Ripping DVDs
Introduction
Our Video Conversion page explains how to convert existing video files from common formats (e.g., AVI, MPG, MP4, ASF, VOB) to a playable format for the Zune. This is great if you already have such video files, but what if all you have is DVDs? The term ripping in the case of DVDs refers to extracting the video movie data from the DVD and copying it to your Desktop PC hard drive. DVDs actually contain a lot of different data (i.e., menu system, subtitles, foreign languages, etc) along with the actual movie video data. The video data is usually stored in .VOB files on the DVDs, and they are often broken up into multiple files. The trick, is to rip all the desired VOB files from the DVD and save them in a single VOB file on your PC’s hard drive.
Most people use either DVD Decrypter or DVDShrink which will do all of this for you. Both are freeware applications that can be downloaded from the Internet. Below are examples of how to use both programs.
Using DVD Decrypter
Below is an example explaining the steps to ripping a movie from a DVD to a VOB file on your Desktop PC.
Step 1 - Insert your DVD in the DVD-ROM reader on your PC.
Step 2 - Start up the DVD Decrypter application on your PC.
It should recognize the DVD-ROM drive on your system, and show you a window similar to the one below:
In this interface, you want to defined the output folder for the ripped VOB file, and also select the desired movie you want to rip. This may be the tricky part, as you may have multiple options to choose from. For the most part, the true movie data is the longest playing item so what you need to select is somewhat obvious. In my example case, the DVD contained three 44 minute episodes and I’m ripping the first episode.
Step 3 - Configuring a few settings
Next, select Tools -> Settings… from the main application menu to display the dialog window as shown below:
Here, you want to select the IFO Mode tab and set the File Splitting to “None” (this will force DVD Decrypter to create a single VOB file). We’re doing this because most video converters want a single video file to process. Once you’ve made this change click the OK button to save it. (Note, you only need to do this the first time you use DVD Decrypter, as it saves this setting).
Step 4 - Process the file
You should be back to the original application window as shown below. Click the Stream Processing tab, then check the “Enable Stream Processing” option. Proceed to uncheck all the items in the list except for the top two as shown.
Finally, click the green arrow button as shown to start the ripping process. DVD Decrypter is actually pretty fast, so it shouldn’t take too long before it completes and creates a single VOB file on your hard drive that represents the selected movie.
Using DVDShrink
Below is an example explaining the steps to ripping a movie from a DVD to a VOB file on your Desktop PC.
Step 1 - Insert your DVD in the DVD-ROM reader on your PC.
Step 2 - Start up the DVDShrink application on your PC.
Click the “Open Disc” button (shown below) and select the DVD-ROM from the dropdown list. Once you do that, DVDShrink will scan through the entire DVD mapping it’s contents.
Step 3 - The Re-author Screen
Next, click the “Re-Author” button and you should see the screen below. Here is where you need to select which video tracks you want rip to your PC hard drive. In this example, the DVD contains five 44 minute TV shows which are distinctly obvious. I just want to convert the first show, so I drag the first title under “Main Movie” over to the “DVD Structure” window. If I was converting a 2 hour movie, you may need to drag over multiple Titles to the DVD Structure window. If you’re unsure what video segment is contained in the title, you can always click the play button in the preview window to examine the title segment.
Step 4 - Ripping Settings
Next, click the “Compression Settings” tab and change the Video to “No Compression”. Then, uncheck all the unnecessary audio channels as shown below. Finally click the “Backup!” button.
Step 5 - Preferences settings
To have DVDShrink rip all the defined video tracks to a single VOB file, you need to select Edit->Preferences… from the menu bar and uncheck the item “Split VOB files” in the control window as shown below (note, you only need to do this once, the first time you use DVDShrink).
Step 6 - Output file settings
In this window, select the target to be your Hard disk Folder, and then select the folder where you want the output files to be created. Also, uncheck the “Create VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS subfolders”, as you won’t need them.
Now you can click the “OK” button to start the ripping. On my Dual 2 Core Intel PC system it took DVDShrink 4 minutes to do the ripping process. Once completed, you should have a single VOB file on your hard drive that represents the selected movie.
Final Comments
Note, that DVD Decrypter is no longer being developed so you might come across a DVD that it can’t process. In that case, try using the DVDShrink product. Finally, if neither of those tools can extract the video data from your DVD, try using DVDFab HD Decrypter (freeware version).
