DVD to AVI?

[Ciaran]

I want to rip a few DVDs and turn them to AVI so my mate can upload them to his PS3, as he doesn't want alot of clutter from the DVDs, as they've got too many already.

Does anyone know how to rip the DVDs to the PC and change the format to AVI? All help will be appriciated.

[Phoenix Taichou]

I'd like to know this too for the purpose of making AMVs and other junk

[Zirak]

In my experience it's quite difficult, though I'm sure Pyra knows more about the details.

The main points are, you need software specifically designed to rip DVDs and even then some have copy protection. Depending on the ripping software you may need seperate software to then convert it into a readable format for PCs (AVI, DIVX, etc). Most of the software I've found is always on free trial and requires purchase. Of course, if you look hard enough I'm sure it's possible to find some free software. Or cracked copies of the other ones at least.

Either way, I'm pretty certain DVD ripping requires more effort than it first appears. But hey, if someone can shed more light on it I'd be interested as well. XP I looked into this a while ago but gave up because of the software involved.

EDIT: Of course, there's always a Google Search.

Turns out I was right, you need to find and download software to rip the DVD, but most do it at full size (that's between 6 and 8GB per disc). You then need to get software to compress and convert this to a readable format and much smaller size. If you look at the first few links from the Google search above there are a few pieces of software mentioned that are free to download.

It is a fair amount of work, though, as compressing the ripped files can take over 2 hours at a time. Ripping it is quicker, but varies depending on the speed of your DVD drive on your PC. You'll need a fair amount of dedicated hard drive space and time though.

[Pyra]

Also if you are ripping something with subtitles that has subtitles that aren't just part of the picture (ones with a menu you can turn on or off) you ain't gonna get them.

But yeah rip and compress... I don't do it much personally but people in my house do and it's not hard once you have the software.

[Alana]

I have official (I assume) software that my stepdad bought home from work a couple weeks ago. I ripped a few DVDs and put 'em on my PSP. The software's called um...DVDFab5 and it takes about an hour to an hour and a half depending on how long the runtime is. An hour and a half film works out at about half a gig or just over, I think. The quality was ace! Though it was even better when we put Mamma Mia on my mum's iPod Touch, lolol.