DVD Ripping: The Right Way

@hacker

Published in 

2600 Salt Lake City

 · 5 years ago

 

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                         -= DVD Ripping: The Right Way =- 

                                   -= By A =- 
                              -= a@clan-zzq.org =- 
                            
                           -= http://www.2600slc.org =- 
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I don't claim much of this as my own work. I learned most everything I know 
through the wonderful site http://www.doom9.org. I fear for the day that it is 
taken down. 

DVD ripping can be broken down into 5 steps. 

 

1. - Ripping 

In this step we rip, or copy, the movie data from the dvd medium to a hard disc. 
It is a little more complicated then just click and drag. Thanks to our 
friend/enemey encryption, this would not yeild a usuable product. The best 
program to do this is SmartRipper by Tron. ( All of this software can be 
downloaded from: http://www.doom9.org ) It is farly strait forward program. 

When it first loads up it will verify the dvd and unlock it. It will then 
automaticaly make its best guess at what title and track the movie is in. It 
usualy works. Check and make sure the length of the track it is recomending is 
the same time length. If it isn't scroll though the list and find one that 
does. 

The final step is to select where you want it to dump the files and click start. 
This step takes about 5-10 min on your average pc. Mostly dependent on the 
speed of your dvd rom and your hard drive. 

When done, close SmartRipper. 

 

2. - dvd2avi 

dvd2avi, along with virtualdub, are the programs that do most of the real work 
with the re-encoding. dvd2avi is writen by Loli.J. 

Load up dvd2avi and click file|open. This will bring up the standard file open 
dialog. Select the .vob files that you just ripped with smartripper. dvd2avi 
will auto select any other .vobs in the same numerical sequence, but it doesn't 
always get all of them, compare lists and double check. Click ok. 

With the exception of Anime and TV shows, almost everything is recorded to film 
at 23.976 fps. To get this to play on standard NTSC TVs, the framereate is uped 
to 29.97 through a process of Telecine or 3:2 Pulldown. This is not usefull for 
us, as the extra frames are just interpolated data from the original 23.976 
fps. So when you encode the video at say 650 kbit/second 20% or so of that will 
be wasted on those generated frames. 

Since most of the movies out there are encoded at 23.976, I won't get into the 
process of converting a movie from 29.97 to 23.976. This is a process called 
Inverse Telecine or IVTC, and it is a total pain. If you need help with this 
check out the following two websites: 

http://www.doom9.org/mpg/tmpg-ivtc.htm <-- how to do it 

http://www.inwards.com/~dbb/interlace_myths.html  <-- why you should do it 

OK back to the howto. We need to check and see what kind of framerate we are 
looking at for this movie. Cross your fingers and hope it is 23.976. In 
DVD2AVI, after you have opened the .vobs, click Options|Preview. This will play 
back the movie and will have an info window on the side. What we are interested 
in is the fields _Frame Rate_ and _Video Type_. As long as the Video type is 
over 95% or so FILM type you don't need to do IVTC. 

To set up dvd2avi, Under Video|iDCT, check to make sure that 64-bit Floating 
Point is selected. Video|Field Operation, make sure that Forced Film is 
selected IF the preview showed 29.97 fps AND FILM at 95% or higher. 

In order to be able to process the audio seperatly, like we want to, make sure 
that Audio|Dolby Digital is set to Demux. Almost always the audio channel we 
want is Track one, but check with your software dvdplayer or SmartRip to make 
sure. Check the audio track you want under Audio|Track Number. 

Now to create the .d2v project file. Resist the habit of clicking save .avi, 
instead, click File|Save Project. This will bring up a standard save file 
dialoge. Put in a filename and click save. This step will take about 5-15 min 
after setup. 

When done, close dvd2avi, but don't delete any files until you are totaly done 
with the entire process. 

 

3. Audio 

For audio, we are going to use BeSweet and a couple related programs. BeSweet is 
by DSPguru, BeSweetGUI is by DD, and I am not sure who azid.dll and ssrc.dll 
are by, but lame_enc.dll is by alot of people. 

