Introduction:

In this guide I will mainly discuss how to convert a DVD to avi/mp4 using MeGUI. But converting Blu-Ray or HD-DVD or TS is similar to this process and I think after reading this guide you will be able to convert Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or TS also.

Softwares Needed:

01. MeGUI

02. chapterXtractor 0.962(Optional)(Get it from Here)

03. Codec Packs required to play the video:

                                a)K-Lite Mega Codec Pack(Get it from Here)

                                                                or

                                b)CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) (Get it from Here)

 

Start MeGUI and go to Tools > D2V Creator. From the D2V Project Creator window click on the button for Video Input and select the first VOB file which was created during the ‘Decrypting DVD to Hard Drive’ process from the VIDEO_TS folder of your copied DVD.

Select the Audio Tracks you want to Include in your final video file or if you want to include all the Audio files select Demux All Tracks. This program separates the Audio file from your DVD and creates a d2v file which can be opened by AVS Script Creator.

Select your d2v Project Output and tick ‘On completion load files’ and ‘and close’ . Click Queue.

Go to MeGUI’s Queue Tab and select job1 and click Start. It will open a status window and start processing.

After the processing is finished, AVS Script Creator will open along with the Video Preview window.

Leave the preview window open as we'll be modifying some elements on the preview screen.

The Input DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) should be displayed. In my case, my input is 4:3. Directly below that is a checkbox for 'Clever (TM) anamorphic encoding'. This option allows you to simply encode the video as is without any drastic resizing. This is desirable so that you do not have to unnecessarily resize your video. The encoding process will embed the Aspect Ratio of your video when it is encoded so that it is stretched back to the proper proportions during playback. I would highly suggest you select this option. For the Anamorphic option, I always choose "Resize to mod 16". But you can choose "Overcrop to achieve mod 16" to avoid any resizing at all. If you’re unsure or afraid about having any of your video cropped, you can choose "Resize to Achieve Mod 16". MEGUI will require that your video's dimensions are divisible by 16. Choose one of those two options (resize to mod 16 or overcrop to mod 16).

 

A little info on the three anamorphic modes:

• "Resize to mod16" will only resize the video if the width or height are not equally divisible by 16.
• "Overcrop to achieve mod16" do the same as above, but instead of resizing, the video will be cropped.
• "Encode non mod16" will not resize or crop the video, but if the resolution is not mod16, the compressibility of the video will suffer. This loss is basically negligible unless you are going for extremely high quality encoding.

• If the video has black bars around the edge, you should crop them with the tool.
• If you want to resize your video, check "suggest resolution" and change to the resolution you want. If you want the highest quality file, do not resize.
• You can use resize if you are going to create a 700mb DVD rip. I always resize because I always try to backup my DVDs on a 700mb or 800mb file.

Then click on the filters tab. Under deinterlacing, check the "source is anime" box if your source is anime or cartoon, then Click on analyze if you don’t know the Source Type. 99% of time MeGUI will be correctly able to guess the video file type. After Analysis is finished you should click Preview AVS Script to see if MeGUI was able to correctly guess the video file type.

If you don’t want to use MeGUI’s Analysis result you can always find it manually using AVISynth and VirtualDub.

By default colour correction will be enabled and you should leave it that way. My video has a lot of blocks (look at the preview) and noises. That is why I checked Noise Filter and Mpeg2 Deblocking.

Enable Noise Filter and pick the appropriate level. Denoising reduces noise, which makes the image look better (less flickering) and compress better (less flickering = lower complexity). Always enable at least minimal. Medium & High denoising should be used carefully.

Use MPEG2 deblocking only if there is noticeable blocking in the source. Very few DVDs need this.

Save the avs and it should automatically load into MeGUI once you do this.

You should already have the avs video file loaded into MeGUI - if not, load it now (click the top [...] button).

You have two options for choosing the video format to encode in: XviD and x264. It is beyond the scope of this document to give a large discussion of the differences between these two formats. Suffice to say:

• XviD is a very popular encoding format - it is used almost exclusively for 'scene' TV and movie rips. It has been around for a long time and offers a reasonable level of quality for filesize. You can compare it to mp3 in many respects.
• x264 is a 'new' standard. Both new disc formats (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) will support x264 encoded files, and it looks set to become the successor to XviD. It has not yet reached a large level of support yet, although support and use is constantly growing. It gives better quality than XviD, especially at bitrates under 1500kbits or so.
• x264 also allows to add chapter information like the chapters in DVD without any increase to the Final file size.

