Advice - Rip DVDs & STX HD100 (Newbish)

[Tomahawk51]

I am starting to get discouraged on the topic of ripping dvds for use on my new HD extender. I know I can do it as mpg (no transcoding), but it seems like I should be using one the newer formats (.264, etc.).

Any suggestions given the following desires?

- Rip a single movie track off of a DVD and encode it to something slightly space saving.
- Play it on HD100 extender AND allow it to FF RW properly. I'd like not to take a 2nd step to make it work (MKVtollnix ?)
- I'd love to use a simple tool, like handbrake. 1 step is really desired.
- I don't use SageMC, so I don't think the conversion tool EvilPenguin built is an option for me.
- Bonus: store it with stereo sound AND surround sound (if I ever buy that receiver)

If handbrake is a suggestion, is there a recommended preset or set of settings?

Any suggestions on how I should do this? The handbrake presets for standard and film play, but I can't FF RW. My extender also slows down incredibly when doing this (menus), but seems functional.

[gplasky]

My opnion.
No need to use a newer format. You can just rip the movie to reduce file size or something like DVDShrink to have the full disk take around 4 GB. Disk is cheap. You can get 1 TB for $199 now. That's $0.80 a movie? You don't have issues with chapter skip, fast forward, AC3 sound and the HD Extender plays them without even breathing hard. I just rip the movie and then I watch it. No issues.

Gerry

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

I am starting to get discouraged on the topic of ripping dvds for use on my new HD extender. I know I can do it as mpg (no transcoding), but it seems like I should be using one the newer formats (.264, etc.).

Why, just because they're newer? All my DVDs are in DVD format (some complete, some movie only) and no recompression. Any transcoding will result in some level of quality loss and I just can't justify the marginal space savings given the time it takes to transcode vs rip.

[Tomahawk51]

OK won over.

By the way, I have been using the "DVD Copy" & "AnyDVD" duo to rip. You are both correct in that this approach is super simple and always works.

And for space...I could aways drop a new HD in the 4th bay of my ReadyNAS. I suppose this is why I bought it....

Thanks again

[Brent]

I have a hidden command line script to execute DVD Decrypter. It rips the DVD into a single vob file, changes the name of the vob to mpg and strips out the extras. No transcoding, but smaller than original file.

I execute this from SageTV using nielms dynamic menu plugin.

[zutcorp]

Brent,

would you mind terribly posting a small How-to-do that?

[rlvogel322]

Originally Posted by zutcorp

Brent,

would you mind terribly posting a small How-to-do that?

Yes, please .

[Brent]

Okay. I'll spend some time Sunday writing up a how-to with the script and post it soon.

[[JiF]Mike]

Another option you might want to consider is using a program called Fair Use Wizard. I use it cause my primary needs were space savings while maintaining a good quality. A typical movie ends up being around 700MB and it only takes a few minutes to get the rip started. I watch these movies on a 57" TV and they look just fine. Action movies I keep the AC3 surround sound and others I make stereo. The big drawback is it can take a long time to rip a movie, like as long as the movie is sometimes. I just do a couple per night and I've got quite a collection so far.

Not for everyone, just wanted to give ya another option.

[Tomahawk51]

Thx, I'll look at Fair use wizard to see how that looks as well.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent

I have a hidden command line script to execute DVD Decrypter. It rips the DVD into a single vob file, changes the name of the vob to mpg and strips out the extras. No transcoding, but smaller than original file.

I execute this from SageTV using nielms dynamic menu plugin.

Originally Posted by zutcorp

Brent,

would you mind terribly posting a small How-to-do that?

Here's How-to #1.

This version does the following:
Uses DVDDecrypter
Script runs from SageTV to extract the movie-part of the DVD to movie folder into a single vob file, and then renames the extension to mpg. Hope it's useful for some.
How-to and script download

[rlvogel322]

Originally Posted by Brent

Here's How-to #1.

This version does the following:
Uses DVDDecrypter
Script runs from SageTV to extract the movie-part of the DVD to movie folder into a single vob file, and then renames the extension to mpg. Hope it's useful for some.
How-to and script download

Thank you Brent! The effort is much apreciated.

