Comments on: Free FairUse Wizard Download for Converting DVD’s

By: Pieter

Pieter — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:14:12 +0000

dig into the command line

It's even faster than using a GUI if you ask me. After you've dropped mencoder.exe in C:\Windows, all you gotta do is press Windows+R, enter 'cmd', press the return key and type your command.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:32:22 +0000

I’ve actually used mencoder quite a bit in the past, but the nice thing about this is that it’s a simple all-in-one solution so that you don’t have to dig into the command line or have multiple applications.

By: Pieter

Pieter — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:16:38 +0000

Even though I’ve moved back to Windows XP, I prefer the free command-line mencoder tool to rip my DVDs. It’s quick and easy if you know how to use it.

Example usage: mencoder.exe dvd://1 -dvd-device e: -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc -endpos 30:00 -chapter 2 -o tmp.avi

This command will rip DVD title 1 (the part from chapter 2 till thirty minutes after that), save the audio in the MP3 format, save the video in a format that has a good disk use/quality ratio, keep the resolution unchanged and save the result to tmp.avi.

I use Free Video To iPod Converter ([dvdvideosoft.com]) to convert videos to iPod format. It relies on ffmpeg, a command line Linux tool. Although the name makes you think it’s crap, it’s not. Just choose between high, standard and economy quality and boom, you’re done. Works for the iPod video, iPod nano, iPod touch, iPhone and PSP.

By: DogWings

DogWings — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:26:36 +0000

I use MagicDVDRipper (not free) and it rips to DivX for use on my HTPC, and to mp4 for watching on my iPod. It will rip to a bunch of formats, but those are the ones I use. Totally worth the money.

By: Michael Dobrofsky

Michael Dobrofsky — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:44:08 +0000

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:02:02 +0000

No problem. The thing that I really like about this is that it’s an all-in-one solution so that you don’t need two or three different applications to get the job done.

By: leland

leland — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:42:58 +0000

Another possible solution would be DVD43 [dvd43.com] which will sit in the background and decode DVD’s much like AnyDVD; except it’s free. Then use this with Videora iPod Converter [videora.com] to convert to video for use on the iPod. I have not tried this solution, but a friend asked me about this a few weeks ago and this is what I came up with. It looked good and like it would fill the need. Now with the solution you found we have more options. Thanks Ryan.