Rip DVDs for Playback on Your iPhone, PSP, Xbox 360, PS3, AppleTV, or Any H.264-Enabled Player
Posted 11/24/08 at 12:00:00 PM | by Will Smith
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It’s hard to believe in the iTunes era of blink-and-you-miss-them CD rips, but in the mid-90s, ripping a CD was a time-consuming process, fraught with peril. Ripping a single disc to 128kbps MP3 could take 8 hours on a 200MHz Pentium! Fast forward a decade, with faster hardware and better software and CD ripping is so mainstream your mom does it.
Ripping DVDs and transcoding the video stored within into more efficient formats involves an order of magnitude more scary math than ripping audio CDs. A machine that will rip the latest Miley Cyrus CD in moments could take hours to extract and convert your copy of AVP to an iPod-friendly format. However, with the right software, a quad-core equipped PC, and a little know-how, you can cut your disc rip time from hours to 20 or 30 minutes. There are still plenty of tricks and traps for first-time rippers, but we’ll show you the basics, then walk you through the secrets of ripping power users everywhere.
However, the first thing you need to decide is simple: what player are you ripping your discs for? Are you ripping for a portable player, like the PSP or iPhone? Would you rather stream to device in your living room, like the Xbox 360, PS3, or Popcorn Hour? Are you simply interested in making an archival-quality DVD rips, in case you lose your collection? More likely, you’re probably looking for a combination of all three of these things. We’ll show you how to rip your DVD to a file suitable for streaming that consumes a fraction of the disk space of a DVD but maintains full video and audio quality. Then you can take that file, and convert it for whatever other devices you might have, like a PSP or an iPod. For the purposes of this story, we're going to focus on DVD rips. Getting ahold of unencrypted high-defintion video legally is still pretty tricky. We'll update with Blu-ray ripping info as ripping Blu-ray gets easier.
With the preliminaries out of the way, let’s get started.
Determining Your Target Player
There are several different factors that determine the compatibility of your ripped video files. The resolution of the video, the video and audio codecs, the container format used, and even more esoteric things like the framerate can affect whether your video will work on your device of choice. If you just rip discs as you need the content and then delete files afterward, simply rip to the target of choice. However, if you want to build an archive of ripped movies, we recommend that you use open, widely-supported codecs and containers at the native resolution of the DVD, and then transcode the files as you need them to lower resolutions and bitrates. Naturally, we’ll show you how to do both.
Your player selection also impacts your choices when it comes to audio tracks and subtitle support. While the most common container formats, mp4 and mkv, support multiple track and subtitle streams in one file, few players will work with multiple audio tracks, and an even smaller subset will work with subtitles. That means you need to rip a single audio track—typically the main movie’s English soundtrack—and burn the subtitles into the video, rather than leave them as separate streams inside the container.
Bitrate is a little trickier. Most hardware players will handle whatever bitrate you select, especially if they're designed for high-definition playback. Both consoles and the AppleTV support high-definintion files, so they're more than capable of playing DVD-resolution video at whatever bitrate you choose. However, the higher a bitrate you choose, the larger the file will be. From our testing, we found the sweet spot for most movies to be around 2000kbps average, but we cranked it up to 2500kbps for movies with a lot of action. If your hardware supports high-profile H.264 (Xbox 360, PS3, and the Apple TV do, but many portable players don't), you can get away with a lower bitrate. With 1.5TB hard drives available for about $180 now, we'd rather rip at a too-high bitrate to ensure maximum quality video than save a few hundred MB of disk space.
We typically recommend ripping to the MP4 container, it’s widely supported on both streaming devices and portables. Furthermore, the tools for manipulating the streams within the file are established and easy to use, which makes it easy to transcode your video to a less supported format for a specific player.
A Word About Subtitles
Typically, DVDs include multiple subtitle streams that serve different purposes. Nearly every DVD has some English subtitles, even non-foreign language movies. It’s important that you understand the difference between subtitles and closed captions. Subtitles are simply the dialog from the movie written across the bottom of the screen. Closed captions include subtitles, but they also include audio cues that help people with impaired hearing enjoy the movie fully.
