How format DVD download to website?

[honvetops]

A friend of mine is in a band and wants to know "how" to download his bands dvd to their website and also to his myspace page?  I had to use infraview  to get my pictures on my own myspace but I don't know what to tell him about dvd's?
A friend of his said he would have to buy something for 30 bucks to do it, I told him people on  [highlight]puterhope [/highlight] would have an answer for us 4- free ~ > ?   :-/

[Rob Pomeroy]

I supposed you'd have to use something like Nero to rip the entire DVD to an image file (e.g. .iso) - but since DVDs tend to be quite large, this may not be the best method of promulgating the video.  How long is it?

[fffreak]

You could always use a video converter, to convert the dvd to a mere media type format such as .avi or .wmv. The only bad thing is the only video converters I find cost $$$ sorry  :-/. Then you could just link his myspace page to the website to show the video. Hope this helps  . I know of a good one pm me for info.

[honvetops]

I supposed you'd have to use something like Nero to rip the entire DVD to an image file (e.g. .iso) - but since DVDs tend to be quite large, this may not be the best method of promulgating the video.  How long is it?

Hey Rob*
Well with these 2 responses at this point I am guessing his best luck would be like  ( 1 or 2 at the most) [highlight]songs[/highlight]?  Would it have been easier if it was VHS or is that still difficult like the dvd?  He is gonna check out this site tonight so any ideas will suffice,  THANKS.......

[Rob Pomeroy]

Even compressed, you have to allow for about 1GB per half hour, for full-screen - or around 100MB for a three minute, single-song video.  That said, if you're prepared to compromise a little (restrict screen size to, say 640x480) this can be reduced.  The best option is to provide a streamed video, so that the end user doesn't have to download the lot before viewing it.  This can only be done if the webserver supports streaming though.

There are many different streaming technologies and servers (Flash, RealMedia, Windows Media formats, etc) so I would start by asking which (if any) of these the webserver supports.  Then you can use something like Windows Media Encoder (free download from MS) to convert the video into streamed format.

VHS is not an option; it is not a compressed format.