Once you have your single VOB file, you can then follow the Video Conversion page guide to process that into a WMV file for the Zune.
Now, if all of this seems to be a giant hassle, you can always purchase a DVD-to-WMV Converter which will simplify the process. Just do a Google search on “zune dvd converter wmv” to see what pops up.
Side Note: A VOB file is simply an MPEG movie file, so you can always change the VOB extension to MPG and the file should play using Windows Media Player.
Disclaimer
I do not condone or promote illegally copying movie DVDs for selling or distribution. Ethically, I believe that if you purchase a DVD you have the right through the “fair use” provision to make a back up copy of that DVD and to have a ripped version on your portable media player device so long as you use it for personal use and don’t share it with others. This may not be true following the letter of the law, but it may be valid if you go by the intent or spirit of the law (note, that such laws vary from country to country). If you’re unsure on the legality of this, please do your own research and make your own decision on the matter.
Chris Smith said,
January 13, 2008 at 7:36 am
Thank you for explaining this for someone ‘unteckie’ like me!
zunetips said,
January 13, 2008 at 8:32 am
Chris,
I’m glad you found it useful. There’s lots of switches and settings you can make, so I wanted to explain simply what was the minimum changes necessary to successfully rip off the video data for conversion.
Aaron said,
January 22, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Ive been using dvdshrink to rip my dvds but Im running into a problem. When I copy tv shows the episodes get all scrambled up. For example, the first episode on the dvd, the first one of the season, episode 1 comes out as VTS_05_1, episode 2 comes out as VTS_02_1 and so on. Im just wondering if DVD decryptor does a better job of keeping the episodes sorted from beginning to end or some setting im missing. thanks
zunetips said,
January 22, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I don’t think the name of the VOB file that get’s created using DVDShrink would affect the TV Show sort order on your Zune. It’s what you put in the meta data tags and the creation date of the video file that governs the sort order.
If TigoTago doesn’t seem to work, you can try using dSHARPIE and see if it’s technique for TV episode sorting works better.
Aaron said,
January 22, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Im sorry if I phrased that wrong but I know that doesnt effect anything on the Zune. I was just wondering if DVD decryptor outputs the .vob’s in order of appearence on the dvd. That way I can easily tag them with their correct names instead of having to preview the clip to assign the correct episode name.
zunetips said,
January 22, 2008 at 10:51 pm
I don’t think the episodes would necessarily be in the order that the VOB files are on the DVD.
Dave M said,
January 28, 2008 at 8:26 am
Yeah, so I’m one of those guys that got hooked into the “iZune” offer to convert DVD’s to my Zune, and I’m having a brutal go of it. The jist is: my converter software is not recognizing the *.IFO files that are copied into my C:\ OutPut Converter folder. Not sure how to get around this, but for someone less technically inclined, this can take hours and hours to solve. My emails to technical support come back with an automatic copy of the online instructions I’m trying to follow (yeah, SO helpful!)
HELP!
zunetips said,
January 28, 2008 at 9:32 am
A lot of the DVD-to-MP4 file video converters are repackaged iPod converters, so you are relying on their ability to defeat the encryption protection on a DVD and decode the encoded video format for conversion. So, these program will have their own video codec to do the decoding. If you’ve downloaded and installed several different trialware versions of the various video converters, you might have a situation where you have too many codecs installed that are conflicting with one another.
If you follow my instructions, you should be able to convert your DVD movies to WMV format for your Zune. It’s a two step process (ripping the files from the DVD and then converting them to WMV), so you are relying on the DVD ripper software you choose to get around the protection scheme. That is why I have three rippers listed so you can try them all to see if one of them will do the job.
Note, that with my process you only need to work with the VOB file, not the IFO or other files.
Miranda said,
January 30, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I have tried multiple times to Rip a DVD (Live Free or Die Hard) to my zune. The ripping process works just fine (I used your step by step instructions above), I have tried it with both DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter. Then I use encode360 to convert the DVD file to wmv, but everytime I do it, it will only convert half of the movie. I am going to try it with Windows Media Encoder, but I think I will still have the same problem. Any suggestions?
zunetips said,
January 31, 2008 at 3:46 pm
After you rip the movie file to a single VOB file on your PC, can you rename the VOB to MPG and try to play it using Windows Media Player on your PC? If it plays from start to finish ok, then you know the VOB file is good.
