Ripping DVDs (no, not commercial ones)

[sunteam_paul]

Because I'm too tight to invest in video capture gear, I want to get some video off an old tape camcorder so I can edit it together with newer video taken with a nice digital camcorder. I guess the easiest way for me is to just record it onto a DVD then rip it onto the computer - anyone know of some decent free software that does this and can save in something like avi or Mpeg2?

[Necromancer]

Try Free DVD Ripper.  It ain't fancy, but it might get the job done.

[SignOfZeta]

HandBrake, all the way:

http://handbrake.fr/

BTW, your quality is likely to be...very bad using this method. I mean, its not going to be great if the source is old VHS, but the conversion to DVD really hits the quality. Partially because of the capture process, partially because of the MPEG2 encoding. Then the compression MPEG2 did will be magnified by any resolution changes and compression done as part of the editing/importing process, and then again in the final (I assume, internet-ready) render.

[sunteam_paul]

Thanks for the tips, I shall investigate these soon.