As you probably know, DVDs are encoded in an MPEG-2 format and encased in a file called a VOB (Video Object) file. For those interested in backing up their DVDs, it is almost impossible to do a 1:1 copy due to the un-availability of writable DVDs and the small sizes of CDs (650MB vs 8000 MB for DVDs). Conversion, therefore, is needed if you plan to backup your DVDs to CDs.

This guide briefly introduces some techniques to convert these very large VOB files to a format less space consuming, like VCDs, SVCDs and DivX, using the many software and techniques available.

Note, this guide is fairly advanced and is purely optional for those who seek to explorer more into the world of digital video editing and conversion. And also, please respect the copyright laws in your country.

DVD Ripping

DVD Ripping is the process of copying DVD files (eg. VOB, IFO, BUP files) from the DVD to your hard-drive, without the CSS (Content Scrambling System) scrambling the files during the copying process. This essentially makes a 1:1 perfect copy of the file of the DVD on your hard-drive, and so the files will have the original quality/size. In most cases, it is necessary to do this prior to converting the actual VOB files. Below are some guides on how to do this :

Glossary : (in order of importance) CSS encryption : This is the encryption method used in DVDs. This encryption does allow files to be copied off the DVD, but the resulting files will contain garbage data that will be useless. Not all files on the DVD are encrypted though, and different files may use a different decryption key.

Rippers : A ripper is a program that allows you to break this encryption and "rip" out the files from the DVD, without it being turned into garbage data. Basically, it allows you to copy files from the DVD to your hard-drive successfully. This is not to be confused with CD ripping, which is the ripping of digital data off the audio CD - DVD ripping is really just DVD copying (to the hard-drive). Note that DVDs, unlike audio CDs, do not have a special "audio track" - the audio information is stored in a VOB file (see below) and are much like other digital video formats (eg. avi,mpg,rm).

VOB Files : VOB files are the default format of DVD movies. This files may contain several streams of audio/video "multiplexed" together (eg. chapters/language selections). These files, once ripped, can be played back with any soft-DVD player that supports the file opening feature (presently, only the Ravisent/Elsa player does not). VOB files have a naming standard :

vts_xx_yy.vob

xx - Title numberyy - Section number

The whole movie is usually contained within 1 title (usually vts_01), while the rest of the titles may be for things such as extras, trailers ... Video_ts.vob usually contains the main menu information. Each section of the title (eg. vts_01_1.vob) cannot exceed 0.99GB in size. Normally, the title that contains the actual movie is located in a title that has many 0.99GB sized files - the last one in the title set may not be this size.

IFO/BUP Files : IFO files contain the formatting information of the VOB files, which tells the DVD player exactly how the DVD should be played (eg. aspect ratio, subtitles, languages, menus ...). BUP files are backups for IFO files, which are needed if the IFO files gets corrupted. If you rip the DVD without IFO files, then the VOB files may not play correctly, or may not even play at all. Similarly for conversion, IFO files are essential since video converters like FlasKMPEG (which supports IFO parsing) will need them if you want to encode videos, or fix multi-angle ripping problems (see below). Whenever in this guide I refer to "ripping the entire DVD", I mean ripping all the VOB files and the IFO/BUP files as well.

Macrovision/Region : Region and Macrovision (copy protection) are encoded onto VOB files. Some rippers offer you the ability to rip out Region and Macrovision protection during normaing ripping. Once ripped this way, the files will play in any DVD player, and will not have Macrovision or region protection problems.

Multi-angle ripping : DVDs like The Matrix feature special content such as "Follow the White Rabbit" feature, which overlays a white rabbit on screen during certain special effect scenes, and if you highlight the white rabbit and press enter, you can access 8 hidden special effects features. Ripping of DVDs that contain these features, or others (eg. seamless branching titles like The Patriot, T2 : Ultimate DVD Edition, The Abyss) can be diffcult, if you don't rip the IFO/BUP files (remembering the IFO/BUP files contain the information to tell the player/ripper how to playback these DVDs). Newer rippers have special options that allow you to rip these types of VOB files successfully.

