Please note that the following method to convert DVDs into Avi files works only with DVDs that are not copy protected. I will take a look at the possibilities to convert copy protected DVDs in the coming days. The freeware that we are going to us is called Auto Gordian Knot. It is a very simple utility. You basically select an input file from the DVD that has been inserted into your dvd drive.

You will find a so called IFO file on most DVDs and that is the file to choose normally. Sometimes you have to choose a VOB file instead. As a rule of thumb you should view the VOB files that you want to choose before you actually select them to avoid errors such as selecting a menu to be included in the rip.
Once that is done the contents will be read and you have to choose which audio tracks you want to rip as well. You may choose up to two audio tracks, the first audio track is always preselected.

If subtitles are present on the disc they can be included as well, same principle as with audio tracks. After that you define the output size of the movie, the default value is 2 CDs but you may choose anything from 1/4 of a CD to 2 GB.

Size is up to you of course. The smaller options such as 1/4 or 1/2 of a CD should only be applied to single tracks such as  episodes of tv series for example. It does not really make sense to add five episodes of a tv series and make the output size 1/4 of a CD which is only about 200 megabytes.

AutoGK has many advanced settings which are not that relevant if you want to quickly rip a DVD. You might want to take a look but you have to know what you are doing in order to change the settings there.

I especially like AutoGK because you may rip DVDs in one go easily. It takes between three and six hours normally depending on the source files and settings that you have choosen. Faster computers will probably need less time.  Oh, all codecs needed in the converting process are included which is another great plus.

I know that you would like some examples of videos that you can find at ShowMeDo, here we go. I pick three random ones: Getting Started with Wordpress, Basic Car Maintenance and The Perfect Cup of Coffee, As you can see they offer tech related video tutorials and “real-life” tutorials as well. Playing a video works the same way as in youtube, just click the link, the video loads and you press play in the video to start it. If youtube works for you ShowMeDo will as well.

As I said earlier it is a relatively new website which means that they do not have millions of videos. It also takes a longer time for the users to create tutorial videos as you can imagine. The ShowMeDo wiki has a (written) tutorial that explains in detail how to create videos that can be uploaded to ShowMeDo, why not share your knowledge if you are good at something ?

You may request tutorials about a certain subject. Users can vote which request is of interest to them. This is a nice feature, really nice. You still need someone to pick up your request so don’t start with something like theory of relativity. I suppose basic stuff works best here.

If ShowMeDo manages to gain some momentum and exposure on the internet they surely will make they way as a great niche movie website that is able to survive amongst the big players.

found at donationcoder

A drawback is that you install many codecs that you do not need and that could interfere with codecs already installed on your system. A more elegant approach would be to scan the media file to find out which codes have been used to encode the file. One freeware that is able to do this is Media Info.

Media Info loads the media file and scans it for codes that are needed to playback the file. It displays extensive information about audio and video streams, the bitrate used to encode the movie and the names of the codec(s). A great feature is a link to the website of the codec used where it is possible to download it and a link to a video player website that is able to play the file without downloading the codec seperately.