DVD Fab is one of the ripping programs currently used at Loyola New Orleans to produce streaming videos. By default, DVD Fab tends to produce files with high video quality, but that are larger and denser than desired. Some of the main settings for managing the output file are described here.
The screenshot above shows the default information DVD Fab provides after it has analyzed a DVD and is ready to begin the ripping process. Red arrows point to key details. The length of the video program, displayed in hours, minutes, and seconds can be used to determine the desired output file size. The Advanced Settings button must be clicked to bring up the details that can be used to reduce the size of the output file.
The screenshot above shows the advanced settings that can be selected. The Resolution selection box will provide a list width and height pairs that retain the aspect ratio of the program on disc. Unlike some other programs, these options automatically offered by DVD Fab will produce output without black bars (unless black bars are embedded in the program on disc).
The Video Quality selection box must be set to Customized before setting either Bit Rate or Output Size. The Output Size selection box allows the user to type in a target file size. The output file size is updated automatically by the DVDFab is any other settings are changed. The Channels selection box should always be set to Mono or Stereo. The Subtitle Mode selection box should always be set to Direct render to video, if subtitles are to be included in the computer file.
In this example, the Resolution (width x height) has been set to 640x276, a modest reduction from the size of the display as recorded on the disc. The Video Quality was set to Customized to allow the output file size to be set to 950 MB (that value was automatically changed when other settings were adjusted). Audio channels has been set to Stereo (down from Dolby Pro Logic II), and Subtitle mode has been set to Direct render to video because subtitles are to be included in the output file.