Another DVD Convertion Tutorial. Using Free Apps.

Another DVD Convertion Tutorial. Using Free Apps.

I prefer to use, and recommend, freeware applications wherever possible for reasons of my own.
There's a lot out there that are just as good as pay-for apps.

This is a simple conversion using MediaCoder iPod Edition.
*MediaCoder comes "bundle" with OpenCandy. While some say OpenCandy is spyware/adware it does NOT seem to be IMO.
"OpenCandy" is more like a referral/exchange program where one developer recommends another's DURING installation.
The user has the choice of installing, or not, the recommended software.

The other program we'll use is DVD43. An on-the-fly DVD decrypter.
Meaning you don't have to rip a DVD to your hard drive to remove the protection.

DVD43 can be found HERE.
MediaCoder can be found HERE.

Start by installing both programs. The installation is straight forward, use the default settings.
DVD43 will even warn and suggest the removal of AnyDVD if installed on the system.
DVD43 is truly transparent and has no configuration and only a taskbar icon indicating that it's functioning.
The icon turns green, from yellow, when a DVD is in the drive.

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MediaCoder has some "hiccups" we're going to deal with.
When starting the program there's a LOOOONG splash screen and it opens the browser to a "donation page".
There's a check mark to disable the browser opening on the open browser page.
That didn't seem for me work for me until after a reboot. Then it did't open again.
The splash screen can be taken care of too by going to the menu bar "File" > "Settings". Then expanding "Overall" > "User Interface" and changing "Show Splash Screen For Specified Time" to 0.

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Close the settings window.
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To convert you need to browse into the DVD folder, MediaCoder does not directly give the option to convert a DVD, and choose the VIDEO_TS.IFO file.

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For DVD converting I use "HQ", "High" and "Higher".
With these settings the encoded video will be roughly 400mb per hour.
(I seldom keep more that two full DVDs on my phone at a time).

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Press "Start" and a new screen pops up to the right.

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When the encoding is finished it gives one more window.

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Even though it's a small screen I prefer quality to size.
The normal settings are just fine but I like the extra.

Here's some samples:

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That's it! A high quality converted DVD using free applications. (;

DVD43 seems to not like Vista 64-bit. =\

It worked fine on my XP machines though. I was just hoping to run it on the Vista machine since it's got way more horse-power.