Creating high quality avi from DVD

[Rashkae]

Ben Edwards wrote:
> Over the years I have tried several programs to create avi files from
> DVD.  My files do not look anything as good/sharp of other peoples. I
> am guessing it is the settings I am using, and the codecs.  The
> container does not have to be .avi.  A program witch rips and encodes
> on the ply would be good but quality is my main concern.
> 
> Any advice would be good, probably best to keep this thread focused on
> quality of output rather than other aspects such as
> functionality/usability.
> 

Go right to the source.  Mencoder is the program used almost universally
to encode the videos.  There is much documentation and examples on the
mplayer web page.. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a black art with several
options available, so you'll have to be prepared to bite deep and do
some experimentation to find combinations that work well for you.

A quick note on codecs.  H264 will give you better quality than the
traditional Xvid, the downside is that the H264 videos will not play on
DVD players that support Xvid/avi.