DVD43

In order to rip/transcode DVD you own, for example to see the videos on your mobile device, this tool may be useful. It circumvents copy protection and zone settings. It may be illegal under certain circumstances and jurisdictions, however the tool itself is probably legal, if you don't engage in llegal activities with it.

Homepage: http://www.dvd43.com/

Developer: unknown, maybe for legal reasons (?) [whois information]

Version: 4.4.1 (June 29, 2009)

License: closed source freeware

Platform: Windows

HandBrake

This software comes in hand, when you want to upload videos to a mobile phone or media player. It allows to transcode easily to mp4 format with a good control of options, encoder to use, resizing...

Here is my settings file (user_presets.xml), which I use to convert files to display them in my phone:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ArrayOfPreset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Preset>
  <Level>0</Level>
  <Name>Mobile phone</Name>
  <Query> -f mp4 -w 400 -e ffmpeg -q 0.5 -a 1 -E faac -B 160 -R 0 -6 stereo -D 1 -m -v </Query>
</Preset>
</ArrayOfPreset>

My settings are: ffmpeg encoding, mp4 container format, aac stereo sound, 50% constant quality, resize to 400px width. Note that to be able to create a preset under Vista you need to start the application with administrative rights.

Homepage: http://handbrake.fr/

Platform: cross-platform

Version: 0.9.3 (Nov 23, 2008)

License: open source freeware

VLC media player

This media player allows to reproduce a wide spectrum of media files. It is extremely flexible and has a lot of advanced features, probably more than any other media player. The graphical interface (which is one of the different interfaces it has) is nevertheless very simple and lightweight.

You can select the GUI language using Ctrl+P and changing the first option in the dialog.

Homepage: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Developer: VideoLAN project
Version: 1.0.1 (July 27, 2009)
Platform: cross-platform
License: freeware, open source