Ripping of dvds

[CrafyZA]

Hi All,
Does any one know if it is possible to add some sort of compression while ripping dvds?
Im in the process of adding some of my most watched dvd's to lmce, but do not want them to take 7 or 8gb per movie. Is there a way I can rip them as avi? Any one know if there is a linux equivalent of divx converter that can be used. even if it has to be 2 processes. I can rip them as .dvd then just use an app to convert the .dvd file to .avi. At the moment, i ripped 3 movies, and im now copying them to my laptop. I will convert them from here, and then copy them back and delete the .dvd files. Surely there must be a better way...

[jeff_rigby]

ummmm...  They are already compressed using mpeg2.  Mpeg 4 could be used but that would require all of us to have faster machines (common denominator).  This might be possible as linuxmce evolves and we stop using 16 bit (i386) as the common denominator for the operating system that linux MCE runs under.

Right now 500 gig is $120 so that equates to about an average of about $1.50 for each DVD we copy to those drives.

Don't get me wrong as I feel the same way you do, I'm just trying to be realistic.  I've already experimented with compression and I don't like the shortcuts that have been used as they compromise the quality of the DVD.

[chewi]

LinuxMCE does not really rip a dvd, but copies it...
The major difference is, that the .dvd-Files are an image of the complete dvd, including the menu and all the movie-clips on the dvd. That way you do not only get 1 movie-file, but all the extras, all the subtitles, audio-tracks, ...

What you could do, is rip the dvd with compression, etc on another pc and copy it to the core. or take the .dvd-images, mount them loop-back (mount -o loop movie.dvd /mnt) and rip the movies from there...
If you are looking for a tool under linux to rip/convert movies from a dvd have a look at http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-vcd-dvd.html...

[CrafyZA]

Good heavens!
Get me a nice DBA job in the states and I move today!!!! :-D

To indicate:
http://www.pinnacle.co.za/hardware/products/?product=2422
This drive going for about R1300 - R1400
Which is about $200 and that is from a wholesaler, so i will have to buy a couple, or pay street price :-(
The 750GB drive is well over R2500