Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters

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So many video file formats, so many handheld video players, so manyonline video sites, and so little time. To have your favorite clips howyouwant them—whether that‘s on your DVR, iPod, PSP or desktop—you need theright utility to convert ‘em into the format that works for you.Commercial video converter software‘s aplenty, but there are severalsolid free utilities that can convert your video files on everyoperating system, or if you‘ve just got a web browser and a quick clip.Put DVDs on your iPod, YouTube videos on DVD, or convert any video filewith today‘s top 10 free video rippers, encoders and converters.
10.VLC media player (Open source/All platforms)
Ok, so VLC is a media player, not converter, but if you‘re watching digital video, it‘s a must-have—plusVLC can indeed rip DVD‘s, as well asplay ripped discsin ISO format (no actual optical media required.) VLC can also play FLVfiles downloaded from YouTube et al, no conversion to AVI required.Since there‘s aportable version, VLC‘s a nice choice for getting your DVD rips/saved YouTube video watching on wherever you go.
9.MediaCoder (Open source/Windows)
Batch convert audio and video compression formats with the open sourceMedia Coder for Windows, which works with a long laundry lists offormats, including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+V2, MusePack, WMA,RealAudio, AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, RealMedia, ASF/WMV, Quicktime,and OGM, to name a few.8.Avi2Dvd (Freeware/Windows)
Makeyour video files burnable to a DVD with Avi2Dvd, a utility thatconverts Avi/Ogm/Mkv/Wmv/Dvd files to Dvd/Svcd/Vcd format. Avi2Dvd canalso produce DVD menus with chapter, audio, and subtitle buttons.7.Videora Converter (Freeware/Windows only)
VideoraConverter is a set of programs, each designed to convert regular PCvideo files into a format tailored to your favorite video-playinghandheld device. The Videora program list includesiPod Video Converter (for 5th gen iPods),iPod classic Video Converter (for 6th gen classic iPods),iPod nano Video Converter (for 3rd gen iPod nanos),iPod touch Video Converter,iPhone Video Converter,Videora Apple TV Converter,PSP Video 9,Videora Xbox360 Converter,Videora TiVo Converter, andVideora PMP Converter. Lifehacker alum Rick Broida usedVideora in conjunction with DVD Decrypter to copy DVDs to his iPod.
Honorable Mention:Ares Tube for Windows converts YouTube and other online videos to iPod format.
6.Any Video Converter (Freeware/Windows only)
Convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb,MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or otherportable video device, MP4 player or smart phone with Any VideoConverter, which also supports user-defined video file formats as theoutput. Batch process multiple files that AVC saves to a pre-selecteddirectory folder, leaving the original files untouched.5.Hey!Watch (webapp)
Web applicationHey!Watch converts videolocated on your computer desktop as well as clips hosted on videosites. Upload your video to Hey!Watch to encode it into a wide varietyof file formats, like H264, MP4, WMV, DivX, HD Video, Mobile 3GP/MP4,iPod, Archos and PSP. Hey!Watch only allows for 10MB of video uploadsper month for free, and from there you pay for what you use, but it‘sgot lots of neat features for video publishers like podcast feedgeneration and automatic batch processing with options you set once.4.VidDownloader (webapp)
Whenyou don‘t want to mess with installing software to grab that pricelessYouTube clip before it gets yanked, head over to web siteVidDownloaderwhich sucks in videos from all the big streaming sites (YouTube, GoogleVideo, iFilm, Blip.TV, DailyMotion, etc.), converts ‘em for you to aplayable format and offers them for download. Other downloaders foronline video sites buy you a Flash FLV file, but VidDownloader spitsback an AVI file.3.iSquint (Freeware/Mac OS X only)
Convertany video file to iPod-sized versions and automatically add the resultsto your iTunes library. iSquint is free, but Lifehacker readers havepraised the pay-for iSquint upgrade,VisualHub, which offers more advanced options for a $23 license fee. Check out thefeature comparison chart between iSquint and VisualHub.2.DVD Shrink (Freeware/Windows only)
Copy a DVD to your hard drive and leave off all the extras like bonus footage, trailers and other extras to save space with DVD Shrink.Download Adam‘s one-click AutoHotkey/DVD Shrink utility to rip your DVDs to your hard drive for skip-free video play from scratchy optical media.
Honorable mention:DVD Decrypter (beware of advertisement interstitial page), which Windows peeps can use tocopy DVDs to their iPods.
1.Handbrake (Open source/Windows, Mac)
Back up your DVD‘s to digital file with this open source DVD to MPEG-4 converter app. See alsohow to rip DVDs to your iPod with Handbrake.

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It seems you‘re focusing on"one click" solutions which work fine when they work, but if you needmore control or have a problematic vid, the combination of VirtualDub[1], AviSynth[2] and DGMPGDec[3] along with the right set of codecsand an MPG 1/2 Encoder like CCE[4] or MainConcept[5] are hard to beat.Throw in a DVD ripper like DVDFab Decrypter[6] and a handful of otherutilities like MeGUI[7] and your toolbox will be ready for anything youthrow at it.
[1][www.virtualdub.org]
[2][avisynth.org]
[3][neuron2.net]
[4][www.cinemacraft.com]
[5][www.mainconcept.com]
[6][www.dvdfab.com]
[7][www.videohelp.com]
i‘ve been using DVD Shrink since it was made available. i love it.
i can‘t believe you left out some of my favorites, the most usefulbeing VirtualDub which can be use to combine multiple parts to a movie,compress a movie, add subtitles, fix the audio and dubbing, and a wholeslew of filter options including deinterlace. lots of fun features, andfree.
[www.virtualdub.org]
another good one is Vob2Mpg, which will turn vob files created inDVD Shrink (for example) into one mpg file, which can then be convertedinto avi with VirtualDub.
and another good one for going from avi to dvd, along with changing formats (avi, wmv, vob..) is WinAVI Video Converter.
the 4 programs, though, that i use all the time and are the mostuseful for me, are VLC Player, DVD Shrink, VirtualDUB, and Vob2Mpg.check ‘em out.
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DVD Flick works great for me:
www.dvdflick.net
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