Merging : Some rippers allow you to merge the VOB files during ripping. This is not recommended. Merging VOB files will most likely damage their file structures (much like how if you merge 2 ZIP files, you won't get a big ZIP file that contains all the contents of the 2 smaller ZIP files). If you ripped the IFO/BUP files, then it is these files that will tell the player/converter to play/convert the multiple VOB files in series (with no gaps in between), and even without the IFO/BUP files, FlasKMPEG (a conversion tool) can still convert files with the same title number (see VOB files above).

Choosing which format you'll want to convert the DVD to will require you to know how exactly you plan to use the converted movie. The table below lists the properties that a converted 2 hour movie (at their typical resolution) will have depending on which format you choose. Note that the stated "low, medium, high and best" values are relative to the original DVD quality (with "low" meaning low quality, while "best" means same quality as the original DVD). Hopefully, the table below will help you choose which format you'll want. Once you have decided which format you want to use, please use the "INDEX" below to skip to the section you want.

DivX (MPEG-4) VCD (MPEG-1) SVCD (MPEG-2)

MiniDVD (DVD-on-

CD)

Video Resolution

560x240 (Widescreen - variable) 352x240 (NTSC) 480x480

(NTSC)720x480 (NTSC)

Video Quality Low-High (SVHS) Low (VHS) Medium-High (SVHS) Best (SVHS)

Audio Resolution

Stereo, 16bit, 48kHz (MP3 - variable) Stereo, 16bit, 44kHz Stereo, 16bit,

44kHzDolby Digital

(AC3)

Audio Quality Low-Best Medium Medium Best

File Size (2 hour movie) 300 - 1000+ MB 1000+ MB 800+ MB 3000+ MB

Play on Standalone? No Yes Maybe * Maybe **

Why this format?

Widely available on the net. Variable quality/file size.

Proven and reliable format. Playable on

standalone.Playable on standalone.

Same quality as original

DVD.

* - Most DVD players made for the Asian market will support this (official) format. Features limited interactivity (1 menu with play button).

** - Only 1 or 2 (Aiwa, Affrey - more details here) DVD players will play this (non-official) format. Full DVD interactivity.

DivX MPEG-4 DVD DIGEST

DivX is based on the MPEG-4 compression format. MPEG-4 is a new standard of video compression that is both high quality and low bitrate. They are usually only a fraction (around 15%) of the size of a standard DVD, even at 640x480 resolutions, making them the best home video format thus far. They only take half the time to encode, and yet at the same time is smaller in size than MPEG-1 - due to their incredible compression technology - some have even called MPEG-4 the "MP3 of the video world". Quality ranges from net-streaming quality to near DVD due to the flexibility of the format.

For a DVD to DivX conversion guide, please refer to this page.

DVD to DivX conversion guide

Welcome to the DVD to DivX (and now XviD, which I may generalise it to DivX, since they both share many common features and both came from the same open-source code) conversion guide. The aim of this guide is to give you step-by-step and precise instructions on how to convert your DVD to DivX or XviD.

This is a newly re-written guide based on the old DVD to DivX using FlasK MPEG guide, found on DivX Digest.

There are many methods you can use to convert DVDs to DivX/XviD, each with it's own merits and problems, some for beginners, and some for more advanced users. This guide aims to give you instructions for most of the more common methods (currently, only instructions for FlasK MPEG and Xmpeg are available - more guides coming soon).

This guide divides and generalises some of the fundamental steps in DVD to DivX/XviD conversion, and links to much more detailed guides that will give you step-by-step instructions.

We hope you enjoy this guide.

P.S: Translated versions of our old guide is still available :

Spanish translation of DivX 3.11 Alpha using FlasK MPEG Swedish translation of DivX 4.x using FlasK MPEG

Index DVD DIGEST

Index <= This page Conversion Tool Instructions :

o FlasK MPEG o Xmpeg o More instructions coming soon ...