While closed captions are present on almost every disc, many English-language movies also use subtitles to show what a character speaking a foreign language is saying. On some discs, these subtitles will be hidden in a separate stream, while in others, they’ll be mixed in with the closed-captions, but marked so that the DVD player only shows the proper captions. Regardless, it’s crucial that you get the proper subtitles for all the films you rip. Otherwise, you’ll never know what Jabba or Greedo are saying in Star Wars, and watching a long expository scene in another language without the benefit of subtitles sucks.
In practice, the first English subtitle track is typically the one that includes subtitles and forced or otherwise, while the second subtitle track is the one that includes closed captions.
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AnyDVD by SlySoft to rip
Submitted by OvenFresh on Tue, 2009-01-06 17:00
I use AnyDVD by SlySoft to rip DVD's and the older DVDShrink to make em fit on single layer DVDR's. If the latest released DVD has an encryption that AnyDVD cant handle, they'll update it. DVDShrink still works for most older DVD's for ripping btw.
DVD Shrink
Submitted by gladitor04 on Wed, 2008-12-31 15:49
Free2dvd.com is the best
Submitted by Banjo_jo on Sat, 2008-12-27 12:22
Anyone using dvd decrypter & dvd shrink any more? They work for me.
Submitted by Mathewpb on Fri, 2008-12-26 09:44
What program are you using to rip the DVD's? I must have missed it or it wasnt mentioned.
Submitted by ejc1998 on Thu, 2008-12-18 22:56
These are great instructions, but I have 1 question. Why did they suggest the Apple Universal preset for the Iphone instead of the Iphone preset? Is one actually better than the other? Has anyone tried both and can give a recommedation?
Submitted by 408train on Sat, 2008-12-13 19:27
im pretty sure if you are reading this website, you know what greedo and jabba are saying...
Submitted by Morpheous416 on Fri, 2009-01-02 08:46
"Only now....at the end, do you understand."
Cheers to that!!
Blu-ray
Submitted by FenixSS on Fri, 2008-12-12 14:29
I read a few comments on the blu-ray burning, so there isn't a free program to allow us to back up our BD discs? I followed the directions for Handbrake and love it, but I'd like to back up my collection of BD discs, my niece has that Disney Collection on BD and is already taking crayons to them :(
I've read another review on Nero Ultra 8, but it's $100, would be $50 if I could find my old box of 7 Ultra, lost in a move. Any free products or can Handbrake do it as well?
Submitted by Shalbatana on Mon, 2008-12-08 20:11
I've been having fun with media coder for converting music from itunes (which I can't wait to use up my gift card and cancel, but that's another article). Anyone do some quality and versatility comparisions with it? It seems to have a TON of codecs, including some audio options super didn't have.
P.S. I figured out how to make super "join" VOB files and rip directly from DVD. Both it and DVDx have sync issues for me though over an hour show, regardless of codec. I'll try handbrake again. Nero is great, unfortunately I have 6 ultra, which only encodes video to nero's proprietary h264. It's beautiful, but I can't play it anywhere.
_______________________________
"There's no time like the future."
Submitted by iamlilysdad on Tue, 2008-12-02 20:06
DVD43 doesn't work on Vista 64bit. Any idea of another free program that will decrypt on the fly?
Submitted by rcolbeck on Mon, 2008-12-01 07:25
Wouldnt bababoom take care of that blu-ray to PSP for you?
By the way, I believe that MaximumPC is a strong believer of open source apps like Handbrake instead of 30 bucks for bababoom.
As for my previous post regarding DVR-MS and closed captioning. I am having some troubles with using open source apps such as cc extractor because it returned NO CAPTIONS while i know that it has captions on the DVR-MS but it worked on DVD.
I found this app, VideoReDo for 80 dollars which works well but you need to know how to enable this like on this forum http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=6470 it worked without a hitchand I am happy to back up DVR-MS format to DVDs for future enjoyment.
I am going to try to use cc extractor to rip CC from DVDs then send the DVD through Handbrake to MP4, then use quicktime pro to blend CC back into MP4 and you can play the video with CC option ON/OFF on IPOD, iPhone, quicktime, etc. Which is fablous in my option.
Perhaps MaximumPC have something easier and quicker?
