Lossless DVD to avi?

There are a couple of things worth understanding here:

First, AutoGK is fairly customizable, you can rip the DVD to a 2GB AVI file that will have very near the quality of the source DVD.

Second, AVI is a fairly bad format for trying to do lossless things in. It is problematic to embed the subtitles and alternate audio streams.

Third, most of the time the output video will be 704 pixels (instead of 720) after ripping and converting - and there is a good reason. A lot of DVD content ends up having half black lines on the top and bottom, which becomes a problem for encoders, display and just general efficiency of the rip. As a result, many encoders will strip 8 pixels off the top and bottom (thus 720-16=704). Remember, this is actually a good thing!

Fourth, you would be well served by looking at using MP4 or MKV as containers instead of AVI. Maybe that doesn't fit into your overall master plan, but Windows 7 can play MP4 files in Windows Media Player now. These two formats have ways of handling the problems from the second issue described above.

Last, why not just store the .VOB and associated files decrypted if lossless is key and you don't care about file size?

bitRipper can rip your DVDs straight to AVI in just a few clicks:

• Select the drive letter and output location

  

• Click start ripping

  

bitRipper is freeware.

If you are looking for a lossless codec that you can use with video ripping applications, check out huffyuv.

I would use DVD Shrink.

It doesn't create an AVI, but it let's you strip the DVD to something lighter by leaving out parts you don't want to have and/or by compressing only certain parts (like unused audio tracks).