Dan said,
February 11, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I tried using DVD Decrypter but at the end it says i didnt have enough hard disk space to finish, and i have 400 gigs free on the external im sending it to, any idea whats going on, its a 4-5 gig dvd
zunetips said,
February 11, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Dan: how much free disk space do you have on your main drive? It may be that DVD Decrypter is writing temp files to a folder on your main drive and you are running out of space. Also, it might be that you are running out of RAM memory (just a guess).
I suggest you try using a different DVD ripper program (such as DVDFab HD) and see if that works.
Victor said,
February 11, 2008 at 9:36 pm
man, i followed your instructions, and now the batch enconder WM9 doesn’t add the VOB resulting file? what can i do?
how do i decrypt the episodes contained in a dvd of a full season of a tv series, so that i can use the batch encoder to convert all of them?
zunetips said,
February 12, 2008 at 6:27 am
Victor: The BatchEncoder doesn’t have a filter for the VOB files (in the open file dialog box), but you can specify the program to select the VOB files. A VOB file is the same as a MPG file, so it will work.
Most DVDs that contain TV shows have each episode separated out into separate titles on the DVD, so you should be able to rip each title individually to your PC. Then, use BatchEncoder to convert all of the separate VOB files into separate WMV video files. The BatchEncoder will batch or queue up all the videos and process them one at a time.
Michael said,
February 21, 2008 at 9:36 am
I ripped a movie, and then switched the file extension to .mpg, but WMP says that it can’t play the file, that I don’t have a proper codec or something. I downloaded the codec package off of microsoft.com. What am I doing wrong?
zunetips said,
February 21, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Michael: I suggest you use the GSpot program to identify what video codec was used for that ripped video file. It should show MPEG2 for the video codec, and you’ll need to have that particular codec installed to view the file on your system.
Also, what program did you use to rip the DVD video?
Crystal said,
February 21, 2008 at 3:47 pm
So, how do I make sure I have english subs? I’m not sure what to drag over. Thanks for the help.
zunetips said,
February 21, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Crystal: Sorry, but I’m not sure how to deal with subtitles. I guess you’ll have to experiment a bit.
Marc said,
February 27, 2008 at 5:48 pm
i did all this and it worked fine until i start the whole video conversion. the encoder cant find the file when i’m at the folder it is in, its like invisible when i am in the encoder
zunetips said,
February 27, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Marc: Ok, I think I know what’s going on. The WME Batch Encoder application doesn’t have a filter for the file selection dialog box for VOB files (which you created when you ripped from the DVD). Set the file type to ‘All Files *.*’ and you should see the VOB file available for selection.
Marc said,
February 28, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Sorry, but how do i do that? I can’t seem to find the file type
zunetips said,
February 28, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Marc: Do the following:
1) Start up Windows Batch Encoder
2) Click the “Add” button
3) In the popup File picker dialog box, set the dropdown list (at the bottom of the dialog) marked “Files of Type:” to “All Files (*.*).
Marc said,
February 28, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Thank you!
Now, when I ripped it, it turned into 5 files, is that normal? I am doing the video conversion right now and i just added all of them to the list hoping they turn into 1 movie.
VIDEO_TS VIDEO_TS.BUP VIDEO_TS.IFO VTS_01_0.IFO VTS_01_4
^Those are the files and the last one has the most space taken (1,048,574 KB) if that helps.
Other than that, I’m good and thankyou.
zunetips said,
February 28, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Marc: Following my directions on this web page, you should have a single VOB file ripped to your PC. This is the only file that Windows Media Batch Encoder needs to convert it to a WMV file. All the other files you don’t need.
Marc said,
February 28, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hmm thats odd. Because i did every single thing that you said
zunetips said,
February 28, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Are you saying you don’t have a VOB file?
Marc said,
February 28, 2008 at 4:56 pm
i have two of them
video_ts its about 38,000 KB
and VTS_01_4 its about 1,000,600KB
zunetips said,
February 28, 2008 at 7:01 pm
So you have a file called video_ts.VOB and a file called VTS_01_4.VOB? They both have a VOB extension in the file name?
If so, what happens when you try to use Windows Batch Encoder to process the VTS_01_4.VOB file?
