Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 December 29

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December 29

DVD ripper recommendations?

Anybody have any recommendations for ripping DVDs? Specifically, to an iPod? It looks like HandBrake might be the thing to use; anybody know anything about it? (I.e., is it safe? Yeah, I know it's open source and all, but are the downloadable binaries reliable and malware-free?)

No need to lecture me about legalities; this would be for ripping from a DVD I own to an iPod I own. Thanks for any suggestions. —Steve Summit (talk) 08:42, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Try DVD Shrink (to decode the DVD) and then use any program to convert the vob files, like VLC media player which can transcode the files into the mp4 ipod format. how to Think outside the box 13:34, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. But I should have said: Mac or Linux, please. (I ain't got no Windows.) —Steve Summit (talk) 17:02, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

On linux, if you want to be hackerish, you can use VLC for this (not sure what settings would get it iPod-friendly though, you'd probably have to use iTunes to reencode the ripped files (which would lower the quality marginally, but hey, it's an iPod, it's not the most hi-res of screens)). Otherwise, Lifehacker has this friendly guide. 83.250.203.75 (talk) 00:28, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

VLC is definitely not hackerish. And HandBrake is a joke. Use DVD Decrypter to vob, mencoder to avi (h.264 + ac3), then mkvtoolsnix to mux to MKV, then totally forget watching movies on your ipod because it's a terrible idea and just watch them on your computer. Note you'll need AC3Filter, a mkv splitter, and ffmpeg to actually watch them. --ffroth 01:18, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, my k9copy has an x264 codec selection, shouldn't that work?—eric 01:22, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

I have to disagree with your assertion that HandBrake is a joke. I've been using it for several months and it has worked exceedingly well for me. Larry V (talk | e-mail) 22:09, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

It is too a joke. Select "looks sharp, but is big", "looks medium", or "looks fuzzy but is small". Hit OK. --ffroth 01:18, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

x264 is very good. I don't know about k9copy.. surely there's a smaller tool that only does decrypting? --ffroth 01:21, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

If all you want is decryption rather than shrinking, dvdbackup will do it just fine under Linux. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:46, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Huh. Remarkable how complex this can all be.

I gave HandBrake a try. ffroth musta used an older version, because the 0.9.1 that I tried didn't have "looks sharp, but is big / looks medium / looks fuzzy but is small" or anything; it had presets for multiple sorts of devices, including three varieties of iPod. So there was no problem there. But it was gawdawful slow (about 5 fps, or 6x realtime), and it randomly (which is to say deterministically) fails on 4 out of the 13 tracks I wanted to rip.

So I tried DVD Shrink on a nearby Windoze machine, and I was able to extract the other 4 tracks, though as vob's, as Think had predicted. So I tried using VLC media player to convert them, and that worked. But.

iTunes refuses to download the newly-created mp4's to the iPod; it says they won't play. Yet other mp4's I created using VLC (starting with flv's snatched from YouTube), converted using the exact same settings (MPEG4 video and audio codecs, 512/128 kbps), do work. Very strange. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:35, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The solution ended up being to extract the four troublesome tracks using DVD Shrink, then convert them using HandBrake. Strange. (Clearly HandBrake has some bugs in its multi-track code.) —Steve Summit (talk) 19:26, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Non-widescreen laptop?

I want to buy a non-widescreen laptop. Basically, I want more of height and less of width. But I am not able to locate any, in the manufacturers' websites. Kindly suggest some models, especially low-cost ones. Thank you! --Masatran (talk) 08:55, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you want it narrower than the usual 4:3 aspect ratio? —Bromskloss (talk) 15:25, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

4:3 is okay. My current laptop is 4:3. But it appears that 4:3 laptops are no longer being manufactured :-( --Masatran (talk) 06:54, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

I seriously doubt it. Both 16:9 and 4:3 have advantages as well as disadvantages to them, so I don't believe manufacturers would cease the production of the latter altogether. --Ouro (blah blah) 07:27, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Formatting a hard drive

• My hard drive has been freezing up lately, and recently simply refused to start up, so I had to reinstall XP. Upon doing so, I was told that my hard disk was not able to load XP for whatever reasons and would require a reformat. This was around 9PM yesterday. My hard drive is 236GB, but is it unusual that it's 4:30am now and the indicator is still on 0%? Should I consider buying a new hard drive? Thanks. JuJube (talk) 12:47, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

I'd say the formatting process has frozen. It's likely there's something wrong with the drive, but it may still be salvagable. You can try removing it and connecting it to another computer, where you wouldn't need to rely on it to boot an operating system and you'd be free to just scan its contents or perform operations on it from Windows. If you're not familiar with doing things like this though, you may want to just purchase a new hard drive. Unfortunately I think hiring a technician would be almost as expensive, and he will probably just tell you that you need a new drive anyway. I would try the installation again though before doing anything else, it's possible it may work the second time around. Equazcion •✗/C • 13:06, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

