Best format to convert DVDS

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by sandor

what front end are you using with x264?

I'm currently developing a GUI of my own in Java. I was never happy with handbrake, and meGUI is a PITA. Here's some screens:




My first successful encode was only a few days ago. Hopefully I'll have a beta quality build by Feb '09.

Originally Posted by sandor

2500 kbps meets the quality of a 9000 kbps DVD encode without a problem.

1400-1700 kbps ABR usually does the trick for me. Depends on AR, grain, and how much motion there is in the source.

[S_M_E]

HDTV 1080p is nice and all but I'm already looking forward to UHDV...

[jimwhite]

I've been using Handbrake at 2000 ABR with AC3 pass and am very happy, even at 110" at 720p...

[valnar]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I was never happy with handbrake, and meGUI is a PITA.

I agree on both counts, which is why I use AutoMKV. Have you tried it?

[scott2020]

Really a noob question I suppose, but what does MeGUI and AutoMKV do that Handbrake doesn't? Or what do they do better? To me being a noob, Handbrake has everything in an easy package with lots of good presets. The others look complicated requiring installation of a lot of other packages to get everything to work. If it is worth the effort, I'd try them out but I'm not sure it is worth it.

I have also used Magic DVD ripper. It rips, transcodes, and saves the new file on the fly. There are a lot of options to convert to, and you basically put in the DVD, select your main movie (or everything), select the format, click Start, and in an hour or so you have a nice new file!

Scott

[Dreameriz]

ok well i really wanted just one file but after playing with different programs and different formats. i do have to say its just better to leave them as is and just put the main movie it but for right now i do up the sound in my movies because i am cheap and have not made a choice on a good sound card that has a s/pdif that i like which is sad but true for the system i have lol

[ozfiles]

Dvd's, I run through TMPGEnc with AnyDVD running in the background and then put them into VideoReDo and output them to mpg (no menu's).
Bluray gets put into a mkv container.

[exdirtfarmer]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Yup, it's the perfect recipe IMO.



I know I kind of harp on this, but that's far from an fact. I've never been able to get even 50% reduction with (to me) acceptable quality loss (none apparent).

IMO, when you can store 260 DVDs for $130 on one drive, spending the time tweaking an encode to get transparent just isn't worth it.

If the image quality is acceptable with compression you could afford another drive and have a complete backup instead of wasting all the time re-ripping when the drive fails.

[stanger89]

All my storage is already redundant.

[heffneil]

Stanger,

Are you using any script to run all this or are you doing things "manually"? I am looking for something that a monkey could do. Put disc in press button walk away come back and do it again. Anything that simple that would just rip the movie out. I agree - space is of no concern. It's entirely too cheap to argue over the space constraints!

Neil

[scott2020]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Stanger,

Are you using any script to run all this or are you doing things "manually"? I am looking for something that a monkey could do. Put disc in press button walk away come back and do it again. Anything that simple that would just rip the movie out. I agree - space is of no concern. It's entirely too cheap to argue over the space constraints!

Neil

DVDFab Decrypter (free version) can rip a DVD entirely or just the main movie to the native VOB files. You can also choose which audio tracks to keep. Basically you can put in the DVD, run the software, select full disk or main movie, and start it. About 10 minutes later or so it is done.

Magic DVD ripper will also do that, and convert to another format if desired. You can put in a DVD, rip the full or main movie, and tell it to convert to AVI, XVID, whatever compressed format you want. A couple hours later you have a converted file! Very easy.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Stanger,

Are you using any script to run all this or are you doing things "manually"? I am looking for something that a monkey could do. Put disc in press button walk away come back and do it again. Anything that simple that would just rip the movie out. I agree - space is of no concern. It's entirely too cheap to argue over the space constraints!

Neil

It really depends on what you want to do. I don't use a script/batch/automated solution because they're not smart enough to do what I want. That being rip movies DVDs as "movie only", and TV show DVDs completely. No script I'm aware of is smart enough to 1) know which are which, 2) know what to select for the main movie, 3) know what to name it.

If you don't care about ripping things movie only, then with AnyDVD, you can just put the disk in and select rip from the tray icon.

[Skybolt]

I'll stick my two cents in and agree with stanger89 in that keep the original format it's much better. I use DVD Fab though and use there DVD5 option and select main movie. The typical size is just over 4G and takes under 20min to rip. I tried handbrake and the like but, for me it is not worth the 10+ hrs to compress and when your done Sage will most likely have to transcode to watch.

