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When downloading movies on torrent websites, usually they come as 700 MB video files and with the .avi extension.

In one single DVD I have 4~6 movies and they play very nice (with good quality) in my DVD player!

I've downloaded Handbrake and DVD43. But I don't know the settings to get those nice results. How can I do it?

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  • 5
    Why would you spend all that time/effort burning to disk? HTPC's are much more efficient for what you are already doing. With 1TB HD's down under $70 and barebones PC's down to $200, you can build an awesome HTPC for $300-400 that will store loads more files (and be a fun project, BTW)
    – Steiv
    Jan 14, 2010 at 14:56
  • Please note that most movies are 1400Mb since they are split in 2 700Mb files...
    – Johan
    Jan 18, 2010 at 9:01

5 Answers 5

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The AVI extension has nothing to do with it's format. AVI is what's known as a container format, the codec you're probably thinking of is DivX (and the open source alternative Xvid).

Handbrake doesn't convert to AVI.

Assuming the copyright laws in your country allow for backups, you can use DVD Shrink to backup DVDs, but they will remain as VOB files (which are really of the Mpeg codec). You could then also use something like Clone DVD Mobile to convert to DivX. In Clone DVD Mobile, there are simple options to modify the quality of the output video which will also show you its size.

There are other options such as DVDX, since Clone is not freeware. I recommend looking for Xvid converters since the Divx converters are hardly free (since they require licenses and what not).

Also see: lifehacker.com/380702/five-best-dvd-ripping-tools

You are probably better off asking on forums of the site you download these files from. And don't forget to share any more info! Digitising a movie collection is a good move as discs get scratched too easily too fast.

UPDATE: I just tried AutoGK, it's more accurate than Clone DVD Mobile in output size. Plus it's free.

demo of autogk

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My favorite tool to rip and convert movie DVDs to AVI:

DVDx is likely the most popular DVD backup software world wide. Based on well known open source libraries, DVDx converts DVD movies in high qulaity (S)Video CD, DivX or Windows Media files.

  • DVDx copies DVD movie to VCD, SVCD, DivX, AVI or WMV in one step.

  • DVDx has been designed as a simple and intuitive program.

  • DVDx produces high quality MPEG and AVI movies.

alt text

DVDx is freeware.

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I use Eahoosoft DVD Ripper, fast speed and work fine.

Eahoosoft DVD Ripper - one of the best dvd ripper software, can rip DVD to MP4, H.264, AVI, MP3, WMV, WMA, FLV, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, 3GP, 3GPP, VOB, DivX, Mov, RM, RMVB, M4A, AAC, WAV, etc. with fast DVD ripping speed and excellent image and sound quality.

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The first thing to check is what's supported by your DVD player... And sadly, if your DVD player doesn't support the MP4/MKV containers, despite the fact it's the most friendly/efficient tool, handbrake is no more a good choice because AVI is no more supported...

So to encode a DVD as AVI files, I recommend:
DVD Decrypter for ripping (extracting & decrypting the dvd)
(keep DVD43 it could help DVD Decrypter on some protections)

Megui for encoding:

  • video: MPEG-4 ASP (xvid), MPEG-4 AVC (x264)
  • audio: AAC, MP2, MP3, Vorbis, AC3
  • containers: MP4, MKV, AVI, M2TS

(If they are supported by your DVD player, x264/AAC should have the best quality/size results)

And if you're not happy with the results of the "One Click/AutoEncode" buttons, start by following this guide

Note: It's not a piece of cake to have the best video encoding. Video compression has many parameters and for optimal results they should be tweaked differently by movies characteristics and some subjectives choices... So, if you want the long answer you should go to this site: doom9.org (and his forum)

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I don't really see why you need any other tools - if you have the 700MB files, you do not really want to edit them down any further or you will loose quality.

What I recommend you do is either copy as many as will fit to a DVD and use it as AVI files so you will just play it on a computer, alternatively use a tool such as Sothink DVD Movie Maker or DVD Flick, you can import all the AVIs and transcode to DVD format- then create a menu which allows you to select what to play.

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    -1 for missing the point -- he wants to rip his DVDs to 700MB AVIs of equivalent quality to his downloads, not process his downloads further. Jan 14, 2010 at 16:21

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