Unzip/rar besweet and besweetgui into the same directory and run besweetgui. The 
first time you run besweet, you will need to tell it where besweet.exe is, do 
so, but don't worry about the other files, most arn't needed as besweet can do 
most everything they can. 

Next click on Input. Select the .ac3 that dvd2avi created in the last step. Take 
note of the filename, as it will tell you how many channels the audio is and 
the delay.  

BeSweet has alot of options. About 9 pages worth. Just play arround with it and 
see what you can do. The default options are usualy good with a few exceptions. 
First on the Azid1 page, I usualy select stereo downmixing without surround 
channels, this will result in a smaller, more compatible file. Dynamic 
Compression should be checked and set to normal. Back on the BeSweet page, 
check to make sure that Use AC3 Decoder and Compress Dynamic Range are checked, 
and that the output is set to Wave-Stereo. If everything looks good, click on 
the AC3 to Wav button on the right side of the window. This will bring up a dos 
box and run BeSweet with all of the options you just set. The time this step 
takes is hevely dependent on the audio you are converting. I usualy expect half 
to two hours. 

When BeSweet is finished, the dos box will close and you will now have a .wav 
file primed for divx use. Close BeSweetGUI. 

 

4. VFAPI 

VFAPI is a codec and program that acts as a bridge between dvd2avi and 
Virtualdub. The first time, you need to install the codec, this is in the 
\codec sub directory. To install, run vifpset.bat. 

Next run VFAPIConv-EN.exe in the \Reader directory. Very simple UI, but that is 
ok. Click on the Add Job button, select YOUR .d2v file (smartripper makes one, 
but it isn't the one we want to use). Now click ok, then Convert. You will see 
some odd characters that look like a scroll bar and a %. When the program is 
done changing those chars, it is done. This only takes seconds. Click exit. 

Now we need to verify our progress to this point. Open up the directory you have 
been working in this whole time (I use C:\VIDEO_TS, doesn't matter though). 
There should be an file that looks like xxxxx_d2v-vfapi.avi or whatever name 
you supplied VFAPI for output. Open this in your favorite media player, mine is 
mplayer2.exe. It will take a little longer to load then a normal avi, as it has 
to do alot of seemless conversion from the .vob files to your video 
framebuffer. You SHOULD see a slow slideshow of the video and no audio. If you 
don't you probibly don't have the VFAPI codec installed, check above. 

Now that we have a source .avi and .wav, we are ready for the final step. 

 

5. Encoding 

Load up the best open source video editing program out there, VirtualDub writen 
by Avery Lee. File|Open the .avi file that VFAPI made for us. Next, click 
Audio|Full Processing Mode, then Audio|Wav Audio.... This will bring up an open 
file window, select the .wav that we made with BeSweet a few steps back. Now we 
need to set the delay, this should be in the filename of the .ac3 file that 
dvd2avi made for us and that we used to make the .wav. Click Audio|Interleaving 
and enter this value in the Delay audio track by field. This is often a 
negitive value, and so don't forget the -. Everything else is fine by default 
in this window, so click OK.  

Uncompressed .wavs are fairly large, so we should compress the audio. We could 
have done this back in BeSweet, but I prefer to do it at the same time as the 
video compression as it helps with some lenth/sync problems. 
Audio|Compression... is where we want to select MPEG Layer-3 audio at, usualy, 
128kBit/s. If it is a music ritch movie, or just a movie with hard-to-compress 
sound, you might want to go at a higher bitrate, but just remeber what you 
decide to go with as we need to know to calculate the video compression rate we 
want to use. Close the Select audio compression window. 

Along with making sure we use 23.976fps, we can also improve video quality by 
resizing the video data from 740xhight to 640xhight. It depends on the aspect 
ratio the movie was filmed in, but 640x272 is what I use for 16:9/1:235 movies. 
Others you might want to try are 640x352 for 1:1.85 and 640x480 for 1:1.33 
ratio flicks. 

