I’ve just bought my birthday present…a month early, but who’s arguing 
It’s an Archos AV320 multimedia player. See http://www.archos.com/products/av300_series.html if you’d like to see what it is.
To make full use of it I’d like to rip my DVDs (yes I own them) into DivX AVI format (640*368) to play on it. There seem to be loads of things around that claim to be DVD rippers.
Some are DVD to DVD copiers. Some are DVD to SVCD copiers. Some are DVD to CD-R copiers. Some create video file formats that nothing else seems to use.
Some are for trained monkeys, i.e. ‘Press this button and wait 5 hours’, but don’t offer facilities for re-sizing the video, choosing the output codec, etc.
Some are for digital video wizards, i.e. ‘Fill in these 10 screens of highly technical info, then press this sequence of 25 buttons in the correct order and finally wait 5 hours’. I’m sure these are incredibly flexible, but life is too short!
Can anyone recommend something in the middle, i.e. a bit of flexibility but relatively simple to drive. Preferably freeware, but I don’t mind paying a reasonable amount for something that works well.
Chris,
DVD decryptor, it’s the best you can get, and it is free. You can find some good instructions at http://forums.shareconnector.com/viewtopic.php?t=8035 , you can get DVD decryptor from http://www.dvddecrypter.com/
(yes I own them)
what, you don't want to get into that discussion?? :lol: :lol:
DVD decryptor, it's the best you can get, and it is free.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I've already tried this. I've lost track of what I have/haven't tested in the last 24 hours, so I could be wrong!
Unfortunately it only does half the job. It rips the data off the DVD, but only to VOB files on the PC hard disk. You then need something else (Auto GordianKnot in the forum example) to re-encode them into DivX format to play them on the AV320. AutoGK is OK, but as the ripping is a slow process (4-5 hours per DVD), I don’t really want a two stage process where I have to be at the PC to start stage 2 when stage 1 is complete. I just want to kick it off when I go to bed so that it can chug away overnight.
1Click DVD Ripper http://www.1clickdvdripper.com seems the best of the bunch so far. It’s got just enough options and takes the DVD data straight through to an AVI file encoded using the DivX/LAME codecs which the AV320 needs. I can feel a shareware payment coming up 
what, you don't want to get into that discussion??
Not really. Morally and ethically I’m happy with what I’m doing. I’m a law abiding citizen who only occasionally breaks the speed limit by 1 mph (apparently a hanging offence in North Wales). I’m not depriving anyone or any company of any revenue by what I’m doing.
When the multimedia companies have caught every last video pirate in the world then I’ll be happy for them to come to discuss what I’ve been doing. If they want to explain how what I’m doing is illegal then I’ll listen to see if their arguments are morally or ethically sound.
Have a look at DVD to VCD SVCD AVI Converter (I have version 2.05) It does single pass all the way to AVI or VCD etc.
http://www.dvd-converter.net
I think its shareware - but most of the better stuff is.