what program do you use to make a avi file?

[daywane]

I found ImTOO DVD Ripper (That's the way it is spelled)
I have been ripping with this for a few years now
files seams to be a bit large.
like Disney duck tails
3 seasons
3 disks per season
9 programs per disk
only rip the episodes comes to 3 gig per disk
converting to divx\avi

[shmokes]

Is that haiku?

Anyway, DVDFab Platinum is my favorite.  I've used three or four different programs.  I got a cracked copy of DVDFab from someone and liked it so much I bought a legit copy. 

[Ginsu Victim]

DVDfab Platinum ROCKS! Great for ripping discs to DVD-5 or iPod, PSP, etc

[HaRuMaN]

DVDfab Platinum ROCKS! Great for ripping discs to DVD-5 or iPod, PSP, etc

QFT

[Blanka]

Better turn it into .mp4 (MPEG layer-4) files. Stay away from container-files when possible.
Divx=nonstandard MPEG 4
AVI is a shell with tons of different codecs inside, like .mov (Quicktime). With those files you cannot see what codec you need to play. So if you want to put MP4 inside, or cripled MP4 (divx), why not write it as .mp4 directly?

[CheffoJeffo]

To my understanding, DivX is not really a "nonstandard" MPEG-4, but rather a specific implementation of MPEG-4, Part 2. The current version of DivX includes a media container. The current MPEG-4 standard is MPEG-4, Part 10.

At the end of the day, we could be pedantic about the differences and compatibilities, but the true measure of which codec to use is determined by how you want to use the media.

If the resultant video won't play on the device you want to play it on, then the point is moot.

I convert to either DivX or MPEG-4 depending on how I want to use the file. I have some computers and standalone players that won't play MPEG-4, but they will all play DivX. Sometimes I want the niftiness of MPEG-4, but that limits my use of the files to specific devices.

As for converting, I find both DVDFab and FormatFactory (freeware) to be very handy. I especially like FormatFactory to convert video for my mobile devices.

EDIT: I find that I fell into the trap of referring to MPEG-4 as if DivX was not MPEG-4. Perhaps I should have said MPEG-4, Part 10 or H.264.

[ahofle]

If file size is your primary concern, look into h264 as Cheffo mentioned below.
There are a few different ways to convert DVDs into h264.  Start with www.videohelp.com for convert guides.

I'm picking up the new Western Digital "WD TV" HD media player soon.  I plan on ripping all my DVDs to h264 for playback with this device.  It also supports HD stuff, including 1080p.  Still has a few issues to work out of the firmware, but looks to be a great piece of hardware for $100 (basically a poor man's HTPC):
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

[daywane]

Is that haiku?

over my head 

[daywane]

I have DVDFab Plat. the newest version.(also older versions) could not have got Walli with out 4.0 ( how strange is that)
I use DVDFab for Sony or Disney
rip it 4 me for all others.

I never played with DVDFab to convert to AVI?
If I convert to a potable system will it still be full screen on my TV?
as long as I get VCR Quality I am happy.

[shmokes]

Yes . . . actually I've always thought this was the only unintuitive thing about DVDfab.  If you want to convert it for playback on a full-size television choose "Generic" as the profile.  It should really be named "Home Theater" or something.  After you click "Next" you can click the "Conversion Settings" button to determine the resolution and bitrate you want to use, as well as what Codec you want to use to encode, i.e, Divx, Xvid, H.264, etc..

You can do FAR better than VCR quality.  I don't ever mess with the resolution/aspect ratio.  I encode using Xvid at 1500 Kbps and my rips turn out very very nice -- close enough to DVD quality, rarely any artifacting even in very dark scenes.  And a typical movie usually comes in around 1GB.  I could do even better if I used 2-pass encoding, but my computer is aging and I'm happy enough with single-pass.

On Divx vs. H.264, don't listen to people who insist that one must be used over the other.  But if you listen to any of them, listen to the Divx people.  There are significantly better compression technologies out there than MP3 too, but if you want files that will not only be perfectly acceptable, but across the board compatible with every device out there, you encode music to MP3.  Divx is as close as you'll find to a video equivalent of MP3.  You can get very good results (even if not the best) from it, and far more devices support it.  H.264 is making major inroads thanks to Apple, and the day may come when you're better off going with that format (and if the devices you use today play it, that day might be today), but at any rate it's not nearly so clear-cut as Blanka suggests.

[Cakemeister]

Shmokes likes DVDfab.
Ginsu Victim likes it, too.
It is really great.

[shmokes]