Introduction
This guide illustrates the compression procedure of a DVD in XviD / ffmpeg - MPEG 4 format (.avi file) with .mp3 audio. This procedure is made in one passage directly from the DVD disk put in the player.
The HandBrake software can be downloaded from the Software MAC page, where you can also find useful information about its installation. Remember that the most recent and updated version of these softwares may only be downloaded from their official site.

Details for use are as follows:

You can open the DVD in two ways:                         select "DVD drive" option and the program automatically reads the DVD in the player, or select the "VIDEO_TS" folder in the "DVD folder" option and then click on "Browse" button. The latter is illustrated in the diagram.

Once you have selected the "VIDEO_TS" folder, click on the "Open" button: the program will take some minutes to analyse the content of disk (in the picture you can see the writing "Scanning title 1..."), then it will show you the main window (see the picture below).

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In the main window of the program set up as listed here:

"Video" panel

DVD title: select the voice with the duration of the film (the program automatically selects the title of longer duration)

Codec: MPEG-4 (XviD)

Select "Target size (MB)" option and enter the dimension (in MegaBytes) of the .avi file that wil be created from the program in the corrisponding box. The program will automatically set up the bitrate value (box above) to obtain the pre-established size. If you do not want a pre-established size, you may set up the value of bitrate manually by selecting "Custom bitrate (kbps)" option: the value of bitrate determines the quality and the size of the last .avi file obtained with the codify. The higher the bitrate, the better the quality, and the heavier the file will be too. The choice of bitrate depends on your requirements.

Do not select "2-pass encoding" box as this option produces a double passage of codification which is lengthy and the resulting may be minimum or imperceptible.

"Audio" Panel

Language: English

Secondary language: None

Codec: MP3

Birate (kbps): 160 (the value of bitrate determines the audio quality and the size of the .mp3 file obtained with the codification. The higher the bitrate, the better the quality, and the heavier the file will be too. So the choice of bitrate depends on your requirements. The minimal value for an acceptable quality can be fixed at 128 while 160 and 192 are medium values often used).


"Destination" Panel

Select "AVI" voice in "File format:" box.

Finally enter the course of .avi file that wil be created in "Location" box. The program automatically sets up this course on the desktop and names the file "Movie.avi". You can easily change the course and the name by means of "Browse" button.

Now click on "Crop & Scale..." button.

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Set up the film's resolution in pixel and the cutting of the typical black borders of films in format 16/9 in this window.

First set up a suitable value in "Picture width" box (use only the arrows on the right of the box to insert right values. 640, 576, 560 and 512 are very good values that always represent a standard for the type of codify that you are doing).

Cut the black borders as follows: lift the image using the arrows in the "Top cropping" box until the black borders are eliminated. Then remove the black borders by using the arrows in the "Bottom cropping" box . It is better to set up the same value for both the boxes listed above.

The program will write the film resolution that you will be creating below on the left (Final size).

The function "Deinterlace picture" is necessary to run videos that have an interlaced format (very infrequent in videos with DVD source) and to avoid the typical saw-toothed effect of the borders that happens with such a format. Do not select this option.

If you want to check the cutting on several frames, click on the "Next" button and "Previous" button on the right.

Leave all the rest in default position and click on "Close" button.

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Click on "Rip!" button to start the compression procedure.

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The program begins with the "Starting..." voice.

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You may see some information about the progress of procedure during the codify.

It is possible to stop the procedure at any time or to pause it, by clicking on the "Cancel" or "Pause" buttons.


The duration of the procedure depends on the capacity of the system (mainly on the frequency of CPU) and, in a smaller measure, on the settings used.
Usually it lasts several hours.





Once the procedure is finished, you will obtain your .avi file in XviD - MPEG 4 format with .Mp3 audio, and you may immediately view it with any player compatible with  avi format, as for example MPlayer OS X or VLC. You may also write this file on DVD-R or CD-R (space permitting in the latter).