Marc said,
February 29, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I tried that and for some reason it switches to the video_ts.VOB file.
zunetips said,
February 29, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Marc: I’m not sure what you mean when you say it “switches to the video_ts.VOB file”. You should be able to click the “Add” button in the Batch Encoder, select the VST_01_4.VOB file, and then click the “Add” button near the bottom of the form to add it to the batch list.
david said,
March 1, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Dear Sir,
I have followed your ripping and converting instructions precisely.
Upon clicking the start button of the batch encoder, I get hundreds of the same pop-up
“System.OverflowException: Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow. at BatchEncode.Form_BatchEncode.sReportPercentComplete( )”
GSpot identifies the codec of the .VOB to be “MPEG2″ and the status is “installed.”
(Not sure if this provides any useful info: When I rename the .VOB extension to .WMV, I am able to play the video file using Windows Media Player, but there is no real control of the video by using the “seek” slider bar and I have to click through many warnings: As soon as I play the video (double click the newly extended .WMV), I get a warning message ” … extension that does not match the file format. … may result in unexpected behavior. Do you want to try to play the vdeo” I click “yes” and get the message “failed to register CLSID_Java5channels!” Then I click “OK” and get multiple little popups that say “hr != S_OK” and click “OK six times, upon which the video plays behind another round of six of the same warnings. It is at this points that the video plays from the beginning and I can click along the seek slider row in order to jump around the video, but the slider itself moves to the extreme right upon the beginning of playing, and wherever I click along the slider row, the slider jumps theres, but again moves to the far right.)
I notice that the file path for the .prx in your screenshot is C:\WME\App\Zune_profile.prx
I have no WME directory in C: I have C:\WMSDK into which I downloaded your .prx
Thanks for all your work. I appreciate you helping out so much and look forward to getting this figured out. We have a family trip soon and I’d like the kids to have some videos to watch on their dad’s new Zune.
Peace!
zunetips said,
March 1, 2008 at 2:59 pm
David: First, the VOB file is actually in MPEG2 format, so you can rename the extension to MPG and it should play without warnings (so long as you have an MPEG2 codec installed on your system). Renaming the extension to WMV isn’t advisable since the file isn’t in WMV format.
To use the Windows Media Batch Encoder SDK, you also need to install the Windows Media Encoder 9 software. If you do that, you should have the C:\WME folder on your system. Maybe that’s why your VOB files aren’t converting and you’re getting all those errors (I believe this is the case).
Note that in some cases, the DVD ripper software can’t get around the DVD’s protection scheme. That could cause issues with converting.
david said,
March 3, 2008 at 11:54 am
Dear Sir,
when I install Windows Media Encoder 9, it goes here:
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder
Is this incorrect?
Thank you!
zunetips said,
March 3, 2008 at 7:31 pm
david: When I installed Windows Media Encoder 9 (on two different computers), it put the files in the C:\WME folder. I’m not sure why your installation puts it in a different folder. Are your downloading the installer for WME9 from the link I provided above?
david said,
March 4, 2008 at 3:06 am
Dear SIr,
Yes, I am installing the WME9 from the link you provided above.
Will the difference in location account for the problem I’m having?
Thank you
zunetips said,
March 4, 2008 at 7:28 am
In your start menu, do you see an entry such as:
“Windows Media Encoded -> Windows Media Encoder”
Where you can start up Windows Media Encoder (not the batch encoder interface)? This is the full program interface for the actual WME software. I suspect that you don’t have WME9 installed and that is why you’re getting these errors with the batch encoder.
Also, are you running the Vista OS?
david said,
March 4, 2008 at 9:21 am
Dear Sir,
I am running Windows XP Professional
In Start->Programs
there is:
Windows Media-> Utilities (a folder)
Windows Media Encoder (an application)
Windows Media SDK (a folder)
Since beginning this thread with you (thanks again, by the way), I have uninstalled and reinstalled both the WMEncoderSDK utility (an installation package of size 3364KB downloaded from the link you provide) and the WMEncoder utility (an installation package of size 9687KB also downloaded from the link you provide).
Thank you!
zunetips said,
March 4, 2008 at 11:15 am
David: The problem might be with the particular DVD you ripped to create the VOB file. It might have some protection scheme that the DVD ripper you used couldn’t decrypt. I suggest you try using DVD Fab Decrypter HD (the freeware version) and see if that works.
