A Guide to DVD Ripping

Here is the list of programs you will need and ones we will be using in this guide. Have them all downloaded and installed before continuing.

1. Microsoft .NET Framework -- This can be downloaded in your regular Windows Update. In Internet Explorer, go to your Tools menu and click Windows Update. If it is listed, get it. If not, check your Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel to see if it is already installed.

2. CladDVD .NET -- This is the actual DVD ripping program. Click here to download it. Get the latest version listed.

3. (A Bitrate Calculator) -- The one I've been using, I cannot find online anymore, but I did find a simple, easy to use one here.

4. VFAPI Reader -- This is a small program that does a quick conversion for us. It can be downloaded here.

5. DivX Codec -- This is the codec that we will be encoding our movie in. Click here to download it. Get the free version.

6. VirtualDub -- This is the encoding program. It can be found here. Get the most recent, stable version.

You will also need a decent computer to do this one. I'd say anything that's 500MHz or faster. You will also need a DVD-ROM installed in it as well. I'd recommend having at least 256MB of RAM or more, the more you have the faster it will take. 

1. Insert DVD into DVD-ROM.

2. Start the CladDVD .NET program. Click Options button.

3. Click the "walking floppy disk guy" to change the destination folder. Make a new folder to hold the data from the DVD. Make sure you have enough room on your hard drive for this, the rip is usually at least 4GB if not more.

4. Click Return button, and click Start RIP button. (This part takes about 20 minutes.)

5. When finished close the program and remove the DVD from the DVD-ROM. Look on the back of the DVD case, and make note of how long the movie is.

1. Start the VFAPI Reader. (It's icon is a red ball.)

2. Click the Add File button.

3. Navigate to the folder where you set as the destination folder in part one. Select the .d2v file and click OK.

4. Click Convert button. (This part takes about 5 seconds.)

5. Close the program.
You should now have a file named something like "VTS_01-PGC01_d2v-vfapi.avi" in your destination folder. This is a "fake .avi" file. We will be using it in the third and final process.

Configuring bitrate
Take the number you have for how long the movie is, and we will use this to find the bitrate we need. (The bitrate is the 'quality' of the video. We must find the right amount of bitrate to use for the video to fit on a single CD-R. The longer the movie, the smaller the bitrate and the shorter the movie, the larger the bitrate. Normally, any movies under 2 hours in length will look great on a single CD-R. Movies that are 2 1/2 hours or longer will not look so great, you may want to divide these onto 2 CD-R's.)

1. Open the bitrate calculator. For Video Length, enter the time of the movie, in minutes. For Audio Bitrate, enter 128. Under that, make sure it is set to ONE stream and the Target File Size is 700 MBs.

2. After that information is entered, take note of the Final Bitrate kBits/sec number. We will need this information later.

3. Close program.

Encoding video
1. Open VirtualDub. Then click File, Open video file, and load the "fake .avi" we just made in the previous part. (The video file will now be loaded into VirtualDub.)

2. Click the Audio menu...
--WAV Audio..., load the .wav file that was created in the destination folder.
--Full processing mode, set it to this option.
--Interleaving..., where it says 'Interleave audio every 1 frame' change it from 1 frame to 500 ms. Click OK.
--Compression..., choose MPEG Layer-3, select 128kbits/s, 48,000 Hz, Stereo. Click OK.
--Volume..., slide to max.

3. Click the Video menu...
--Full processing mode, set it to this option.
--Filters..., Add..., "deinterlace", click OK 2 times.
--Compression..., select DivX 5 codec, click configure, select one-pass and change the bitrate to the number calculated previously. Click OK and get back to VirtualDub.

4. Now all the options are set. Click File, Save as AVI, and select a destination and name the new file and click OK. (This is the process that can take three hours or more.)

5. When complete, you will now have a .avi video file that should be approximately 700MB in size and you can now burn it to a CD-R. Close program when it's completed.