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Aug 10 2005
Ripping DVD's to watch on your PSP
PSP Guide | How To
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Vlad
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
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I am speaking to people who intend to transcode DVD's to MP4 using PSPVideo9. I also refer to having a 1GB card alot, though it's still good advice even without it. From my experience pspvideo9 is the encoder to use if your going to create video for the PSP (for Windows). That said I submit this as an addendum to that in order to add my experience. It is higly reccommended that you read this guide first, as it is much more basic.
I think I have read every guide on here about transcoding and I have done alot of firsthand research. Specifically I am a college student who has to work in the computer labs and I end up using a wide variety of computers (resulting in a large varience of different setups and problems). My conclusion is that the best solution to transcode a DVD to MP4 is Smartripper and PSPVideo9.
Problem: Drive is a DVD drive but cannot seem to play a regular DVD in WMP
Solution: Install a free DVD decoder/player. You will need to open the DVD and play it before Smartripper can crack the files.
Problem: Video accidentally has the wrong track, does not look the way you want etc.
Solution: First use Smartripper to use a small piece of the video (one chapter or less, optimally <60 sec) and encode it with your intended settings. Usually each chapter has a number of "Cells". Find one that is short and has something that represents the video well (not credits etc). Just click on one cell and deselect all the other chapters, rip to vob + encode with PSPVideo9.
1. Take my advice above and create a test file! I have worked with about 10 DVDs so far and wasted alot of time because 3 hours later I realize I have exceeded my max filesize and have to start over! It is the best advice I can give you. Once you have your test file of a min or so of video you simply run a number of encodings on PSPVideo9 using different settings and upload them to your PSP and select which encoding settings give you the look/filesize you want. I found it very helpful to write down the filenames and their encoding type for later critique.
2. Use the file size estimater. This is under settings in PSPVideo9. Look at the back of your DVD case or in the [number] from Smartripper to find total video time and enter the numbers into the filesize estimator. The bottom line is it has to fit on your card. I always tweak settings untill i have a little bit of extra room because it is an extremely wasteful and time consuming to encode a video that is too big.
3. Do not create files larger than 700mb. I would even suggest going no larger than 650 or possibly 600 for the cautious. Why?
a) If you're like me and your going to encode dozens of DVD's or more, then you're looking at alot of hard drive space.
b) It's just smart to back up your files to CD anyway. If you really get into this you're looking at investing many hours of time and will be irate if you have to format and you lose all your videos.
c) You will have some room on your card for some other stuff too.
4) Pick an appropriate title, put files in individual folders. If you forget the title there is no way to edit it as far as I know and your file will be called vob_1 or some mess when you view on PSP. Also, once you have created your file put it and the thumbnail into its own folder such as "Braveheart movie" because in a month you're not going to remember which movie XXXXX12.mp4 is.
5) Do 2 pass encoding, it takes about twice as long, but filesize doesnt seem to increase much and it seems to make a better video. If you planned wisely it will be worth it in the end to have a better video.
As before be sure to use the estimator and create a test to get a quality and filesize you can live with.
Fullscreen
Use 320x240 and pick settings as needed. I have had good success using the 320x240. This will leave you with an original file that does not display anything on the left and right of your PSP screen. You can either play it back fullscreen (which streches the square video and makes it look squashed) or zoom (which just zooms in to the middle of the frame and ignores some of the top and bottom)
You can also use the 368x207 setting and crop about 50 pixels off the top and bottom of the frame. The problem I found with this is that my filesizes seemed to be about the same either way, and this way you have less options (cannot view original, or squeezed fullscreen).
Widescreen
Gotta be 368x207. When I encoded Elf I could just select this setting and it looked perfect on screen. When I encoded Braveheart I ran into problems because the video seemed to be an even wider format (probably true theatre aspect). The best way I found to combat this problem was to crop all around the frame so there was not a black bar on the top and bottom of the video. I think I zoomed in about 30 pixels all around. You lose a little bet of the left and right of the frame but such is life for the full widescreen PSP lover. This is a case where you will kick yourself if you don't do a tester batch and end up with 4 hrs of work and a video you're not happy with.
As of August 10 2005 there is a beta version of PSPVideo9 that encodes using the new AVC codec. Considering all the mud in the water over upgrading to 2.0 I am continuing to encode to MP4 for the time being, also the beta is unstable and forum conversation is discouraging at this time. A last tip is to decode multiple DVDs with Smartripper before you get into PSPVideo9. The decoding is faster than encoding but requires more attention. I do it while cleaning or doing homework. Say you have 3 DVDs:
1. Decode full video, and a smaller tester file (repeat for all 3).
2. Run through your tester files in PSPVideo9 untill you know what settings you need for each video (this is easier for box sets etc).
3. Batch encode your video in PSPVideo9. This is the really time consuming part and takes about double the time of the movie length with 2 pass encoding (about 3 hrs). So just start the first file, and "add new" files to the queue. Do this before bed and you will wake up with shiny new perfectly encoded stuff!
I hope this has helped some of you getting started or getting frustrated with the process.
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Comments
09/09/05
Chronos777
| USA
It is possible to change the title of the video in PSPvideo9. If you go to copy and click on the file, and at the bottom of the screen choose file info, one of the options is video name. Erase vob_01, and replace it with desired name. Also, the AVC codec that is currently in PSPvideo9 is pretty good, and you can get some good videos with good size. I encoded Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and got it to about 680 mb, and it looks pretty good. I definitely agree that it is annoying to spend 4 hours and have a video that I don't like. I accidently encoded Moulin Rouge to a smaller bitrate than I wanted, and it would take too much time right now to change it, so I am stusk, but I guess I will just have to live with it.
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09/29/05
6 
Serif
| Ontario Canada
Here's a link to a graphic I made to show some of PSP Video 9's aspect ratio's.
To get the best results on your video conversion make a custom profile and choose one of the video resolutions that is on a diagonal of your original source.
link
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07/18/06
14
Timalan69
| Virginia USA
do you have to pay for smart ripper?
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07/18/06
14
Timalan69
| Virginia USA
08/04/06
17
candyman420
| Arizona USA | SOCOM: xX.WH1TBOY.Xx
when smartripper tryies to rip my dvd it says some files may be stil locked wtf
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12/28/06
9
hybridcoolie
| New York USA
hey how would i get subtitles with this?
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