Converting DVD's to a portable video format?

[ultimatebob]

I'm looking for software that will allow me to rip a DVD and convert the video to a format that can be played on an iPod or a Zune.

A Google search showed dozens of $39 software programs that will do it automatically, but I'm looking for a free solution.

Any ideas on where I can find something like that?

 

[pm]

Handbrake is my favorite for DVD to iPod/iPhone. Not sure about Zune.
http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Freeware, open source, GPL and it works well. It's extremely easy to use - just pull iPod or iPhone or anything else out of the drop-down box and hit convert. The quality is very good, although the filesizes are a bit bigger than I'd have expected. Runs at about a speed that's a third of real-time (1 hour encrypted in about 20 minutes) on my Core 2 Duo system. For some DVD's I've had issues ripping directly and have had to use DVD Decrypter.

I've also been using Videora for Divx to iPod/iPhone.
http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/
Also Freeware, also easy to use and fast.

And lastly there is MediaCoder which converts everything into everything else but doesn't seem to like my iPhone very much (converted movies don't work).

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

Open source, GPL, and converts everything into everything else. But doesn't rip from DVDs.

Edit:
I saw this on Digg.com tonight:
http://lifehacker.com/software...-converters-316478.php

The top 10 free video rippers, encoders and converters. I was pleased to see everything that I mentioned above on the list.

 

[blackangst1]

^^^ yeah what he said. Google for it. Convert to MP4 or preferrably AVI. 750 meg file.

 

[PurdueRy]

SUPER video converter does pretty much everything...including Ipod and Zune

 

[corkyg]

The only thing SUPERVideo will not do is RealAudio's .ivr video format. Getting .ivr to MPEG or AVI is a round-about exercise. First, RealAudio Plus will create an oddball ISO file in .gi format. That in turn can be converted to standard ISO by Roxio EMC9 or 10. That in turn can create an MPG or AVI product.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Zune should be able to play iPod compatible (unprotected) files (MP4, M4V), while I don't think iPods play WMVs. So if you have both players then that's something to keep in mind. There's mediacoder, super and AutoMKV to name a few.