DivX;-)
DivX is the Video equivelent of MP3, producing excellent quality results whilst maintaining a reasonable sized file. An average 100 minutes worth of DVD quality video and audio may be compressed into a file that easily fits onto a 700MB (80 minute) CD-R. The quality of the video is comparable to standard VHS whilst the audio is encoded in MP3 format. It seems quite amazing that a disc designed to hold 80 minutes of CD audio can hold over 100 minutes of VHS quality video with near CD quality audio. There are of course a number of basic tools required to carry out the Divx encoding process.
1. Ripping Software - assuming that you are copying a DVD, programs such as Smart Ripper will decode and copy the DVD movie files to your hard drive. This process will usually require between 5-8GB of HD space depending on the length of the movie.
2. Encoding Software - this program takes the ripped file and encodes it into the required format. FlaskMPEG is a popular choice having many custom settings to tailor the final result to your requirements. It also allows you to encode other MPEG files using any number of video formats. For encoding to DivX you will also need the DivX codec along with an MP3 codec for compressing the audio.
3. Other Tools - Bit Rate Calculators allow you to work out the encoder quality settings required to fit a given movie into a specified file size. Other utilities allow tweaking of the final result after the encoding process ahs been carried out. DVD Genie is a useful tool which enables multi region capabilty to DVD software. There are also a number of DVD harware updates that will unlock your actual DVD drive to multi-region capability.
Disclaimer: This site in no way condones the illegal copying or distribution of copyrighted material.