[heffneil]

Brent,

I tried to reach you on your website. You might have received it but I figured I would ask some questions here if you and others don't mind. It may be useful to them as well. Some of the DVDs I have ripped might rip the movie in a foreign language, with no audio or in some cases it seems to rip it three times and combine it so I get three portions of the movie in multiple languages.

Also I noticed that some of the mpgs Ican see my progress along the time play bar (don't know the technical name for this) while others are just 0 and stopping and resuming is impossible. I don't know if this is an issue with the MPG or the DVD I am trying to convert. Any thoughts here?

I have about 100 DVDs done now but I think about 25 or 40 are no good.

Thanks!

Neil

[Brent]

Hi Niel,
I apologize for not getting back to you quicker - life has really been busy lately so I'm way behind in responding on these types of things.

I can't figure out why it would rip them in other languages or any of the other audio problems. The playback problems shouldn't (I know I'm assuming here) have anything to do with the rip itself. Have you tried to play back these in other applications? I'll try to take some time this week to see if I can figure anything else out.


One thing I'd recommend to anyone using the script is to check each resulting file for playback to ensure its working properly. Do this right after ripping and it would be easier to troubleshoot.

[heffneil]

I am using the same script for all my DVD's. It seems like certain brands or studios have different characteristics. Anyway some of them work just great while others are just bad. I was talking to some people who suggested Handbrake. I don't want to find a pretty reliable solution.

Also how do you setup cover art for your DVD's with MC? I haven't found any good tutorials on this.

Thanks,

Neil

[Brent]

Originally Posted by heffneil

I am using the same script for all my DVD's. It seems like certain brands or studios have different characteristics. Anyway some of them work just great while others are just bad. I was talking to some people who suggested Handbrake. I don't want to find a pretty reliable solution.

Handbrake is an excellent solution - I've used it successfully as well so its worth a try if your having trouble with the script.

Also how do you setup cover art for your DVD's with MC? I haven't found any good tutorials on this.

I use DVD Profiler which is a third party software for cataloging movies. It acquires the covers for you, but the process for adding movie to SageTV involves opening up DVD Profiler, adding the movie to the database, exporting the database and refreshing the info in SageMC. It's a bit more involved than I would prefer, but it does work. If you didn't want to hassle with DVD Profiler, you could also just do a IMDB search (built in to SageMC) and add the covers and some information that way.

[jrog]

Originally Posted by Brent

Handbrake is an excellent solution - I've used it successfully as well so its worth a try if your having trouble with the script.

I use DVD Profiler which is a third party software for cataloging movies. It acquires the covers for you, but the process for adding movie to SageTV involves opening up DVD Profiler, adding the movie to the database, exporting the database and refreshing the info in SageMC. It's a bit more involved than I would prefer, but it does work. If you didn't want to hassle with DVD Profiler, you could also just do a IMDB search (built in to SageMC) and add the covers and some information that way.

Ok, so I used Handbrake to rip all of my movies (500 and growing), mostly for iTunes and iPhone, which is great (I guess). I'm happy with the picture quality. Are you saying DVD Profiler will allow me to manage my library of .M4V files and integrate the MetaData into Sage? I don't mind having to do a little manual effort if it works well.

[stanger89]

Technically Sage manages the library (any file type Sage supports), and retrieves metadata and cover art from DVD Profiler.

[heffneil]

I know we are getting a bit off topic from the purpose of this thread but has anyone documented the DVD profiler / Sage combination? I tried messing around with DVD profiler but I think I am getting too old for this crap. I don't know where to begin.

As for the DVDs I have ripped I don't know. I am going to experiment some more. I love the script and it has made a tedious job such a pleasure. I just wish it was 100% perfect... Something is definitely missing when it comes to be able to see progress along the bar on the bottom of the screen.

Neil

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by heffneil

I know we are getting a bit off topic from the purpose of this thread but has anyone documented the DVD profiler / Sage combination? I tried messing around with DVD profiler but I think I am getting too old for this crap. I don't know where to begin.

Basically there are three steps:
1) Enter the DVD into DVD Profiler
2) Export the DVD Profiler database to an XML file
3) Import the data into Sage

For 1 and 2 I'll refer you to the DVD Profiler documentation, for 3, it depends what STV you're using. SageMC has the importing built in. For the Stock STV, my import, called "IVL 0.9.1" is floating around the forums somewhere.

A search should find you a lot of info about both.