Also, you might try ripping a different DVD (maybe the oldest one you have) and see if you can use WME to process it.
david said,
March 5, 2008 at 7:40 am
Dear Sir,
I have now used DVD Fab. The first thing I notice is that it produces multiple .VOB files (splits) and I can’t find any setting to keep the number of files down to one large one.
Not knowing if the splits can still be used in the MWE9 conversion process (assuming I’d just wind up with multiple video files to put and watch on the Zune), I proceeded with the WME9 conversion procedure. The result is a video segment that can be viewed by both Windows Media Player and Zune, but the video is tinged green and the screen is split with one large panel occupying the upper 4/5ths of the screen and the remaining lower 1/5th is splits in half resulting in another two panel! All three “panels” display the identical green tinged video output.
I’m still not finished, but it seems I am one green-tinged and fractured step closer!
I have tried several different DVDs, yet intend to go sort through my collection and test the oldest, as you suggest. I wanted to provide the above result in case the additional information is of value.
Any ideas?
Thank you
zunetips said,
March 5, 2008 at 6:21 pm
david: To get a single VOB file, do you see a setting screen like the one I show in Step 3 for the “DVD Decrypter” software (above on this page)? There should be a setting to not split the VOB files when ripping from a DVD.
I’ve only converted a few DVDs to WMV format, and with that I didn’t have the issues you’re seeing. I can only imagine the problem is with conflicting video codecs that are installed on your PC. Can you try this conversion using a different PC or laptop machine? That would help diagnose if the problem is with conflicting codecs or with the ripped video source.
david said,
March 6, 2008 at 10:38 am
Dear Sir,
I think I have clicked every option within DVD Fab and find no option for preventing the split. There is clearly a menu option titled “split” and another titled “merge,” but neither is functional and provides notification that the only the purchased version provides these functions.
I cannot try this process on another machine. Unfortunately, I only have one with a DVD drive.
I have tried DVD Fab with several of my oldest DVDs, all with the same fractured green tinge result.
Is there a process to eliminate codecs?
Thank you!
zunetips said,
March 6, 2008 at 2:07 pm
david: You’re right, in the DVD Fab HD Decrypter doesn’t have a settings screen to specify saving to a single VOB file (for the freeware version). DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter (which I discuss on this page) do have the ability.
Did you try ripping using both of these DVD rippers (DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter)?
Also, eliminating codecs can be tricky, since you don’t want to cause problems playing back video files using other applications (like Windows Media Player). DVDs are usually in MPEG2 format, so you need a good MPEG2 video codec.
Most codecs are installed as a “pack” by the user or by a video application the user installs. To remove them, you usually go to “Remove Programs” on your system and remove the video codec pack, however, sometimes that’s not obvious.
You might try googling “remove video codec” and see what utilities may come up that can help. After that, you can try looking at the following sites for good video codecs to install:
http://www.free-codecs.com/
http://www.afreecodec.com/
david said,
March 8, 2008 at 6:43 am
Dear SIr,
I have tried ripping with both DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter, and now DVD Fab: all with the same result.
I have purchased CUCUSOFT DVD to Zune Converter package for $39. It works perfectly. I created a profile set using your recommendations (i.e. the specifications you list as those in your .prx on the “Video converstion” page linked at the top of this page). As you point out, using those conversion settings eliminates the lengthy additional background conversion time the Zune would otherwise go through when synching the video from the PC to the device.
Thanks for your help with all of this. I’m within a few days of vacation and needed to spend my time loading the Zune instead of trying to figure out how to do it for free.
peace!
zunetips said,
March 8, 2008 at 2:44 pm
david: Buying and using a commercial software package (like Cucusoft) for converting DVDs to Zune WMV or MP4 files is probably the easiest way to go. It will cost you $40 US, but it can be easier than the two-step freeware method. When considering such commercial packages, I suggest you test out the trial version to make sure the final video file is syncable with your Zune without transcoding.
Kilroy said,
March 10, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Dave, the link to DVDShrink is broken. It should be http://www.dvdshrink.org/what_en.php
Also, any preference for ripping/conversion between widescreen videos and standard aspect ratio DVDs? The reason I ask is because I ripped my first CD today (a widescreen film with DVDShrink) and when I tried to encode it I saw what appears to be a double mirror image on the bottom of the preview screen. I tried to crop it to no avail. When viewed with Windows Media Player it looks fine
I didn’t finish the encoding because I didn’t want to tie up my PC for that long on a wasted effort.
