Rip, convert, compress a DVD movie to small file size with good quality

How do I rip a DVD movie to AVI with small size but good quality on my Mac?

Why Rip a DVD Movie to AVI Video File

Ever wanted to convert your huge 4GB+ ( even 7GB+) DVD movies to 700MB dvd-rips while still retaining the original DVD quality on a Mac? Today we’ll learn how to rip and compress your personal DVD movies to small 700MB compressed AVI video format, so that you can keep your DVDs safe in your drawer and enjoy watching the compressed rips from your hard disk drive.

Now if you’re familiar with the ‘Xvid/DivX’ compression format used for those tv-shows rips, you might know how nicely compressed those AVI videos are. You'll get a complete 50 minutes video in a 350MB avi file. We’re gonna use that sort of superb compression for our DVD today in this following tutorial. You’ll see that even when our 4GB DVD movie is compressed to a 700MB dvd-rip, there won't be much difference in the video or audio quality because of the DVD ripping compression software and audio/video settings we’re going to use.

Things You'll Need

• A DVD movie you want to copy
• A DVD Drive
• DVD ripping software for Mac OS
• Free space on your hard drive
• A faster computer - Why?

Step-by-Step to ripping your DVD movies

Step 1: Download & install iFunia DVD Ripper for Mac

We’ll be using a very nice DVD Ripping tool for Mac OS called ‘iFunia DVD Ripper ’ for ripping our DVD, head over here and download the free trial version. Next step is to install the program.

Step 2: Run iFunia DVD Ripper for Mac

Now get your DVD disc and insert it. Then run iFunia DVD Ripper on your Mac and click the big button "Load..." to load your DVD disk, you may see the name of DVD Movie disk if you insert DVD disk before running this DVD ripper tool. This may take up to a minute or two depending on the contents of the DVD and the speed of your optical drive.

Step 3: Select the titles you'd like to convert

A movie DVD usually has several titles. However, only the first title is the content of DVD movie ( you may recognize it from the 'Length', see the image below), the other titles are the theatrical trailers. You may un-check the options not to convert these useless titles. Just check the first title option and convert all chapters of DVD movie content to one single video file.

• Movie: If you are ripping a movie, the longest title is usually the main feature.
• TV Shows: If you are ripping a DVD containing TV shows, you should see a list of several titles all about the same length.

The shorter titles on the DVD are usually the video backgrounds used in the DVD menu screens and DVD extras like movie trailers. Unless you are a graphic artist, you probably don't want to convert these titles.

Step 4: Add watermark on the output video file

Wanna add a personalized watermark on the output video files? You may add a text watermark or a image logo using iFunia DVD Ripper for Mac. Just select the titles/chapters you'd like to add watermark, then click the button 'Edit' to open video editing window. If you want to crop DVD movies or add some special effects, click the first two tabs.

Step 5: Change the output settings to convert videos with best quality

There are almost all common video formats available for you to choose to convert to. You may convert DVD movie to different video formats for video editing or playback on your mobile devide, such as iPod, iPhone, PSP, cellphone, etc. The best solution for DVD movie backup would be to compress it to progressive lossy formats like Xvid.

Here we set the output video format to XviD AVI format which provides a best compromise between file size and video quality. Remember that the output file size mostly depends on the Bitrate you set. Larger Bitrate, larger file size. Actually video with bitrate as 768 is acceptable for watching.

Step 6: Start converting DVD movies

Now you may click the big button "Start" to begin converting DVD movies onto your hard disk.

The time it takes to rip a DVD movie

The ripping time will depend on several variables including: the duration of the video file, the speed of your computer, what other activity your computer is currently doing, the codec you selected and the bitrate you set.

Let me remind you that while ripping DVDs is really easy, re-encoding & compressing them is no feat for low-end computers. Encoding times may range from a few hours to days… so beware if you have a slow PC.

By fast computer I mean as faster it is that better the ripping timing would be, for example, from a 4.7 GB DVD to 700 MB rips on these bellow computer took these times:

• AMD Athlon XP 2600+ with 512 MB DDR RAM and PATA HDD — 13 hours
• Intel Pentium 4 (630) 3.0 GHz 1 MB L2 with 1 GB DDR-II 667 MHz Dual Channel RAM and SATA-I HDD —- 7 Hours
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 OC @ 3.6 GHz with 4 GB DDR-II 700 MHz Dual Channel and SATA-II HDD — 45mins

So try and guess your systems time when you start the process….

Why Rip Your DVDs

• Keep your DVDs safe! Movies stored safely in your computer can't get lost, scratched or broken.
• Find movies faster! Use your Mac's built in search tool, Spotlight, to find a movie in your collection... instantly.
• Easily organize your movies! Moving files around on your computer is a lot easier than alphabetizing shelves full of DVDs.
• Simplify entertainment on the go! Why carry around bulky DVD cases or disc wallets when you don't have to?
• Editing your videos! The videos ripped from DVDs can be used for video editing in Windows Movie Maker & Final Cut Studio.
• Use your laptop longer! Laptops use a lot more juice when they're spinning a DVD and a hard drive.

DVD Ripper for Mac

DVD Ripper for Mac is a professional DVD ripping software to get movies onto your Mac at a small file size while remaining good quality. It helps you rip and convert DVD content to any common video formats for playback on media players and mobile devices. You may rip a DVD movie to AVI video file to get a compromise between file size and video quality.

(PC user? Get Windows version here)