"What are the best VidCoder settings for ripping blu rays? Sorry if this is not an appropriate place to post this. Hey guys I recently started ripping my blu ray collection to put onto my server I used makeMKV to rip them. Now I'm wondering what the best settings in vidcoder are for the best quality. I'm looking to get my movies around 5-6GB. Thanks in advance." - A question from the Reddit forum.

VidCoder is an open-source DVD/Blu-ray ripping and video transcoding application for Windows. It uses HandBrake as its encoding engine. Therefore, similar to HandBrake, VidCoder can rip DVDs and Blu-Rays but does not defeat the encryption added to commercial discs. To handle commercial Blu-ray/DVD discs, you have to install 3rd-party decryption libraries for VidCoder, just like libdvdcss for HandBrake.

Quite a great number of people have been looking for the best settings of VidCoder for ripping Blu-ray movies. Well, here in this guide, we would like to guide you through the details of VidCoder.

Part 1. How to Use VidCoder?

Based on the Handbrake encoding engine, VidCoder aims to be a simple to use, yet complex in features, video conversion tool, converting your video files, DVDs and even Blu-ray movies to MKV or MP4. At its simplest, VidCoder allows you to simply load in the video file/disc, select the output destination, and off you go. But this tutorial will try to examine all of the features and settings of VidCoder, so that if you do decide you want more control over your encodings, you have that option.

In the below guide, we would like to show you the detailed steps on how to use VidCoder to encode Blu-ray/DVD movies to MP4 or MKV files.

Step 1: Installation and configuration

VidCoder requires .NET Framework 4.0 to operate, so before you download and install VidCoder, make you have .NET 4.0 installed. Meanwhile, download and install VidCoder on your computer.

Step 2: Prepare your source media files

Get your source video/Blu-ray/DVD movie files ready for converting. It should be noted that ripping Blu-ray/DVD movies are illegal in many countries and regions. Therefore you need to make sure you don't break the local law.

Step 3: VidCoder options

In VidCoder, from the "Tools" menu, select "Options". 

vidcoder_options_general-1

In the "General" tab of the Options section, VidCoder allows you to set whether the program minimizes to the task bar or the system tray, and set update options according to your needs.

vidcoder_options_file_naming-2

In the "File naming" tab, you can configure the default behaviour for output, including output folder, file format, renaming issue, etc.

vidcoder_options_audio_subtitles-3

And in the "Audio / Subtitles" tab, there's only one option here. That's the "Preferred Language" option, for files and discs that have multiple languages. The "Processes" tab simply allows you to load in a list of Windows processes that, when are present/running, will force VidCoder to pause encoding. And finally, in the "Advanced" tab, you can configure the number of picture previews to scan.

Step 4: Select the Source

vidcoder_add_media-4

After setting VidCoder options, you will be navigated to the main interface of VidCoder. In the "Choose a video source" section, you have three input options - choose to convert a video file (for example, AVI), choose to convert an already ripped or a hard-drive based DVD or Blu-ray folder, or choose to convert straight from a non encrypted discs. Just click the one according to your needs and load source media files. During loading source media files, you could also select subtitles and audio tracks, or even add external subtitles as you like.

Step 5: Output directory and setting

vidcoder_settings_picture-5

Under the "Destinations" section, simply enter in where you want your output file to be saved on your computer. The "Encoding" section is really the meat of VidCoder, and it is here that you select the output video file container, quality, the file size, audio type and pretty much everything else about your output. To make it easy, you can simply select one of the pre-saved "Presets" ("Normal", "High Profile", and one of the presets for Apple devices, such as the iPad, iPhone ...). So if it's quick and dirty you want, and you don't really care about the output file size, then the presets are for you (so select one and skip to step 6).

You could also custom the output video and audio parameters by setting them under the tabs below, including Picture, Video Filters, Video, Audio and Advanced. You could there set detailed parameters for output video files as you like.

Step 6: Preview, Encoding and the Job Queue

vidcoder_job_queue-6

Close the Settings window once you have finished all settings above. Pressing the "Preview" button launches a new window that contains the X number of preview pictures that you selected way back in Step 2. More useful is the "Play Preview Clip" button, which when clicked, will quickly generate a preview video clip with your selected audio and subtitles options.

With input selected, settings set, if you want to start encoding immediately, simply click on the "Encode" button. Or if you want to set up a few more jobs, then use the "Add to Queue" button, and when you're finished adding in jobs, also press the "Encode" button to start the job queue. (And if you wanted to batch convert a bunch of files with the same setting, use the File -> Enqueue Multiple Titles option now). When encoding is in progress, a progress bar is also present, and you can pause or stop the current job.

Now, the entire encoding process will be over. You could just follow these steps to fully make use of VidCoder to encode media files on your Windows computer as you like.

