somewhere. Then start VirtualDubMod and click “open video file”, browse the the appropriate .vob files either on the DVD-R or on your hard-drive. These files go in series, you may want to view by details and see which of the files are megabytes and gigabytes in size, these are the ones you want to open. I think each chapter of the DVD is a seperate file, the first one is usually VTS_01_1.vob. Open this file and VDubMod will spend a few minutes parsing the file. Then you can use the controls to watch the video, ensuring you have the corect file loaded. Go to the Video -> Filters, click “Add” Choose “resize” from the list and click OK. Set the width in that new dialog box to 720 and height to 480 and click OK. Click File -> Save As…, at the very bottom of the save dialog it should say something like “(Uncompressed RGB)” click change and select “Panasonic DV CODEC”, click OK. Save the file where you want it, and boom, your video will start ripping. When it’s done, which takes about the same amount of time as it takes to play the video file, depending on your processor speed, you will have an unencrypted high quality DV avi file for all your editing and compression needs.
Hope this helps, I know I spent quite a bit of time trying to hunt this information down before figuring this process out. Note: Most of the software you will need for working with video like this can be found at Doom9.net.