Both apps crashed on me fairly regularly, and both apps required too many tedious, trial-and-error trips into obscure options and settings dialogs. DivX (payware) to rip DVDs before with somewhat. The tradeoff is higher CPU decoding requirements (rarely an issue on any remotely modern PC), and a lot of re-encoding time. I know it sounds implausible, but I can tell you from personal experience that it works, because MPEG4 is a more modern and efficient codec than MPEG2.

avi file that has DVD-like video and sound quality. For example, you may start with ~9gb of raw, decrypted DVD data, and end up with a 700mb. The goal is to reduce the file size without losing (too much) quality. Quick clarification: by DVD rip, I mean re-encoding a MPEG2 DVD using some variant of the MPEG4 video and audio codecs.

I've long considered Nero the definitive DVD and CD burning software I had no idea they also offered a DVD ripping solution. Steve Makofsky turned me on to some software I already use: Nero Burning ROM, but more specifically, Nero Recode 2, which is a part of their expanded 'ultra' Nero suite.

Nero avi to dvd converter free