DVD/VOB to WMV?

[Daz]

I need to rip some DVDs/VOBs into a format that a default Windows XP SP2 install (or later) will play. Are there any open source/free tools that can help me?

Or as an alternative, is there another format other than wmv I should look at?

[leowyatt]

well i'm not sure if it'll will rip from the DVD but winavi will convert most stuff to wmv :)

EDIT: you might be worth ripping the DVD and then coverting it to WMV.

[Mark]

Yup - two stage is best.

VOB is essentially a packaged MPEG2 stream so most things that read MPEG2 will do it. I use VirtualDub-MPEG2, which certainly should cope.

[Jhadur]

On a similar note are there any programs that will rip a DVD to avi format?

Sorry for quick thread hijack.

[leowyatt]

yeah handbrake

[Daz]

Yup - two stage is best.

VOB is essentially a packaged MPEG2 stream so most things that read MPEG2 will do it. I use VirtualDub-MPEG2, which certainly should cope.
I wrote a script to rip a doovd to xvid/mp3, so that parts ok. I dont have winavi, and this isn't for personal use, so what are my options for turning that into a wmv? Has anyone used Windows Media Encoder (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx) before?

[leowyatt]

I used it to convert mkv to wmv-hd before and it worked well, just took ages ;D

[Daz]

Looks like it'll do :) Luckily it's just a one off thing as a favour for one of the directors' PA, so WME will be fine, thanks :)