I plan on testing a standard format tomorrow unless you have a suggestion.
zunetips said,
March 10, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Kilroy: Thanks for that corrected link.
I’ve only converted video from two or three DVDs, and I’ve never tried widescreen video, so I can’t really offer any good advice. I suggest you do a google search for “windows media encoder widescreen conversion” and see what you can find.
Mfamuz1 said,
March 17, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Hey I got all the way to the batch thingy but I get the error message that I am missing one or more codecs….. Crazy thing is the dvd MPG (vob) will play on my laptop. My question is how do I fix the problem? Or is it a fixable problem?
So close!!!
Oh and for the record I did go and delete things in my computer I didn’t find anything of the such….
zunetips said,
March 17, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Mfamuz1: Use the program GSpot to identify the video codec use for the VOB file, and if it is missing, try downloading the codec pack called ffdshow and install the required codec (don’t install everything, just the missing codec you need). Then reboot your PC and see if it works.
Mfamuz1 said,
March 18, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Okay now do I need to download the Gspot program…… I’m not gonna even act like I know what the program is or does, as a matter of fact I’ve only heard of 1 type of Gspot =\ But I’ll try that where do I find it
zunetips said,
March 19, 2008 at 7:02 am
Mfamuz1: For info on the GSpot program, look here:
http://zunetips.wordpress.com/detemining-video-attributes/
Grim Reaper said,
March 21, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Dark Greeting to you all,
I Have a question to ask, I’m using Dvd Shrink 3.2 & My Computer is a Pentium 4CPU 2.40GHz with OS XP Pro, When using Dvd Shrink 3.2 is it the same directions as above or is something totally different??
Thank you for all your Help
cohoman said,
March 21, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Grim Reaper: The instructions I give on this page is for DVD Shrink 3.2 (which is what you’re using), so it should work for you.
Rob said,
April 4, 2008 at 8:01 am
hi, i have a .vob file…. but when i try and convert it, using the windows media batch encoder, it doesn’t recognise the .vob format?
zunetips said,
April 4, 2008 at 8:31 am
Rob: I think you’re saying that you can’t select the VOB file in Windows Media Batch Encoder from the selection dialog window, right? The pick filter on that dialog window doesn’t have the VOB extensions set, so you need to select “All Files *.*” in the pick filter to see the available VOB files on a folder. Then, you can select the desired VOB file.
Also, you can use your mouse to drag a selected VOB file from a File Explorer window over to the input area in Windows Batch Encoder and release it to select it.
Rob said,
April 4, 2008 at 1:24 pm
hi zunetips….. no, that’s not the issue.
i’ve selected the file, added it.
it’s when i hit start, it says “Error: Encoder Prepare - ClassFactory cannot supply requested class”
the .vob file plays grand in VLC player.
do you have any idea what’s going wrong here?
zunetips said,
April 4, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Rob: I suspect that the video codec being used is causing the problem, or the video data that you ripped has a protection scheme. I suggest you do a test, by trying to convert a different DVD.
Rob said,
April 5, 2008 at 5:28 am
will do zunetips, i’ll let you know how i get on…….
Rob said,
April 5, 2008 at 7:13 am
right, i just bit the bullet and bought cucusoft……….. it’s converting the dvd in real time!
is this normal? i’ll be here all week
zunetips said,
April 5, 2008 at 7:36 am
I’ve never used Cucusoft, so I can’t say how it will perform. Normally, I would guess a 1 hour video will take 1 hour to convert. Of course, this depends on if you’re doing 1 or 2-pass conversion, the speed of your DVD drive, the speed and amount of memory of your computer, etc.
Rob said,
April 6, 2008 at 6:50 am
it’s working faster now… was just alot slower converting it to wmv9…. changed it to mp4.
thanks for your help….
one other thing, i tried to register my zune (i bought it second hand off ebay, as you can’t buy em in ireland)
and it says the zune service is not available to my region!
i’m off on a world trip and will have all my media on it……. so i hope it’s up to the task, and doesn’t let me down
zunetips said,
April 6, 2008 at 7:13 am
Good luck with your world trip!