Submitted by Gameaholic1337 on Mon, 2008-12-01 02:49
Badaboom
http://store.nvidia.com/DRHM/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayProductDetailsPage&SiteID=nvidia&Locale=en_US&Env=BASE&productID=107685300
I have a gtx 280 that it should work with.
How would I downconvert a blu-ray movie to play on my PSP?
Nothing commercial works for
Submitted by willsmith on Wed, 2008-12-03 16:32
Nothing commercial works for Blu-ray rips at the moment.
Additionally, Badaboom delivered sub-par image quality, per our tests compared to apps like Handbrake, X264, and Nero Recode.
Submitted by rcolbeck on Fri, 2008-11-28 14:16
You lucky geeks at MaximumPC get to play with alot of stuff. I have a project for you. This is really common request. If you google it, you will see alot of people discussing on how to keep the Closed Captioning stream from DVD or dvr-ms file. (even on Handbrake forums)
I have been working hard to get them to work with various applications. Perhaps MaximumPC could write a tutorial on encoding a dvr-ms to dvd or smaller format with CC option preserved.
Pretty please?
Thanks!!
Submitted by t3e871 on Fri, 2008-11-28 11:12
I cannot get any xbox 360 (wired/wireless) to play my mp4 movies through zune, or any other way. I followed the directions to a T - can some confirm if this works?
Submitted by cstute on Tue, 2009-01-06 20:02
Orb.com
Works good, lasts long time.
Small problem... can someone help?
Submitted by Devo85x on Thu, 2008-11-27 20:14
I am using vista and have tried about 7 diferent encoding options but every time i get an error message that the selected player (ether quicktime/itunes or WMP) does not support the file because it ether "does not support the codec" (wmp) or "does not understand the file" (quicktime) (same problem, diffent settings, different players) is anyone else having this problem?
Submitted by Devo85x on Fri, 2008-11-28 08:22
(*READ ABOVE*)
Submitted by Devo85x on Wed, 2008-11-26 11:57
Thanks MPC for another great article. I will be sure to try this!!! (the way I currently do it puts a f***ing watermark in the middle of the screen)
Submitted by phicar2 on Wed, 2008-11-26 10:37
Great article - I have been waiting for this for months since you mentioned you were doing this in a podcast back in the summer I think. Anyway, I follow the instrucitons (selected the first english subtitles and checked off force subtitles only) and tried to rip Star Wars Ep4 to test the subtitle thing and sure enough Greedo's subtitles do NOT show up. Any suggestions?
Submitted by rcolbeck on Wed, 2008-11-26 09:32
Thanks for the article. I however am not aware that Handbrake supports Closed Captioning. I prefer CC over subtitles so is it possible to only rip CC without having to rip the english subtitle as well?
Submitted by willsmith on Wed, 2008-11-26 10:02
It depends on the disc. Most studios put the closed caption info into a subtitle format. If they do, then you can extract it. If they don't you'll have to use another program.
Submitted by DerfMcWoowoo on Tue, 2008-11-25 14:12
Can I use the same tools to rip my Blu-Ray movies and stream them to my PS3?
Submitted by willsmith on Wed, 2008-11-26 10:01
Not yet. We're working on that still. It's a little tricky, but I hope to have something to post sometime later this year or early next.
There are still a lot of command line utilities with Blu-ray rips, and you have to manually tweak the audio sync and stuff like that.
Submitted by NAYRhyno on Mon, 2008-11-24 15:58
TMPGEnc will do a great job, and is decently simple, at converting/transcoding from a non-mpeg source.
EDIT: sorry, meant to reply to the "hanbrake is fine" comment
Submitted by SteveCamper on Mon, 2008-11-24 15:02
I am really looking for a good program to convert avi's to say PSP formats... painlessly! I usually dl tv progs and watch them later. The free manager that comes with the PSP is really slow and sometimes does not see the AVI's to convert them. I guess the other factor that kills me is that I have a pretty good rig and it still takes forever to recode to the formats I need (1 hours of tv = 18 minutes). When I see one core running at 80% and the others at 20%, it kills me! Tag on a blackberry which uses a tweaked version of Roxio for Mobiles, it does the same thing. I can not put the avi on directly but have to recode it over to a format it likes as well. It would be really cool to have a program that would let you stream out an AVI into say a PSP and Blackberry file - at the same time and using all the cpu to do it...