What's New DVD DIGEST

Version 2.4 - 17 February 2003 - Updated guide to reflect newest version of the DivX Pro codec (5.0.3)

Version 2.3 - 20 September 2002 - Instructions for encoding using Gordian Knot added for DivX 3.x and 5.x

Version 2.2 - 8 April 2002 - Instructions for encoding to XviD added. Version 2.1 - 1 April 2002 - Instructions for Xmpeg has been added.

Version 2.0 - 30 March 2002 - First public version of this completely re-written guide. Contains only instructions for FlasK MPEG, more coming soon. Also contains DivX 3.11 Alpha, DivX 4.x and DivX Pro 5.x instructions. French version also available, special thanks for Laurent Godet for the speedy translation!!

Pre Version 2.0 - Previously known as the DVD to DivX using FlasK MPEG guide.

What are the common steps involved ? DVD DIGEST

Before you start, you should have at least the following software titles installed : Microsoft Media Player - 6.4 is preferred over version 7.0 - needed for playing back

DivX/XviD movies MP3 Codec - for audio compression Download and install one of the following codecs, depending on which one you

want :

Codec : Pros : Cons :

DivX 3.11 Alpha + Scene Detect Patch

Good quality/file size Can exist along with DivX 4.x/5.x

Not open-source Not 100% legal No 2-pass encoding

DivX 4.x Completely legal Good quality

Not open-source File size may be issue No longer supported by DivX.com Can't exist along with DivX 5.x

DivX Pro 5.x Completely legal Good quality/file size Supports advanced MPEG-4 features such as B-Frames

Not open-source May be too new and contains bugs Can't exist along with DivX 4.x Adware/Spyware (Pro version only)

XviD Completely legal and open-source Good quality/file size Allows you to set the final file size of the movie, as opposed to just a bitrate

May be too new and contains bugs Not as well known as DivX Does not support advanced MPEG-4 features such as B-Frames

1. Ripping - DVDs are encrypted and cannot be read/copied/converted without first decrypting this. While some DVD to DivX/XviD conversion tools have built in decrypters, it is always recommended to first decrypt and copy the files to your hard-drive (this step is called Ripping), and then convert it from there. This is because the time it takes to

convert a DVD may range from 3-5 hours to over 10 hours, and trust me, you do not want to have your DVD-ROM drive constantly accessed for 10 hours :)

2. Parsing - The next step involves reading the DVD files, or otherwise known as parsing. Basically, the conversion tool has to know how to "playback" the DVD file, before it can convert it. The information required to parse a DVD is stored in the .ifo files on the DVD. Things such as multiple subtitles, languages and angles, are all stored in these .ifo files, so it is important that you have ripped them in the previous step.

3. Conversion tool setup - This is where you setup things like cropping (removing the black bars in a widescreen DVD movie, so that they are not converted along with the picture - these black bars will be put back automatically when you playback a widescreen AVI/DivX/XviD file), audio normalization (eg. to increase volume) and output file location.

4. Codec setup (first pass) - This is where you setup the actual settings for the codec (and any audio codec settings that may be needed), which determines the final quality of the movie. Note that some conversion tools integrate this step with the previous one (Conversion tool setup). If you want to use 2-pass encoding, here is where you setup the first pass settings.

5. Waiting - This is the most boring part of the whole process - you'll now have to wait for DVD to be converted. This could be 2-3 hours, or 10-20 hours, depending on your system specs. If you chose 2-pass encoding, the first pass will be encoded right here.

6. Optional - Codec setup (second pass) - If you want to use 2-pass encoding, here is where you setup the second pass settings.

7. Optional - Waiting - If you chose 2-pass encoding, the second pass will be encoded right here.

8. Post Processing - Depending on which conversion tool you use, there may be some things that you will need to do before that AVI file is perfect. Things like increasing audio volume, adding AVI tags, fixing audio synch problems are done here, although most are purely optional.

