This page has a lot of Graphics,
if you have a slow connection allow them to load,
if you are on a 56k dialup modem, go get a snack or something!
I put all this on 1 page to make it easier to print out and follow.

Hardware you will need:

Software you will need:

Before you begin:

I have found if you rip the DVD to the hard drive and process them to one file you loose the chapters and will loose the ability to skip chapter by chapter through the movie. This may be ok for you, and it makes it a lot easier to convert your DVD to VCD. If you do opt to do this, you will also need iFilmEdit to split your movie into 700 Meg files to burn it on multiple CDs or use TMPGEnc to bring the bit rate down to fit it on one VCD. I would suggest taking the time to process each chapter so you do not loose this ability.

The four steps to making a VCD from a DVD:

1. Ripping the DVD:

2. Processing the VOB files to MPEG files:

3. Burning your VCD:

4. Resizing your MPEG files to fit on one VCD:

Ripping the DVD:

You will start by inserting the DVD you wish to rip into your DVD drive and starting the SmartRipper program. On the first screen set your target directory to where you want you VOB files to be stored.

Click on Settings and change your setting to match these. (NOTE: you do not need DeMacrovision on, it will be stripped when the file is processed later and will slow the process down considerably.) Also, if you don't want to rip by chapter change the File-Splitting setting to every vob-file. Then click ok.

Now click on start and let the program do it's work.

Once done you will have several VOB files in the directory you set as the target.

Processing the VOB files to MPEG files:

If you ripped your files to every vob-file above, opening the first file in FlaskMPEG will also open all the other files and you will have the whole movie opened to process. This is the fastest and easiest way, but as I said before, you loose your ability to skip from chapter to chapter.

If you ripped by chapter it will only open the first 9 files, so you will have to rename the files. You will have several files names something like the following: vts_02_1.vob, vts_02_2.vob, vts_02_3.vob, ect... The way I deal with this is to rename the files as I process them, this movie happens to be The Matrix, so I will rename the first file from vts_02_1.vob to matrix_chapter1.vob and than process it. When done I will rename the second file vts_02_2.vob to matrix_chapter2.vob and so-on.

Start up FlaskMPEG and open the first file. If there are more than one audio track you will get a screen something like this, pick the proper track and click the "Flask it!" button. NOTE: Track 0x80 is the default audio track, so, if this is an English DVD and you want the English sound track pick the 0x80, if you want another audio track you will have to open one and listen to it to see if it is the one you want.

Once opened you will see two screens like the ones below:

Click the "Select Output>>" button and click on "bbMPEG Encoder"

Click on the "Configure button"

Set your setting like the following screen shots, on the Files Tab set your output path to where you want your processed files to go.

Click the OK button.

Click the "Flask it!" button and you will see this screen:

Click the settings button and you will see this screen:

Click the "Video Stream Settings" tab and make sure "VideoCD" is checked.

Click the "Program Stream Settings" tab and make sure "VCD" is checked.

Click ok, then click the "Start" and you should see your video being processed in the encoding window.

Once you have done this to all your chapters you should have all the MPG files in your directory, you are ready to make your VCD Disks.

Burning your VCD:

Start Nero and pick VCD from the scrolling menu on the left like so:

Click on the "New" button and you will be read to drag your movies over, one at a time in the proper order drag you video files over from the right to the left windows watching the meter at the bottom of your screen, if you go above the 700Mb limit, delete the last file on the left screen you dragged over. Once you have your files dragged over and you are below the 700Meg limit press the "write CD dialog button" .

You should see the following screen, click the "Write" button and your first VCD will be burned.

That's it for burning the DVD to VCD.

Resizing your MPEG files to fit on one VCD:

This is a tricky thing to do. You have to balance the size of the file and the quality of the video/audio. This is also hard to do if your not up on your math. You may want to search some of the other sites for an easier way of doing this, but, here is how I do it.

Once you have your files converted to MPEG format you will have to figure out what your video bit rate need to be processed down to so the video will fit on a 700Meg CD.

Lets say we have 1400Megs of video, you may think cutting the video bit rate in half will do it, but, since you have audio, and it has to stay the same for the VCD to work in set-top DVD players you must only adjust the video bit rate.

The standard for VCD is: Video=1150 kbits/sec Audio=224 kbits/sec But, the Video can be as low as 650 kbits/sec. This may not look very good, so some experimentation will be needed. Using the TMPGEnc program will allow you to see the projected file size is, so you can play with the bit rate till you get the file size where you need it. Once you figure out your settings on one file, use the same setting to process all your files.