Anyways, I liked the atricle for going into more detail on setting up handbrake. Specifically what each suggesting setting is suppose to accomplish when running the app.
Oh, one last thing. If you could update the site to handle sending an email to a user if they are in a thread that gets updated. For instance, I have watched and posted some threads but have always had to remember what they where to go back and check posts. If it could notify me when a thread I wanted to watch is updated would save me time. And you know, time is money, right!?!?!
Submitted by willsmith on Mon, 2008-11-24 18:56
FYI, Handbrake will convert your AVI's to PSP-compatible MP4s. Check the second to last section.
Submitted by lunchbox73 on Mon, 2008-11-24 08:53
If that picture would have been a Zune 80 with Lee Adama on it then it would be worthy of framing. Will January NEVER get here?!?!?
Submitted by Shalbatana on Mon, 2008-11-24 08:11
My requirements differ slightly than what is intended in the article. I'd like to share what I use, in case you're like me:
For backing up discs: (priority= must fit on DVD-R, must be able to run virtually unattended.)
DVD Fab HD Decrypter (free) - It has only failed to copy a disc once, and that was because the disc was damaged, not because of copy protection. I use this to burn to my Hard drive, then Nero Recode to remove subtitles I don't want, extras I don't want, etc. and then re-compress it so it fits on a standard DVD-R and burn.
For PMP: (creative zen): (Priority = must be fast and painless. Must be able to encode DIRECTLY from source DVD into a SINGLE file.)
DVDx is one of the only converters out there that I found is free, combines multiple VOB's, and rips directly from a DVD. To top it all off, it's fast. set source, set destination, and get set for almost 2x copy speed on a dual core. Unfortunately only the pay version removes copy protection, but since I am mostly burning discs that I duped previously with the above two tools, this for me is not an issue.
Everything above except for Recode has a free version, or a free equivalant, and if you decide to pay for the Fab decrypter, then you don't really need anything else, as it will do all that the others will.
I have no idea about streaming as I don't do it yet. But I will as soon as I finish re-wiring my house (thanks MPC for that article too). However when I do start, I'll be sure to revisit this article.
Thanks again Will.
_______________________________
"There's no time like the future."
Submitted by willsmith on Mon, 2008-11-24 09:22
I haven't used DVD Fab HD Decrypter, but I'll try it out. The new Handbrake is superior to DVDx in every way though.
Submitted by Shalbatana on Tue, 2008-11-25 14:26
I'll give it another go, but I couldn't get it to encode directly from a disc, which means extra xfer time. Perhaps it's a new feature added recently.
_______________________________
"There's no time like the future."
DVD Fab HD
Submitted by chance on Mon, 2008-11-24 10:14
Hey Will - Let us know what you think of DVD Fab HD.
Like others, I use DVD Fab and Nero as a nice and easy combo to get my flix fix.
Submitted by NAYRhyno on Mon, 2008-11-24 06:00
I am surprised that in such a thorough guide, there is no mention of
all in one tools, like DVDFab. This is a ripping tool and transcoding tool, built into one
app. It has presets for many popular media devices, and works very
fast. It also has a lot of customizable options to keep you happy if you
like to control the specifics of transcoding. It is great for transcoding for my Zune, as the Zune software is a little bit picky with what formats and bit-rate combinations it likes/won't transcode again.
I will commiserate with the bit about subtitles. There is nothing I
hate more than ripping and transcoding a movie, just to find that it forced the
captions along with the subtitles. Or even worse, when the commentary is
the first audio track, and you don't notice that it’s selected when you rip.
Also, Media Center and using the 360 as an extender is a great way to get content to it as well. Just remember that MC likes avi file wrappers better than mp4.
Submitted by nsvander on Mon, 2008-11-24 01:43
I have total theater installed on my HTPC, for watching blu-ray, will this also work if I encode my movies in H.264 for watching standard DVDs, I want to archive all of the movies I watch on a regular basis so I dont have to fumble for the disks.
Submitted by willsmith on Mon, 2008-11-24 02:03
Yup, should work fine if Total Theater supports H.264 or uses standard codecs. I'm not familiar with that particular piece of software though.
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