free DVD converter progs?

[Richard Whiteley]

alright geekazoids

anyone know of any free programs that'll convert dvd files to avi mp3 whatever

ta very much

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Yes, yes I do.

 

[Richard Whiteley]

Excellent, that's that sorted then.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Well, ask a stupid question.

This is what I use :-

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/dvd2avi.html

 

[Richard Whiteley]

Cheers (was it that stupid a question? I couldn't find a completely free one to use)

One more stupid question (their website seems to be out of commision), can you only use that prog with a disk in your drive rather than DVD files you've got on your hard drive?

:bigkiss:

 

[tinx]

Well, ask a stupid question.

This is what I use :-

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/dvd2avi.html

TGC what do you use to convert the other way? IE avi 2 DVD.

I use DVD santa or WinAvi not free but do the job.

What do you use?

 

[readingstockport]

Ok, can I carry on the geekoid questions. Has anyone here used ratdvd and got any comments on the claimed no loss in quality?

For those who don't know it, it's a freeware that compresses 8 gig dvd's into 1.44 MEG to make them easier to transfer via p2p and email. You then use ratdvd to uncompress them again.

Sounds a cool program imho.

 

[tinx]

Sounds interesting might check it out.

 

[tinx]

Ok, can I carry on the geekoid questions. Has anyone here used ratdvd and got any comments on the claimed no loss in quality?

For those who don't know it, it's a freeware that compresses 8 gig dvd's into 1.44 MEG to make them easier to transfer via p2p and email. You then use ratdvd to uncompress them again.

Sounds a cool program imho.

Ok just looked into it, Looks like ratDVD is simply another version of DVD shrink. It compresses a 8GB DVD to about 2Gb but takes ages to do it.

Don't think its any better than DVD shrink or in fac tmay not be as good.

 

[readingstockport]

Tinx, I've got dvdshrink and ratdvd and I am just testing ratdvd. It seems to have compressed 3 8 gig files to 1.01 gig and then seems to have uncompressed it with no size/quality loss.

Was just wondering if anyone else had actually tried it.

I'm sending the files to a US friend for him to 'test' with and will let you know.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Cheers (was it that stupid a question? I couldn't find a completely free one to use)

One more stupid question (their website seems to be out of commision), can you only use that prog with a disk in your drive rather than DVD files you've got on your hard drive?

:bigkiss:

All programs are free if you search long enough!

It works with files on the hard disk - it's the program I use to convert video clips on Albion Archives. Depending on the size you want the avi, consider re-encoding the avi using Virtual Dub (Which is free, I believe). You can resize, crop and all other kinds of clever things with it. Try using several codecs to maximize quality/compatability/size. XVid, DivX and WM9 are good.

As for going from AVI to DVD, I've tried various programs with differing results. From memory, Super Video Converter is the one I use the most - this converts rm files as well.

 

[Richard Whiteley]

All programs are free if you search long enough!

It works with files on the hard disk -

really? Ok will have another go. Doesn't seem to recognise them

thanks though

 

[The Great Cornholio]

really? Ok will have another go. Doesn't seem to recognise them

thanks though

Just point it it at the .vob files and it should work fine. If you haven't got those, it isn't a standard DVD. If it is from a DVD Recorder, it might be a .vro file. If so, you will need to convert that into a standard DVD first using something like TMPGENC DVD Author, then use DVD2AVI.

 

[Richard Whiteley]

Just point it it at the .vob files and it should work fine. If you haven't got those, it isn't a standard DVD. If it is from a DVD Recorder, it might be a .vro file. If so, you will need to convert that into a standard DVD first using something like TMPGENC DVD Author, then use DVD2AVI.

cheers, seemed to get it working, but once it started got the unexpcted error has to close message.

Thanks for the help though