Duplicating and Copying DVDs (part 2) - Ripping DVDs to the PC

2/7/2014 2:42:55 AM

2. Ripping DVDs to the PC

While duplicating a DVD may be of limited interest, ripping (or copying) a DVD movie to your hard drive, much in the same way that you rip songs from an audio CD to your hard drive in MP3 format, is probably more interesting to a wider audience. This, too, would enable you to leave the master DVD copies of your movies safe at home while you travel or commute. It also means you don't have to travel with a bunch of discs, discs that incidentally aren't exactly the most battery-efficient thing to watch when traveling on a plane or in other locations where a power plug isn't available.

There are two major problems with ripping DVDs:

First, you need a tool like the aforementioned SlySoft AnyDVD because Hollywood DVD movies are copy-protected and designed so that they cannot be copied to your PC.
NOTE

You may not need to rip all of your DVDs. There is a growing generation of dualuse DVD discs out there that include both the standard DVD movie (which will, of course, work on all DVD players, including those in PCs) and so-called Digital Copy versions, which come in both iTunes- and Windows Media-compatible versions. The Windows Media Digital Copy version of these movies is a protected WMV file you can copy to your PC's hard drive and then to a compatible portable device. The first Digital Copy-compatible DVD movie, "Family Guy Blue Harvest," debuted in 2008. As of this writing, there aren't many Digital Copy DVDs, but if this format takes off, it could answer a lot of the complaints about fair use and DVD movies. There are even Digital Copy-compatible Blu-ray movies appearing now. Hey, you never know.
Second, you need to figure out which tool you want to use to rip DVD movies, as Windows 7 doesn't come with such a thing. And on a related note, you have to settle on a video format for those ripped files. (In the music field, this is simple: MP3 is the universal standard for audio files and is the most compatible with software and devices. Video, alas, is a bit trickier.)

That latter issue used to be more of a concern. Windows Vista and earlier Windows versions were, of course, compatible with Microsoft video formats like Windows Media Video (WMV) and AVI—that is, if you wanted to play back a ripped movie in Windows Media Player, Zune, or Windows Media Center, you pretty much needed to rip it in WMV format. However, if you wanted to use the more popular and superior H.264 format—used by Apple's software and devices, and compatible with the Zune and Xbox 360—you couldn't use Windows Media Player or Media Center: earlier versions of those applications were not compatible with H.264.

In Windows 7, this has all changed. Now, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center are completely compatible with H.264. This solves a compatibility issue, but only if you've completely migrated to Windows 7. If you have a mix of Windows 7–based PCs and PCs based on earlier Windows versions, you will want to carefully consider which format to use. Of course, you could always use Zune, QuickTime, iTunes, or other applications in Windows Vista or older Windows versions if needed.

2.1. Ripping DVDs in Windows Media Video Format

If you'd prefer to stick with the Windows Media Video format, you have an excellent (but not free) option for DVD ripping: SlySoft's CloneDVD mobile (www.slysoft.com/en/clonedvd-mobile.html). This software can rip DVD movies into a variety of formats, including WMV. It also offers a surprising array of quality options, so be sure to check the technical specifications of the portable device you'll be watching these movies on before ripping. (The exact resolution of the finished movie will vary based on the aspect ratio of the source movie, but you can choose between such resolutions as 320 × XXX, 480 × XXX, 640 × XXX, 720 × XXX, 852 × XXX, and 720 × 480 (NTSC TV), where XXX can vary.)

Here's how you can rip a commercial DVD movie to your hard drive in WMV format:

Insert a DVD movie into your optical drive.
Launch CloneDVD mobile. As shown in Figure 2, this wizard-based application supports a number of video formats (DivX, WMV, and so on) and comes with presets for numerous devices, such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Apple iPod and iPhone, Microsoft Zune, and many, many others.
Choose Generic WMV/WMA from the list of possible options in the first part of the wizard and then click the Next button.
In the next phase of the wizard, you have to choose the VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD. To do so, click the small Browse button on the right side and then navigate to the DVD movie in the dialog that appears, expanding the tree view if necessary to select the VIDEO_TS folder, as shown in Figure 3. Then, click OK.
Once you've selected the VIDEO_TS folder, CloneDVD mobile presents a list of the video tracks available on the DVD and will preview the selected track in the Preview tab. Generally speaking, the main DVD movie you want will be the longest video on the disk. Select it, ensure that it is correct using the Preview tab, and then click Next.

Figure 2. CloneDVD mobile enables you to rip DVDs into digital video files on your PC.

Figure 3. The key to a successful DVD rip is locating the VIDEO_TS folder structure on the DVD movie disc.
In the Audio and Subtitle Settings phase of the wizard, you can choose which audio stream to use (English by default in the U.S.) and whether you want subtitles hard-coded onto the movie (and if so, which language to use). Click Next when you've made the appropriate choices.
Finally, in the Output Method phase, shown in Figure 4, choose options such as resolution, video quality, and, perhaps, zoom settings. These options are very important, so you'll need to choose wisely.

Figure 4. Here is where you'll determine the quality (and thus the size) of the resulting video.

In the Resolution drop-down, you'll see a variety of options (which, again, vary according to the actual aspect ratio of the original movie). Roughly speaking, the higher the resolution, the better the video will look, up to a certain point, and the larger the resulting file will be. Also, remember that it doesn't make sense to create digital videos that are larger than the source material: DVDs are always 720 × 480 or less, so you should ignore the 852 × XXX option for the most part. Finally, you'll want to ensure that the video you create will work on your portable device. If it's too big, Windows Media Player has to transcode it before copying it to the device, a process that can be time consuming. In my experience, videos that are 640 × 480 and below offer a good compromise between quality, size, and compatibility.
Select a resolution (typically 640 × 480 or less) and then click the "Default" button next to the Quality slider. (You can slide this to the right for better quality video, though these files will also be larger.) Then, provide a label for the video (Something like Name of the Movie instead of VIDEO_DVD or whatever).
Typically, you will want to leave the Zoom settings alone, but you can experiment with the Letterbox Zoom and Cinemascope Zoom settings to see how they change the resulting video.
Click Go when you're ready to encode, or create, the video. A Save As–type dialog will appear, enabling you to name the video file and pick a location for it on the hard drive. Videos are typically stored in the Videos folder, as you know, but you're free to create it virtually anywhere.

The amount of time this encoding process takes varies according to the performance characteristics of your PC. Generally speaking, it should take 50 to 100 percent of the length of time it would take to actually watch the movie if performed on a modern PC with decent 3D video hardware.

Once you've created a movie in this fashion, you can copy it to another PC, a portable device, or a digital media receiver (including the Xbox 360), or use it in Windows Live Movie Maker or Windows DVD Maker projects.