Part 2. Is VidCoder Safe?

By follow the above steps, you have come to learn how easy it is to use VidCoder to encode media files on your computer. However, many people have been worrying about the safety of VidCoder. Questions like "is VidCoder safe to use" have been available on various encoding forums like reddit.com.

The first thing that will help you determine if a particular file is a legitimate Windows process or a virus, is the location of the executable itself. For example, a process like vidcoder.exe should run from C:\Program Files\vidcoder\vidcoder.exe and not elsewhere.

vidcoder-7

To confirm, open the Task Manager, go to View -> Select Columns and select "Image Path Name" to add a location column to your Task Manager. If you find a suspicious directory here, it may be a good idea to investigate this process further.

Another tool that can sometimes help you detect bad processes is Microsoft's Process Explorer. Start the program (it does not require installation) and activate "Check Legends" under Options. Now go to View -> Select Columns and add "Verified Signer" as one of the columns.

If the "Verified Signer" status of a process is listed as "Unable to Verify", you should take a moment look at the process. Not all good Windows processes have a Verified Signature label, but neither do any of the bad ones.

The most important facts about vidcoder.exe:

  1. Located in C:\Program Files\VidCoder\ subfolder;
  2. Publisher: RandomEngy
  3. Full Path: C:\Program Files\vidcoder\vidcoder.exe
  4. Help file:
  5. Publisher URL: vidcoder.codeplex.com
  6. Known to be up to 25.28 MB in size on most Windows;

If you had any difficulties with this executable, you should determine if it's trustworthy before deleting vidcoder.exe. To do this, find this process in Task Manager. Find its location (it should be in C:\Program Files\VidCoder\) and compare the size etc with the above facts.

If you suspect that you may be infected with a virus, then you must attempt to fix it immediately. To delete the vidcoder.exe virus, you should download and install a full security application like Malwarebytes. Note that not all tools can detect every type of malware, so you may need to try several options before you're successful.

In addition, the functionality of the virus may itself affect the deletion of vidcoder.exe. In this case, you must enable Safe Mode with Networking - a secure environment that disables most processes and loads only the most required services and drivers. When there, you can run a security program and a complete system analysis.

Part 3: Best VidCoder Settings for Ripping Blu-ray

Now, let's focus on the best VidCodec settings for ripping Blu-ray. We have learned that VidCoder actually takes HandBrake as its transcoding engine. Therefore, actually we could use the settings in HandBrake for ripping Blu-ray within VidCoder for references.

best-vidcoder-settings-for-ripping-blu-ray-8

The above picture shows the best recommended settings of VidCoder for ripping Blu-ray movies within VidCoder. To make it clear, we have listed the details below:

  1. Container: MKV
  2. Video Codec: H.264
  3. Set "Tune" to "Film " (use "Animation" for 2D cartoons)
  4. "Very Slow" (smaller size for same quality, just let it run overnight).
  5. Set maximum width to 1280 (720p)
  6. Constant quality
  7. Set qualityslider between 18-23
  8. 23 is good enough for almost everything. For dimly-lit or high-SFX/Action movies, go down as low as 18 (lower QC = higher quality and file size).
  9. AAC 5.1 (384 kbps).
  10. AAC because it's compatible with absolutely everything
  11. 384 kbps because 64 kbps/channel generally is more than enough for non-audiophiles (most of us).

You could try to set these parameters in VidCoder settings for ripping Blu-ray. However, it should be noted that the above settings are only recommended but not fixed for all Blu-ray movie ripping. For example, it would be different when you rip Blu-ray movies to 1080P and 4K videos. Therefore, you need to make sure which output file you would get before you determine the settings.

And you could see that VidCoder is actually a little bit complicated for you to carry out these settings, therefore, we would like to recommend you a more powerful media transcoder software tool - Leawo Prof. Media, a comprehensive media converter suite that could help you encode and decode nearly all media files like ripping Blu-ray, converting DVD, converting HD videos, etc. It has more practical yes easier to use features for transcoding media files just like VidCoder does.

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☉ Edit Blu-ray/DVD/video files to trim, crop, adjust effect, apply 3D effect, etc.

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Part 4: Conclusion

VidCoder is a wonderful tool for you to transcode media files. It could help you transcode media files like video, DVD and even Blu-ray content. Based on HandBrake, it offers quite easy to use interface. However, you need to know that VidCoder doesn't handle protected Blu-ray/DVD movies. You need to turn to other transcoders to handle copy protected Blu-ray/DVD movies like Leawo Prof. Media, which is a much more powerful and practical media transcoder suite that enables you to transcode nearly all media files including Blu-ray, DVD, up to 4K videos, audios, pictures, online videos, and even ISO image files.