Rob said,
April 6, 2008 at 7:54 am
cheers, was thinking of keeping a blog…. you’re using wordpress i see…. i’m not familiar with it.
do you mind me asking, does this site run from their server?
zunetips said,
April 6, 2008 at 9:09 am
Rob: WordPress is an excellent software for blogging, and what’s nice is that it’s free! You can either use the WordPress software on your own web site (provided you have php and MySQL database options), or create a free web blog from the http://www.wordpress.com web site. My ZuneTips blog utilizes the free blogging option with WordPress.com, and it’s been working great so far. WordPress has hundreds of different themes to choose from, so you can make it a very unique looking site.
I suggest you go to wordpress.com and sign up for a free account to get your blog online at no cost. The interface for maintaining your blog is through a web browser (accessing your blog on the WordPress.com servers), so you can do all your work from any browser with an internet connection.
Good luck with your travels and blogging. Once you get something setup, send me your blog link and I’ll put it on the Zunetips blog.
Rob said,
April 7, 2008 at 2:12 am
thanks zunetips, will do, and will of course put link to your blog.
i’ve another question…. do you know how i delete files from my laptop, without deleting them from my zune… i just deleted 30gb of stuff.
my laptop only has 60gb hard drive, so i have to delete stuff for space.
basicly, i went into the zune software, and removed the folder, in monitored folders…..
zunetips said,
April 7, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Rob: I’m not positive what is the best way to remove files from your PC and not your Zune, as I haven’t had to deal with that issue. I suggest you do a search on http://www.zunescene.com as I found lots of postings on this topic. Here’s a few links for you to check out:
http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=36351.0
http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=2710.0
http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=3657.0
Tony said,
April 8, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I’m glad you posted this information it helped me get this going. The only thing I get stuck on is once I get the DVD of my choice ripped I cannot get it to sync into my Zune software. What is the next step from there. Please help me
zunetips said,
April 8, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Tony: After you rip the video data from the DVD to your PC (in VOB file format) you need to convert that VOB file to either WMV or MP4 format. The Zune 30 requires WMV format while the Zune 4/8/80 devices can accept WMV or MP4 format.
If you need to convert your DVD data, check out my video conversion page for details.
Dave R said,
April 9, 2008 at 3:24 am
zunetips,
I’m using DVD Decrypter and on the original application window as shown in your example there is not an Input or Stream Processing tab. Therefore I cannot check the “Enable Stream Processing” option or uncheck all the items in the list except for the top two as you’ve shown. Can you help? The version I downloaded from your link is (version 3.5.4.0).
zunetips said,
April 11, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Dave R. - That’s really strange, as I do show both of those tabs when I run version 3.5.4.0 on my system. Do you have a DVD-ROM drive on your computer? If not, then that may be the reason why you don’t see those tabs (and the ripper program would be useless).
Dave R said,
April 12, 2008 at 3:04 am
zunetips,
Yes, I have a dvd drive. however it is not just a dvd drive its a cd-rw/dvd drive.
For some testing I started using the program dvdfab. Its a one step process with a 30 day free trial download. It works ok but I would like to be able to batch encode overnight while I sleep. If possible, I would like to send you a file showing what my screen looks like. I am also going to try out the dvd shrink program and use the batch encode from your video conversion page.
Dave R said,
April 13, 2008 at 7:24 am
Zunetips,
Forget I even asked the question… It was just a matter of getting use to using the program and learing a few shortcuts. When you first install the program and start it up it is in “file mode”. That is easy to change, just goto the mode pulldown and change it to “IFO Mode” or simply push the “I” on the keypad.
William Ball said,
May 22, 2008 at 4:41 am
Dear Zunetips,
If I ripped separate clips from a DVD, but wanted to combine them into one single movie file, what process or program would I need? Thanks in advance.
zunetips said,
May 22, 2008 at 5:40 am
William: You can use a “Joiner” program that combines several VOB files into a single VOB file. I’ve used a program called VOBMerge which seemed to work well. Here’s the link to download that program.
Shona McD said,
June 24, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hello
I use dvd decrypter as it is easy to use however i am unsure how to use it to convert dvds that are fairly new and therefore are copy protected. I only convert dvds for use on my own ipod. I recently started using dvdfab because someone recommended it but it keeps only decrypting half a tv episode. Any help would be great. Thanks
zunetips said,
June 24, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Shona: DVD Decrypter HD is probably better to use than DVDShrink, since it is newer. There are utilities available that run in the background to decrypt protected DVDs. Just do a Google search and see what turns up.