Summary :

One pass encoding :

9. Rip the DVD 10. Open the DVD in your conversion tool 11. Setup the conversion tool 12. Setup the video and any other codecs 13. Wait for encoding 14. Post processing on the AVI file

Two pass encoding :

15. Rip the DVD 16. Open the DVD in your conversion tool 17. Setup the conversion tool 18. Setup the video codec for first pass 19. Wait for first pass encoding 20. Setup the video codec for second pass and any audio codecs 21. Wait for second pass encoding 22. Post processing on the AVI file

Which conversion tool do I use ? DVD DIGEST

Choosing the right conversion tool/method is probably the most important step in DVD to DivX/XviD conversion. Below is a table of the conversion tools, and their pros and cons (note : only instructions for FlasK MPEG and Xmpeg are available at this time - more will be coming soon). Click on the name of the conversion tool for instructions on how to use it to convert DVDs to DivX/XviD :

Conversion Tool : Pros : Cons :

AutoGK Extremely easy to use - designed for beginners All in one conversion tool Relatively fast Can handle XviD and DivX encoding Supports CBR/VBR MP3, AC3

Limited configurability Will run into trouble for difficult to convert DVDs Currently Beta, so bugs may be present with DivX encoding

DVDtoOgm Easy to use - similar to Gordian Knot All in one conversion tool Relatively fast Can handle XviD and DivX encoding Supports CBR/VBR MP3, AC3 Supports advanced Ogm features, such as multiple audio tracks, subtitle support, chapters support ...

Converts to the less used Ogm format instead of AVI Current Alpha, so bugs may be present

FlasK MPEG Easy to use Contains bugs - doesn't work with all DVD titles Slow Can't decode PCM DVD titles

Gordian Knot Easy to use All in one conversion tool Relatively fast Can handle multi-pass automatically Supports CBR/VBR MP3, AC3

Can be hard to get the grips of initially

Xmpeg Easy to use Relatively fast (compared to FlasK MPEG) Can automatically decrypt and convert directly from DVD (when using Xmpeg DVD MISM) Can handle 2-pass automatically (no need to stop and change codec setting for 2nd pass)

Contains bugs - doesn't work with all DVD titles and can crash

Ripping an entire DVD : Why rip an entire DVD - doing this allows you to playback a DVD movie from your hard-drive that will behave almost exactly the same as the same movie would play on the original DVD. This also helps with DVD conversion, as many new DVD conversion programs need all of the files to convert effectively.

Steps for ripping :

1. Insert the DVD disc that you want to rip in your DVD-ROM drive.

2. While most DVD rippers can authenticate the DVD, some have trouble. So the best thing to do is to play the DVD with a DVD player prior to using a ripper - this will solve almost all authentication problem which you may encounter.

3. Start your DVD ripping software, and it should start searching your DVD-ROM drive and should display a list of files on the DVD for ripping.

4. For DVD Decrpyter : Make sure you have selected your preferences (eg. Multi Region, No Macro ...) from the "Tools" drop down menu, prior to any ripping. Then, click on the "Destination" folder icon to select the target directory for these ripped files. Then just highlight all the files diplayed on the right hand side, and use the transfer button to start ripping.

DVD Decrypter's Transfer button

Many of DVD Decrypter's functions are hidden in context sensitive menus. DVD Decrypter also has an unique ISO ripping mode. More detailed explanation of these functions can be found in this guide written by the author of DVD Decrpyter.

For Smart-Ripper : Click on the "Files" button and then choose to select "all" files. Then click on the "target" button down below to select a target directory for these ripped files. Press the "Start" button to start ripping.

Smart-Ripper's Files Option

Tip : My suggestion is to put these files into a directory called "video_ts" (just like on the actual DVD) - the reasons for doing this will be clearer when you try to play the files (see below).

5. After a while, the ripping should complete and if you selected "multi-region" or "no macro" options, the ripper will go through a long process of implementing these options.

Once you have ripped the entire DVD, you'll now need to find a way to playback all these ripped files. Below is a method to do this, which basically tricks your DVD player into thinking your files are actually on a real physical DVD.