Now you have the option to encode the video using Xvid or x264.

  Remember if you modify a profile save it as a new name so that it will be easier for you to find the next time. Do not overwrite the default profiles.

Encode using Xvid:

Select any Xvid profile from Encoder Settings. For creating a 700mb rip you can use Xvid: 2Pass HQ . Select AVI as the File Format.

Select the Audio Encoder Settings. You can use Nero AAC MultiChannel- 192Kbps or LAME MP3: *scratchpad*.

If you choose LAME MP3 as the audio profile you will be able to save the final file in AVI format and if you choose NeroAAC you will have to save the file in MKV or MP4 format. In the Output Channels of the Audio Configuration you can use ‘Downmixing multichannel to Dolby Pro Logic II’. This will sound fine on both stereo and surround audio systems and will play in pretty much anything or you can select ‘Keep Original Channels’.

A little info on LAME MP3 and NeroAAC:

·         MPEG Layer 3: Known everywhere as MP3, it's the .avi of audio formats - anything can play it. Audio quality is 'average', ie, it's the worst out of all formats, but since audio files are pretty small, people are happy to just increase the bitrate. Encoded with LAME (LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder - yes, this is a recursive acronym. Just ignore the fact that LAME is an MP3 encoder and you'll do fine).

·         AAC aka Advanced Audio Coding aka MPEG-4 Part 3 aka MPEG-2 Part 7 (so a nice simple set of names in other words). AAC offers better quality than MP3, and probably the best overall compared to any other codec.

·         LC (Low Complexity): the 'normal' profile, AAC files are usually LC.

·         HE (High Efficiency): When you start encoding to bitrates under around 64-96kbits (for stereo) (which is the common ballpark figure, Nero use around 75-80kbits), you can start using HE, which will increase the audio quality at those bitrates. HE codes the upper half of the frequency spectrum with a technique called Spectral Band Replication (SBR). Basically it's coded as a difference from the lower half, rather than normally as a standalone segment. Maximum efficiency is increased, but maximum quality is reduced.

 

 

Encode using x264:

Select any x264 profile from Encoder Settings. For creating a 700mb rip you can use x264: Unrestricted 2Pass HQ . Select MP4 as the File Format.

Select the Audio Encoder Settings. You can use Nero AAC MultiChannel- 192Kbps or LAME MP3: *scratchpad* just like the Xvid settings.

 After you have done everything mentioned above you should click Auto Encode from MeGUI’s main window.

If you are creating a Xvid video with LAME MP3 Audio you should select AVI as the Container. If you are creating x264 and Nero AAC audio you should select MP4 as the Container. Select your desired file size from the File Size drop-down Menu. You can select manual size by clicking Select Size from the drop-down Menu.

 

If the movie is less than 2 hours and if you have used resize you can select 700MB file size and you won’t be able to notice any difference from the Original DVD. In other words the quality won’t be noticeable unless you compare the DVD and the ripped file side by side, frame by frame. It will look exactly as the aXXo, fxg, fxm, Noir, etc DVD rips. There are at least 50 more DVD rippers whose rips are of excellent quality and the size is more or less 700mb.

 

If the movie is more than 2 hours it is better to create a 800mb DVD rip. Or if you don’t care about the file size you can create a 2 CD rip.

 

You can select additional content if you like by checking Add additional content. Whenever I create a MP4 file I add chapter to the file. AVI file doesn’t support adding chapters.

If you want to add chapters to your MP4 or MKV file, download and extract chapterXtractor 0.962.

Open the program and click Open IFO.

Select the first IFO. Usually the first IFO of a single movie DVD is VTS_01_0.IFO

After opening the IFO the program will automatically show you the chapters. Now you need go to the Format Tab and select OGG in the Presets.

Save the file by clicking Save data and name it Chapters .txt

Click Queue.

If you have checked Add additional content, Adaptive Muxer will Open.

Here you can add Chapters and Subtitles if you like.

Click Go.

Then go to MeGUI’s Queue Tab and select the first job that is showing waiting and click Start.

 
 

Wait for all the jobs to finish and you will have your final 700mb DVD rip.

This is more or less how to Convert a DVD to AVI/MP4/MKV using MeGUI.

Now you can Start ripping your DVD's and share them with everyone. Maybe you can become the next aXXo.