BTW anydvd and shrink also work excellant as well. I use DVD Fab because it also lets me convert file to compressed MP4 format's for portable devices a little quicker.

-Skybolt

[scott2020]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

I'll stick my two cents in and agree with stanger89 in that keep the original format it's much better. I use DVD Fab though and use there DVD5 option and select main movie. The typical size is just over 4G and takes under 20min to rip. I tried handbrake and the like but, for me it is not worth the 10+ hrs to compress and when your done Sage will most likely have to transcode to watch.

I have been playing a little with the latest version of Handbrake and reading a little in their forums. Many have good luck with 'constant quality' option between 57-62% or something for standard DVD. On my quad core machine I rip the main movie with DVDFab and run thru Handbrake with the 5.1 audio AC3 track and it takes about 1.5 hours for a 2 hour movie to transcode. File size is usually 1/2 of the original rip and still looks great to me, and Dolby 5.1 sounds great too.

Scott

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by scott2020

I have been playing a little with the latest version of Handbrake and reading a little in their forums. Many have good luck with 'constant quality' option between 57-62% or something for standard DVD. On my quad core machine I rip the main movie with DVDFab and run thru Handbrake with the 5.1 audio AC3 track and it takes about 1.5 hours for a 2 hour movie to transcode. File size is usually 1/2 of the original rip and still looks great to me, and Dolby 5.1 sounds great too.

Scott

I've been using Handbrake since the last version came out. I had been using AutoMKV. IMHO, it's much improved from the previous version. The only thing really lacking now is the ability to use the original DTS track from a movie. Right now it will only do AC3 audio pass-through. Which isn't horrible and actually doesn't matter to me right now as my surround sound system is in storage and my TV doesn't do DTS decoding.

I use 52% quality on my movies and crop them vertically and it preserves enough of the quality for my needs.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I've been using Handbrake since the last version came out. I had been using AutoMKV. IMHO, it's much improved from the previous version. The only thing really lacking now is the ability to use the original DTS track from a movie. Right now it will only do AC3 audio pass-through. Which isn't horrible and actually doesn't matter to me right now as my surround sound system is in storage and my TV doesn't do DTS decoding.

I use 52% quality on my movies and crop them vertically and it preserves enough of the quality for my needs.

from what i have read, there have been some excellent updates to x264 that make the latest version of Handbrake so good.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by sandor

from what i have read, there have been some excellent updates to x264 that make the latest version of Handbrake so good.

Yes, the newer updates to aq in x264 are quite an improvement. Quality, particularly in dark areas of video is substantially better than it used to be. Macro blocking in dark areas is practically gone.

The main reason I stopped using AutoMKV was because it was just too complicated. Sure, it has lots of features and options but I didn't want to have to deal with all of that. Simplicity is key. I have a set of x264 settings I like to use. I set that up in Handbrake and all has been well. It's a much simpler process and unlike AutoMKV cropping with anamorphic video actually works and produces a video of the correct size. No offense to the author of AutoMKV but he could never get those calculations correct. I know how complicated they are and can do them all by hand but I don't want to have to. The main reason I didn't crop with AutoMKV was because it didn't work right and I didn't want to do it by hand.

[scott2020]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I've been using Handbrake since the last version came out. I had been using AutoMKV. IMHO, it's much improved from the previous version. The only thing really lacking now is the ability to use the original DTS track from a movie. Right now it will only do AC3 audio pass-through. Which isn't horrible and actually doesn't matter to me right now as my surround sound system is in storage and my TV doesn't do DTS decoding.

I use 52% quality on my movies and crop them vertically and it preserves enough of the quality for my needs.

Is the DTS track only on Blu-ray disks or "regular" DVD's? I'm not up to speed on the newer formats. I assume AutoMKV does pull off the DTS track, but are there other tools? Maybe I have never seen a DTS track because I don't have Blu-ray

Would you mind sharing a screen shot or settings in Handbrake that you use for when you convert regular DVD's? I always like to see what works for others.

Scott

[gplasky]

Certain DVDs have contained DTS.

Gerry

[Taddeusz]

As Gerry said, some DVD's have a DTS track in addition to their AC3 track. They are generally higher quality since they use a higher bitrate. Every DTS track I've seen on DVD is at 768Kbps except for Twister whose DTS track is 1.5Mbps.

Here are the settings I use in Handbrake.