Ripping Media Files

Ripping Audio CD

Requirements: Verified, Lossless ripping to archive CD collection.

FLAC ia actually a standard and the acronym stands for "Free Lossless Audio Codec"
Use Exact Audio Copy to rip to lossless FLAC format for archiving
dBpoweramp Reference ($38) has a batch ripper and can batch conver FLAC to Ogg Vorbis which can plasy on most players

Use dvddecryptor (and other?) to rip the contents of a DVD to a folder on the hard drive
This folder structure can then be written back to a recordable DVD or to an ISO image file using a free tool like ImgBurn (www.imgburn.com).
Can convert ripped DVDs to various file formats using freely available encoding tools such as nHandBrake (http://handbrake.fr) or RipBot264 (http://bit.ly/h3j6h8). HandBrake has native support for DVD file folders. RipBot264 you point the program to the main movie's first VOB file (~1GB) located in the VIDEO_TS folder - it will automatically find and assimilate the rest.
AnyDVD can rip directly to ISO
Slysoft's free Virtual CloneDrive program can mount an ISO
For Liniux you can use Handbrake or AcidRip (still trying these out)

AnyDVD HD will play back Blu-ray on devices that lack a protected video path
The main movie on a BD often consists of a single .m2ts file located in the .../BDMV/STREAM/ subdirectory
Sort by size and it's usually the largest on.
Once decrypted this file can be transcoded with free tools like HandBrake or RipBot264.
A complete ISO image of a 3D movie will play just fine on a PC runninbg 3D compatible player software such as ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theater 5, Corel's WinDVD 2010, or Cyberlink's PowerDVD 10.
Transcoding 3D Blu-ray video, DVDFab offers paid options for one-click conversions into a variety of popular file formats

Last updated May 27, 2011