Methods :

DVD Decrypter ISO method :DVD Decrypter 3.x has an unique ISO ripping mode, which allows you to playback a ripped DVD in its entirety from your hard-drive. A more detailed explanation is in this guide written by the author of DVD Decrpyter.

PowerDVD 4.0 method :PowerDVD 4.0 now supports loading of "IFO" files from your hard-drive, meaning you can now playback ripped DVDs in PowerDVD without any additional hacks/software.

Zoom Player method :Below was a suggestion submitted to to DVD Digest by michel malt on how to playback ripped DVDs using Zoom Player

Here a tric to play a rip DVD onto your Hard Drive with zoom player (the best for tv output and free) v2.3 or higher. Rip your dvd onto C\VIDEO_TS ... it could be another drive but I think that the drive must be a letter before your dvd drive. Now to play your rip dvd

movie with zoom player you will need a dvd movie in your dvd drive ... and it will not play your dvd movie but the rip dvd.

DVD Subber method :You can also use DVD Subber to playback ripped DVDs from your hard-drive, as long as a proper Directshow DVD decoder is available (thanks to M. for pointing this out to us). There is also a tool called DVDStarter, which makes this process easier for use with WinDVD).

SUBST method :

1. Find the first free drive letter, eg. on my system it is h:\

2. Locate the directory you ripped to, eg. all your files are in c:\temp\matrix\video_ts\

3. Go to your start menu => run , or MS-DOS prompt, and type in (for example) :

subst h: c:\temp\matrix

note : the directory c:\temp\matrix\ must be typed without the last '\' character

4. Now check your drive h:\ it should "contain" all of the data/folders found in c:\temp\matrix\

5. You've just made your first "virtual" DVD-disc. This virtual drive does not consume any additional hard disk space.

6. You can play back this "virtual" DVD using most DVD software and hardware players, including WinDVD, soft-Cinemaster and RealMagic Hollywood+. Unfortunately, this method isn't compatible with PowerDVD, because PowerDVD tries to detect the media type that the files are stored on. You can download software DVD players from DVD Digest.

7. To remove this virtual drive after you've finished with it, run the following in Start Menu=> run or MS-DOS Prompt (for example) :

subst h: /d

HDD method :Below was a suggestion submitted to DVD Digest by Stephan on how to playback ripped DVDs using his Hollywood+ card (also work for soft-Cinemaster and WinDVD) :

... I only have two partitions and on the bigger one I can put several movies in different directories. When I want to play a movie I just move a movies catalogue video_ts (and if exists audio_ts) to the root directory, start DVDstation, select D: as the movie drive. The movie starts. When I want to change movie, just put back the video_ts to its original location and move the next movie video_ts catalogue to the root. It is so simple and convenient ...

StartDVD method :Use a program called StartDVD, which works with soft-Cinemaster and does "subst" for you in a nice Windows GUI.

Ripping a section of a DVD : Why rip only a section of a DVD - perhaps you only need to rip out a DVD trailer, or a particular scene that interests you - you'll probably have a better reason for doing this though.

Steps for ripping :

1. Insert the DVD disc that you want to rip in your DVD-ROM drive.

2. While most DVD rippers can authenticate the DVD, some have trouble. So the best thing to do is to play the DVD with a DVD player prior to using a ripper - this will solve almost all authentication problem which you may encounter.

3. Start your DVD ripping software, and it should start searching your DVD-ROM drive and should display a list of files on the DVD for ripping.

4. You'll need to determing which of the VOB files contains the particular scene you want - this is an imprecise science, so a lot of guess work will be involved. If you want to rip a particular chapter, then you should use Smart-Ripper, which has an option to rip a specific chapter. There is a short guide on how to identify VOB files in the Glossary

5. For DVD Decrypter : Make sure you have selected your preferences (eg. Multi Region, No Macro ...) from the "Tools" drop

down menu, prior to any ripping. Then, click on the "Destination" folder icon to select the target directory for these ripped files. Then just highlight any of the files you want to rip that is diplayed on the right hand side, and use the transfer button to start ripping.

