The Singapore Forum

TO the geeks

What is the best software to convert a DVD/VCD to avi ?

Either free or paid

I use DVDFab I think. Does the job. Most of them will be paid versions, though obviously you can get them knocked off.

Has a whole load of options depending on what bit rate, what format blah blah blah.

FB is it easy to use ?

agree, DVDFab

So easy to use that I recommend the program to Americans.

But AVI is so 2007. MKV is what you want. Handbrake is the best MKV tool.

is handbrake straight conversion dvd to MKV.


I am just looking to rip some of my dvd to watch on my
IPAD

handbrake can do mkv, mp4 straight from DVD.

Hmmmm...not sure what Ipad can read. Check which formats. Is VLC player still available for the iPad? In which case, yes, MKV is good. I'm sure tehre are other players which are suitable *cough*

i have vlc and Avplayerhd Im sure one of them should be able to read MKV

VLC is tops, it can read anything. In which case, judge yourself whether you should be reducing file size or increasing resolution. You have limited memory, obviously a 4GB file is not what you want.

baloo wrote:handbrake can do mkv, mp4 straight from DVD.

Was having trouble going from DVD to mkv with Handbrake....until you use DVDPro.

Never heard of dvdpro

My new favorite is Any Video Converter Ultimate. I haven't found a format it can't convert too yet.

Sorry, DVD Idle Pro. This software allow decoding of both copy-protected DVDs and remove region locking from your computer DVD player. It also has some benefits for laptops such as pre-reading all the DVD to a HDD cache.

Ah, for region unlocking I use the Slysoft products.

After trying out many options I paid for winX dvd ripper .

Easy to use and does everything that I need

i have that one too. quite good.

I've not found a free one that does it all easily, mainly due to copy-protected DVDs. I have now got a 2-stage process which really gives good quality, low file size files.

Stage 1: Rip the Copy-protected DVD to hard drive (removing copy-protection) using MakeMKV. This makes a full-size copy of the title(s) of the disc. When ripping TV series then there's more than one title.

Stage 2: Use Handbrake to convert the file from full size to compressed file with options on how to do it (I use H.264 with a Constant Quality RF20 with aac audio at 160kbs). You have the choice of m4a or mkv file outputs, VLC works on both PC and Android so happy indeed.

How about VOB => avi? I don't have the DVD any more

Pretty sure handbrake can handle a Vob. Handbrake doesn't convert to avi anymore though.

Handbrake did it, thanks. To mkv - AVC will take it from mkv to avi.