DVD to WMV: Convert Video from DVD(Digital Versatile Disk) to WMV(Windows Media Video) with River Past Video Cleaner, DVD2WMV converter, conversion

What is DVD?

DVD (also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc") is a popular optical disc storage media format. Its main uses are video and data storage. Most DVDs are of the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs) but store more than six times as much data.

DVD-Video discs respectively refer to properly formatted and structured video content. It uses MPEG-2 for video compression, with AC-3, DTS or MPEG audio for multi-channel audio support.

To decode DVD, you will need both GPL MPEG-2 Decoder, and AC-3 Decoder.

What is WMV?

WMV stands for Windows Media Video -- developed and controlled by Microsoft. WMV is a generic name of Microsoft's video encoding solutions and doesn't necessarily define the technology what it uses -- since version 7 (WMV7) Microsoft has used its own flavour of MPEG-4 video encoding technology. DivX video format is originally based on hacked WMV codec.

Windows Media Format 11 adds support for HD video up to 1080P. WMF 11 runs only on Windows XP and Vista.

Additional information is available on Microsoft Windows Media page.

Launch River Past Video Cleaner

Once River Past Video Cleaner is installed properly, launch Video Cleaner.

Open DVD

Click on the "Add DVD" button on the tool bar. The standard directory open dialog appears. Select your DVD drive or select the "VIDEO_TS" directory.

Select the drive and click "OK". Video Cleaner will parse the directory and add all the video chapters on the disc.

Handling of encrypted DVD's

Most commercial DVD's are copy protected. Our software cannot convert from encrypted DVD's. You can use a third party software to rip the DVD to hard drive first, then browse to the VIDEO_TS directory in our software.

Difference between "Add DVD" and "Add Files"

Do not use "Add Files" to select the VOB files on the DVD disc. A DVD contains many video clips, which are then divided into cells/chapters. All of the video clips are then streamed together in one big block. The VOB files on the disc is just a way to divide the block into 1GB files to be compatible with older operation systems like Windows 95, who has a file size limit.

Each VOB file on the DVD may contain multiple videos. Each video may span over multiple VOB files. If you use "Add Files", only the first clip in that particular VOB file will be parsed and added.

This picture below makes it easier to understand.

In this example, VTS_01_1.VOB contains a still menu, chapter 2, and then the beginning of chapter 3. VTS_01_2.VOB contains the end of chapter 3, and beginning of chapter 4. VTS_01_3.VOB contains the middle of chapter 4. VTS_01_4.VOB contains the end of chapter 4 and beginning of chapter 5, and VTS_01_5.VOB contains the end of chapter 5.

If you use "Add Files" to add VTS_01_1.VOB, you will only get the still menu. If you use "Add Files" to add VTS_01_2.VOB, you will get the end of chapter 3... This is how file based decoding works.

That's why you should use "Add DVD". We will parse the DVD information and find all the cell breaks. You will get to select which cell to convert, from 2 to 5. Still menus are ignored.

If you encounter an error when adding the DVD, please make sure you have GPL MPEG-2 Decoder filter and AC-3 Decoder filter installed.

River Past Video Cleaner

Select output format

Use the setting panel on the bottom of the window to control the output format. Click on the toggle to the left of the "Output Format" label to expand the panel. Select "WMV - Windows Media Video" as the "File Type".

Note: To convert to WMV files, you must have Windows Media Format 9 runtime installed.

Change Video Settings

Click on the toggle to the left of the "Video Settings" label to expand the panel.

Select "Specify" under "Size" and/or "Frame rate" to enter the video resolution and/or frame rate.

You can change the compressor, quality, size, and frame rate of the video.

The encoding mode is set to by "Quality" by default. Higher quality setting will result larger file. To control the file size precisely, change the mode to "Constant bitrate".

The bitrate is in the unit of kbit/second. Use this formula to calculate the video size per minute:

Video size/minute (KByte/second) = bitrate / 8 * 60.

Change Audio Settings

Click on the toggle to the left of the "Audio Settings" label to expand the panel.

Select the audio compressor for the conversion. Depending on the compressor, you may also change the sample rate, channel (stereo or mono), bits/sample, and bitrate.