DVD Decrypter's Transfer button

The latest version of DVD Decrypter also adds "Stream Processing" support (similar to the similar function in Smart-Ripper), which allows you to rip only the video/audio/subpicture streams you want, instead of ripping everything (including the streams you don't need). The "Stream Processing" function can be found in a context sensitive menu (for more information on what they are and where they are found, please refer to this guide), accessed by right clicking on a particular VOB file listed on the right hand side and selecting the "Stream Processing" sub-option.

DVD Decrypter's Stream Processing Option

For Smart-Ripper : To rip out a particular chapter on the DVD, you can use Smart-Ripper's chapter ripping function located in the

"Movie" section. Alternatively, if you want to rip a specific VOB file, click on the "Files" button to go to the "Files" section and select the required files. Then click on the "target" button down below to select a target directory for these ripped files. Press the "Start" button to start ripping.

Smart-Ripper's Chapter Ripping Option

6. After a while, the ripping should complete and if you selected "multi-region" or "no macro" options, the ripper will go through a long process of implementing these options.

Once you have ripped the selected files, you'll need a VOB analysis tool to make sure you have the right VOB segment - this is because some VOB files can contain many different VOB segments (perhaps 2 or more trailers playing continuously) - you can use a VOB analysis tool to individually extract out the segments into their own individual VOB file. We'll be using VOBTools as our VOB analysis tool.

Steps for extraction :This step is only needed if you have ripped a particular VOB file without any sort of processing on it (ie. you did not use Smart-Ripper's "Movie" ripping function).

7. Start the VobTools program and select the file you just ripped, eg. vts_03_01.vob , and press "Analyze VOB" button. After a while, the window on the right should display a list of VOB segments contained within, and also will display their size.

8. Now it's simply a matter of selecting the files you want (hold shift + mouse button to select more than 1 segment) to extract out.

Extracting segment #3 in VOBTools

Once you have done the ripping and extraction of the right segment, you will need to find a way to playback this file. Below are some suggestions on how to do this :

Steps for playing :

9. Playing back VOB files is pretty simple. All you need to do is to install a suitable software DVD player.

10.Currently, all of the DVD players support playback of individual VOB files, except for Ravisent soft-Cinemaster. If you install soft-Cinemaster, PowerDVD or WinDVD, you can even use Windows Media Player to playback VOB files (the Directshow filters must be installed - they are usually automatically installed upon install).

11.For example, with Cyberlink's PowerDVD program, you can use its "File Mode" and "Play List Editor" function to add multiple VOB files to be played one after the other.

12.You can download software DVD players on DVD Digest 13. If the VOB file plays back without audio, then please proceed to the

"Fixing Audio" section below. If you don't have this problem, continue on to the next page

PowerDVD's File Mode and Playlist (Menu) editor

Fixing Audio :

14.VOB files may contain many audio streams. They are numbered from stream 0 (0x80) to 9 (0x89). Your DVD player/conversion tool will only look for the first stream (0x80), but unfortunately, some VOB files don't have an stream 0, and only have a stream 1 or above (0x81 - 0x89). To fix this problem, we'll have to "rename" the 0x81 or above stream to 0x80, so that DVD players/conversion tools know how to find the audio.

15.Download install and start VOBRator.16.Press the "Open and Scan" button and load in your problematic

VOB file17.VOBRator should now list, graphically, the various audio streams of

your VOB file (denoted by a Dolby or DTS logo). In most cases (eg. trailers), there will be only 1 audio stream, but if you can't hear audio, most likely, it will be named "AES (0x81)" (see blue ellipse in diagram below) instead of "AES (0x80)" as it should.

18.We'll now need to use the "Change Stream ID" option (see red ellipse in diagram above) to change the default audio stream to 0x80.

19.Select the current audio stream and then check the "Change Stream ID" check box. Use the up/down arrows below to 0x80.

20.Now press the "Save" button and save the VOB file as another file (eg. temp.vob - please type in the .vob extension in the Filename section, otherwise you'll end up with a file with no file extension).