To resize go to Video|Filters and click Add..., this will bring up a list of 
avalible filters. The one we want is oddly enough named resize, so click on it 
and hit ok. This will bring up it configuration box. This is where you set the 
output resolution you want. Enter it in and MAKE SURE the Filter mode option 
right below it is set to BiCubic. If you leave it at the default you will loose 
alot of quality, not what we want. 

Now we need to get rid of those annoying, and ratio altering, letterbox boarders 
on the top and bottom. To do this, click on the Crop button on the filters 
dialoge. This will bring up a preview, move the slider on the bottom to the 
left and right until you find a bright frame. We will use this to judge how 
much to snip off of the top and bottom, change the top and bottom values until 
you have little to no black boarders left. I find 50-60 is the most common 
value for 16:9 movies. Click ok twice to get back to the main VirtualDub 
window. Now move the slider around and make sure that the aspect ratio looks 
right. The imput field on the left by default is not always the best referecne 
to go by, as it isn't the most accurate. Make sure that the heads are more or 
less round and that is just looks right. If it isn't go back into the resize 
filter options and play arround a bit in there. 

Almost done with the setup here, just a few more steps. 

Most people will want to fit there DVD backups onto 1 or 2 cds. To do this, we 
need to find out what bitrate values to use. For this purpose DivX4 Bitrate 
Calculator was coded by Spark. 

It is very strait forward. Put in the lenth of the movie (remember that an hour 
is 60 min not 100), how big you want your file to be in the end, and the type 
of audio you are using. In big bold numbers it will tell you what bitrate to 
use on the right. I find this is usualy very accurate, but go a little lower if 
you realy need to stick under a certin size. 

One of the best improvments of Divx4 over Divx3.11 is the 2pass vbr addition. I 
would highly recomend you use this to your advantage, as it will leave alot 
more room for the high-bitrate scenes in your movie. That and it only takes two 
extra steps to do it. I am going to finish this guide assuming you want to, 
becuase other then time, I see no reason not to. 

Back in VirtualDub, Click Video|Compression... and select DivX Codec 4.12 or the 
latest version and then click Configure. Now select 2-Pass, first pass, put in 
the bitrate you calculated a minute ago, and tell it where to keep its log 
file. It uses this file to keep track of the amount of bits to use on diffrent 
parts of the movie. This file can be up to 50 megs, but if you are ripping a 
dvd this way, that won't be a concern. Click ok twice to get back to the main 
VDub screen. 

Click File|Save as AVI... and find a good home for your new avi. It is very 
important that you check the _Add operation to job list and defer processing_ 
box, and then click save. You have just queued up the first pass of our 2 pass 
operation. 

Now go back into the divx codec configure screen by clicking 
Video|Compression...|Configure. The ONLY thing you want to change is the very 
top drop down box from 2-pass, first pass to 2-pass, second pass. LEAVE 
EVERYTHING ELSE THE EXACT SAME. click ok twice. Once again click on File|Save 
as AVI... it should have the same filename entered by default, that is good. 
DONT FORGET TO CHECK _Add operation to job list and defer processing_. 

You now just have three things left to do, Click File|Job control...|start, wait 
for 8-10 HOURS for vdub to work its magic, and enjoy your new backup. 

 
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Once again this is highly based off of http://www.doom9.org/divx4-main.htm 
Visit the zZq Website at http://www.clan-zzq.org 
All programs mentioned in this guide are available from doom9.org 

[cya] 

The author of this guide takes no responsibility for the actions taken by anyone 
other then himself. Practice safe sex. All trademarks mentioned are the 
property of there owners. Steeling Moviez is bad. Using some programs mentioned 
in this guide could be considered illegal in some jurisdictions. Breathing can 
be hazordus to your health. Only use this guide in places that it is legal to 
run any program you want, and you still have fair-use rights. If you enjoy a 
movie, support the artists that made it, even if most of the money goes to 
people that don't deserve it. Eat some pudding. 

Fell free to spred this document arround, but please keep it intact and give me credit. 
[/cya] 

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