I figured as much, thanks. Is there any way to avoid this kind of thing happening in the future? My last computer went kaput for similar reasons. Is it excessive hard drive activity that causes them to fail quicker? JuJube (talk) 13:28, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

I actually leave my computers powered on and use them more than anyone I know, and I think I've had perhaps one hard drive crash on me in my lifetime -- which if you knew me you'd know was an impressive statistic. My only advice is to get a good brand. Western Digital is the brand I swear by. I've read a lot in forums about Maxtor drives failing often, and I've even got a few personal friends who;ve been through many Maxtor crashes. To date I've had not a single Western Digital fail fail on me. I've also had good experiences with Seagate and Fujitsu, and I've heard good things about IBM. One other piece of advice is, I've known people with frequent hard drive crashes who kept large stereo speakers next to their computers -- without knowing that large speakers have powerful electromagnets in them, which can damage hard drives. Equazcion •✗/C • 13:47, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh man, I did not know that. :\ Thanks for your help again. JuJube (talk) 13:54, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

No problem :) Equazcion •✗/C • 14:15, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

My Matrox drives are still running fine after 3 years of 24/7 usage in RAID 0, so it's not that bad. I did have a few "clicks of death" (actually drive head resetting) though because of the power supply I had couldn't supply enough power, and that's fixed when I replaced the power supply. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:50, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

If you're feeling adventurous and have access to another computer, you might have another option. You can burn a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD. In it's Hard Drive tools section, it has diagnostic programs from most of the major hard drive makers. These programs are designed to scan for and repair bad sectors. If that's not your problem, and you just want to wipe the drive and start over, it's got utilities for that too. Good Luck -- Ptelder (talk) 06:42, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

How to convert this format

I have a webcam, and with it came this software for making videos. It's extremely easy to work with, and some of the things I have been able to produce have been amazing. Unfortunately, it only makes them in ".vi" format, a format I have never heard of. Obviously, this is completely useless unless I can convert it to a working format, such as .mov or .avi, or some such. I have googled around for file converters, but unfortunately Google thinks I am making a typo for .avi . Does anyone have any idea how I can convert this (preferably for free)?--ChokinBako (talk) 19:56, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Whoops! Just ignore me! I found a button.......--ChokinBako (talk) 20:09, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

OK, a more relevant question. How is it possible to strip a .mov video or .avi video from sound, so I can use it in a music video I am trying to make? Or is this possible? --ChokinBako (talk) 20:24, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

What non-linear video editing software are you using? There should simple controls for changing the volume of audio tracks, such as dragging an indicator in Final Cut Pro. You wouldn't really need to remove the audio, just set the volume to 0%. Freedomlinux (talk) 04:32, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Or if all you really want to do is strip the audio, you can use Avidemux or VirtualDub. When choosing the ouput audio format, just choose none. Ptelder (talk) 06:20, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Boot question

My new computer has an ASUS M2N-VM DH AM2 MicroATX motherboard and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 GB SATA-II hard drive. If I let the computer boot up by itself, it fails to recognise the hard drive as a bootable device, and just says "Operating system missing." and halts. If I explicitly enter the boot menu, I can see all bootable devices, and choose the SATA-II hard disk, and get it to boot up. This is currently the only way to have my OS boot up. The BIOS supports four bootable devices, and I've set them up as follows: (1) Removable (floppy?), (2) CD-ROM, (3) hard disk, (4) none. Would it help if I moved "hard disk" further up? But would that prevent me from booting from a floppy or a CD? JIP | Talk 21:54, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

You should try moving hard disk all the way up just to see if that's the problem. If it works, then there could be a removable device that the computer is tying to boot from -- like a USB thumb drive or some other type of storage media. If you can't find anything, you may just need to leave the hard drive as the first item in the boot order, and use the boot menu when you want to boot from CD. Equazcion •✗/C • 23:09, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I agree, that is probably the problem. Don't worry, if you need to boot from a CD or USB-drive, just do so manually (like what you do now to boot from your hard-drive). You can't possibly do that very often, anyway. 83.250.203.75 (talk) 00:09, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

It could also be the case that "hard disk" in the list above means "IDE hard disk" and that there should be some choice "SATA hard disk" or "SCSI drive" or something that you should pick as item (3). I think that is the way it works on my system. Jørgen (talk) 06:24, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

No, I can only select "Removable", "CD-ROM", "hard disk" or "none" as the options. At least this is how I remember it. JIP | Talk 05:48, 2 January 2008 (UTC)