21.After a while, your new VOB file (eg. temp.vob) should have the audio stream set to 0x80 and should now work properly with your DVD player/conversion tool.

What is the difference between DVD backup, ripping and conversion ?

Both DVD ripping and conversion are ways to backup a DVD.

DVD ripping refers to copying the contents of the DVD straight to your hard-drive, without any additional processing. The problem with DVD ripping is that a large amount of disk space is needed to store the 4-8 GB large DVD movie files.

DVD conversion tries to solve the disk space problem of DVD ripping, by converting the DVD to a lower quality format, which requires less disk space.

How can I copy a DVD to a CD ?

This is not possible, because a DVD can store 7 times more information than a CD, and most DVD movies will use up all of the space on a single layered single sided DVD (4.8 GB) - some long movies or DVDs with a lot of extra features will use up all the space on a dual layered single sided DVD (9 GB).

The only way to store a DVD movie on a CD is to convert the DVD movie to another format, like VCD or DivX.

Why can't somebody make an all-in-one tool that does the DVD conversion to DivX with just a few button clicks?

This would be nice, but unfortunately, most DVD/DivX programs are made by individuals, such as Avery Lee's VirtualDub and Alberto Vigatá's FlasK MPEG. If an all-in-one tool has to be made, these people will have to all work together, in a team, and come up with such a solution. The problem involved with this, however, is huge, as often, these people are spread out across the world - just the time difference problems will cause a lot of headaches. Of course, if all parties released source code using the GPL, then one does not necessarily have to work with the other to make a program, but since these software tools are updated quite frequently, anyone making an all-in-one tool will also have to make these updates, hence perhaps it is all just too much work for an individual or even a small team to handle.

Then there are the legal problems. To make such a program, one will need to combine DVD rippers (not so legal) with the conversion software (legal). The MPAA won't be pleased. You may also want to "hardwire" the codecs into the conversion program, but this makes the conversion program less versatile (what if you want to convert to another format, other than DivX). But tools such as FlasK MPEG + CSS already combines a converter with a ripper, are already around, and you can sort of say they are "all-in-one" soltutions, although post conversion processing with VirtualDub and other AVI editing tools may be required. In my opinion, there already a few pretty complete tools (rippacks), while it won't give you the best possible conversion quality/smallest file size and is probably not as simple as "1-click", it will do just fine for regular conversions. Most rippacks will probably require you to read a guide as well, but perhaps just 1 or 2 pages, compared to 5-10 if you choose to use the ripper + converter path.

But most importantly, even if a all-in-one tool is released, conversion will still be more than "just a few button clicks" away. This is because in order to get the best possible picture quality, one will have to do a lot of tweaking (eg. cropping, calculating bitrate ...).

So to put it simply, having many tools allows you to have the best in everything (eg. the best ripper + the best converstion tool + the best AVI/DivX editing tool), while if you combine them into one program, you may end up having a program that does everything, but do them poorly. If you are really confused by the

myriad of tools on this site, I highly recommend that you read at least one of the conversion guides (eg. my DVD to DivX using FlasK MPEG guide or any of Nicky Page's Guides), to familiarise your self with what each tool does - once you do, you'll no longer find that there are too many tools, and you may even find that there are not nearly enough tools for you to make the perfect DivX file.

My DVD-ROM drive only reads CDs. How can I fix this ?

If your DVD-ROM is of the IDE variety, then this is most likely a problem with your Windows bus mastering / HDD controlling drivers. Make sure that your DVD-ROM drivers are installed properly (they should be provided if they are needed - also check the manufacturer's website for the latest drivers). If possible, reinstall the Windows bus mastering drivers by going into "device manager" (control panel => system => device manager tab) and deleting the entries in the "Hard Disk controllers" tree" (see below).

Reboot and Windows should detect new drivers for your bus mastering (Windows CD required). If you DVD-ROM is SCSI, then an reinstall of the latest SCSI drivers might be in-order. Be warned, messing with Windows settings is alway hazardous to the health of your computer =)